Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Nicaragua

This collection features materials describing the broad and complex history of Nicaragua’s political struggle. The history of Nicaragua includes years of colonialism, dictatorships, revolutions, and rebellions. The majority of our materials focus on the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and their struggle for national liberation. The Sandinistas took their name from Augusto Cesar Sandino who led resistance against the U.S occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s. The FSLN was formed by students, workers and peasants in the early 1960s and pushed for political change during Anastasio Somoza’s Debayle regime. As the 1960s progressed, the FSLN stepped up guerilla warfare and succeeded in overthrowing the Debayle regime in 1979.

Beginning in 1981, opponents of the Sandinista government began to attack Nicaragua with the financial support and training of the U.S government. These forces were known as Contras. Contras included people who fought for Somoza and had a hatred for the Sandinistas, but also included indigenous peoples of Nicaragua that the U.S had convinced to oppose the Sandinistas’ vision for the future of Nicaragua. The U.S was involved in Nicaragua for two main reasons, including, private and corporate interest and the fear of the spread of communism and Marxism. This fear was reinforced when Cuba and Soviet Russia became Nicaragua’s main contributors and allies and after the Sandinista victory.

Documents

The 1996 Nicaraguan Elections: How Arnoldo Aleman "Won" The 1996 Nicaraguan Elections: How Arnoldo Aleman "Won"
Author: Dianne FeeleyPublisher: Against the CurrentYear: 1997Volume Number: January-FebruaryFormat: ArticleCollection: Nicaragua