Youth, divine treasure

Youth, divine treasure

By: Cristiana Guevara Mena

Youth, divine treasure,

already gone to not return!

When I want to cry, I do not cry,

and sometimes I cry without wanting to.

-       Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío (1867-1916), known as the "Prince of Castilian letters" and "Father of Modernism", composed this poem in his "Songs of Life and Hope" (1905). "Song of Autumn in the Springtime" is one of his most famous compositions worldwide. It is a longing for that period of life in which everything seems to be positive, so it is pronounced with a nostalgic tone. For many people, the youth supposed to be the best time of life for all human beings.

Since the time of the last war in Nicaragua, our idealistic and dreamy Nicaraguan youth, has participated bare-chested in the armed fight against the Somoza dictatorship. Filled with revolutionary romanticism appropriate to the political propaganda of the time, they have fallen under the bullets hoping for a promising future of freedom, progress and development that has not yet come. Since then, they have been a physically abused youth, frustrated and betrayed by broken promises of a new Nicaragua, and have only been able to establish different dictatorships one after another ever since.

Today, those same young Sandinista dreamers, men and women, soldiers, intellectuals, musicians and poets, because of the events full of deceit and betrayal, lick their wounds of their scammed nationalist and libertarian ideals. What happened? Unfortunately, armed gangs, greedy for money and power have rooted themselves in the institutions. As a result, thousands of young people have been killed, maimed, traumatized and orphaned that still have as a mental wound a great resentment. This is a pending task and a bigger than ever responsibility.

Nowadays, from that bitter experience that is transmitted from parents to children, indifference and selfishness has become an emblem of a great part of adolescents and young people. The energy possessed by the youth is not used to demand, encourage and accompany the changes that our country requires, but what reigns in their heads is the splurge, drunkenness, carousing, and the frivolities of media entertainment. Unfortunately, youth apathy and laziness coincides with the absence of hope that society lives, each individual by the weight of reality feels defeated without a fight and not knowing what to do, accepting that their own will won’t contribute in anything to a positive reality change.

It is true that young people are the majority in the nation, because of that we must understand that being young means to use that space of time for the benefit of all. We must know that It’s various governments part of the strategy until today to keep us ignorant, inert, incompetent and mediocre so we cannot ever overcome this dark period of history again. It is true by justified fear that it is not easy to say or do many things in Nicaragua, it’s easier to shut up and get used to mediocrity. Because of this, we must take history into our hands and not let anyone think for us. This is achieved by striving for our education, information and culture in order to create positive changes for the future of our country.

Young citizen reader, it is important like the Gospel says, not to bury our talents and educate ourselves so that nobody ever cheats us. The important thing is that we do not accept the abuse and corruption as part of our normal way of living, and that we are interested in making a change, no matter how small it is. We the youth are the population majority of the moment. As Rubén Darío says, the youth leaves to not return, therefore, we will not be young for long and we must take advantage of this moment. If we all decide to go in the same direction it’s certain that the positive changes in our beloved Nicaragua will be beneficial to all and it will become a reality. We must not be dominated by fear, we are free and we will be what we want to be. We are in difficult times, but also in a moment of hope.

The youth must be played by great ideals. Ask Jesus what he wants from you and be strong! - Pope Francis.