Carlos Mejía Godoy is a Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

n musician, composer and singer. He was born in Somoto, Madriz

Somoto, Madriz

Somoto, meaning The Valley of Geese, is a town located in the hills of northern Nicaragua around 20 km south-west of Ocotal, and is in the municipality of Madriz. It was founded as a town in 1867, and since 1936, has been the capital of Madriz. Somoto is also home to the Somoto Canyon, a relatively...

. Son of Carlos Mejía Fajardo and María Elsa Godoy, his brother Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, three years younger than he is, is also an acclaimed and much-loved musician. Carlos and Luis Enrique were pivotal in the New Song Movement

Nueva canción

Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...

 in Central America beginning in the 1970s. They were both recently honored with Nicaragua's highest cultural distinction, the Order of Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...

.

Carlos started his career as 'Corporito' on the radio station 'Radio Corporacion', where he would daily compose songs that would rain ridicule and scorn on all politicians and political parties. He would do it with that biting sense of humor that so few artists are able to master.

Many of his songs, performed with his band los de Palacagüina, became associated with the Sandinista movement as songs of the workers and revolutionaries. He even composed a Mass

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

 for the working class, the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense

Misa Campesina Nicaragüense

The Misa Campesina Nicaragüense is Spanish-language Mass with words and music by Carlos Mejía Godoy, incorporating a liberation theology and Nicaraguan folk music. It was composed in the artistic community of Solentiname and first performed in 1975, its liturgical use being prohibited within a few...

. Many of his songs during the late 1970s gave instructions on how to use, assemble, and disassemble the rifles people were capturing from dictator Somoza's National Guard during street battles.

Some of his albums include: , , , and . His music has also been featured on several compilations of songs of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan revolution

Nicaraguan Revolution

The Nicaraguan Revolution encompasses the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front which led to the violent ousting of that dictatorship in 1979, and the...

: Songs of the Nicaraguan Revolution, Vol.1-2, and Nicaraguita: Music from Nicaragua.

He was the vice-presidential running mate of Edmundo Jarquín

Edmundo Jarquín

Edmundo Jarquín is a Nicaraguan politician. He was the vice presidential running-mate of Herty Lewites, who was the presidential candidate for the MRS Sandinista Renovation Movement in the 2006 elections until his death on July 2, 2006. Edmundo Jarquín became the presidential candidate for the...

 of the Sandinista Renovation Movement

Sandinista Renovation Movement

The Sandinista Renovation Movement is a Nicaraguan political party founded by dissidents of the Sandinista National Liberation Front on May 18, 1995, on Augusto César Sandino's 100th anniversary...

 (MRS) in the November 2006 presidential election

Nicaraguan general election, 2006

Nicaragua held a general election on 5 November 2006. The country's voters went to the polls to elect a new President of the Republic and 90 members of the National Assembly, all of whom will serve five-year terms...

. They came in fourth place.

Mejía Godoy is also the father of the U.S. soldier

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and anti-war

Anti-war

An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...

 activist

Activism

Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...

 Camilo Mejía

Camilo Mejía

Camilo Ernesto Mejía is a Nicaraguan American who was a former staff sergeant of the Florida National Guard, best known for being an anti-war activist and deserter...

, who was imprisoned for not returning to duty after his request for conscientious objector

Conscientious objector

A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....

status was denied.¹