The Misa Campesina Nicaragüense ("Nicaraguan Peasants' Mass") is Spanish-language 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...

 with words and music by Carlos Mejía Godoy

Carlos Mejía Godoy

Carlos Mejía Godoy is a Nicaraguan musician, composer and singer. He was born in Somoto, Madriz. 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...

, incorporating a liberation theology

Liberation theology

Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...

 and Nicaraguan folk music

Music of Nicaragua

Music of Nicaragua is a mixture of indigenous and European, especially Spanish, influences. Musical instruments include the marimba and others that are common across Central America...

. It was composed in the artistic community of Solentiname and first performed in 1975, its liturgical use being prohibited within a few days. It has been praised by Dorothee Sölle

Dorothee Sölle

Dorothee Steffensky-Sölle was a German liberation theologian and writer who coined the term Christofascism...

 for fully overcoming the "theological danger of docetism

Docetism

In Christianity, docetism is the belief that Jesus' physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is, Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die...

".

Mejía Godoy was motivated to produce a new Mass by the promulgation of the Sacrosanctum Concilium

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963...

, which permitted popular and regional music in the liturgy, by the Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...

. Initially he invited the ideas of other artists but in the end composed the piece himself. Though attended the Colegio Salesiano and aspiring to the priesthood, Mejía Godoy's main influences were Marxist: the recent deaths of warrior Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 and poet José Leonel Rugama, the creation of an "Iglesia Popular" (popular church) of youths agitating against the traditional hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

.

The first performance was planned for the Plaza de los Cabros in Ciudad Sandino

Ciudad Sandino

Ciudad Sandino is a municipality in the Managua department of Nicaragua. It has an estimated population of 74,238. -References:...

 under the priest Fernando Cardenal, but the Mass was broken up by men of the National Guard

National Guard (Nicaragua)

In Nicaragua, the National Guard was a militia and a gendarmerie created during the occupation of that country by the United States from 1909 to 1933. It became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption under the regime of the Somoza family.-Creation:...

. A few days later the Archbishop of Managua, Miguel Obando y Bravo

Miguel Obando y Bravo

Miguel Obando y Bravo is a Nicaraguan prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the Archbishop of Managua from 1985 until his resignation on 12 March 2005. On 25 May 1985, he was selected by Pope John Paul II to be cardinal in Central America...

, prohibited its future performance in church. Nevertheless, the Misa Campesina Nicaragüense grew in popularity through clandestine celebrations that gradually spread throughout western Nicaragua. The recordings were circulated underground due to their repression by the Somoza dictatorship. Since the triunfo of the Sandinista Liberation Front in July, 1979, the mass has been celebrated openly, though never by the official Catholic hierarchy. The recordings were released on the new ENIGRAC label (Empresa Nicaragüense de Grabaciones Culturales) in 1980. The label Mantica-Waid released a CD version in December 2001 CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

. The earlier Misa Popular Nicaragüense relied heavily on the son nica musical style originally from the Masaya region and popularized on the lower plains of western Nicaragua in the 1960s and 1970s. The Misa Campesina Nicaragüense broadened this musical palette to incorporate musical styles from throughout the nation, and in this sense it represents a microcosm of the many cultural regions of Nicaragua. When released the LP was the first recording in the nation's history of new music utilizing musical styles from various regions of the country.

Excerpt in translation

I believe in you, comrade,

Christ man, Christ worker,

victor over death.

With your great sacrifice

you made new people

for liberation.

You are risen

in every arm outstretched

to defend the people

against the exploitation of rulers;

you are alive and present in the hut,

in the factory, in the school.

I believe in your ceaseless struggle,

I believe in your resurrection.

External links

• La “Misa campesina nicaragüense”
• CD de la Misa Campesina Nicaragüense
• Antes que nazca el día
• Misa Campesina Nicaragüense at Enciclopedia Cecilia