Benigna Mendiola

Mendiola was born in 1944 to a peasant family. Before the introduction of widespread education and local schooling in Nicaragua, she learned to read in her rural home.{{Cite book |last1=Saint-Germain |first1=Michelle A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1H9N9faf3a4C&dq=Benigna+Mendiola&pg=PA124 |title=Women Legislators in Central America: Politics, Democracy, and Policy |last2=Metoyer |first2=Cynthia Chavez |date=2009-03-16 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-77474-2 |pages=124 |language=en}}

Mendiola's partner was Bernandino Díaz Ochoa (1941–1971) [es].{{Cite web |last=Primerisima |first=La |date=2024-03-05 |title=El ejemplo inmortal de las «Mujeres de El Cuá» |url=https://radiolaprimerisima.com/el-ejemplo-inmortal-de-las-mujeres-de-el-cua/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Radio La Primerisima |language=es |archive-date=20 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320163846/https://radiolaprimerisima.com/el-ejemplo-inmortal-de-las-mujeres-de-el-cua/ |url-status=live }} Together, they operated as peasant leaders and organised the compañeras, known as "the Heroic Women of El Cuá," for guerrilla action against the Somoza dictatorships.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-03 |title=Bernardino Díaz Ochoa gran exponente de la clase campesina |url=https://cuadernosandinista.com/2021/09/03/bernardino-diaz-ochoa-gran-exponente-de-la-clase-campesina/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Cuaderno Sandinista |language=es |archive-date=25 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220525002029/https://cuadernosandinista.com/2021/09/03/bernardino-diaz-ochoa-gran-exponente-de-la-clase-campesina/ |url-status=live }} After the Somoza family was finally deposed by the Sandinistas in 1979, Mendiola remained a leader of workers the agricultural sector, becoming the head of the women's section of the Farmers and Ranchers Association.{{Cite book |last=Hoyt |first=Katherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSkZqafaV_8C&dq=Benigna+Mendiola&pg=PA126 |title=The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy |date=1997 |publisher=Ohio University Press |isbn=978-0-89680-197-4 |pages=70 |language=en}} In 1992, she called for peasant women to have access to land, titles, and loans.{{Cite book |last=Heyck |first=Denis L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6C2AAAAIAAJ&q=Benigna+Mendiola |title=Surviving Globalization in Three Latin American Communities |date=2002-08-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-55111-477-4 |pages=281 |language=en}}

As part of a movement to increase women's representation at the highest levels of the FSLN (with 30% of all positions in the party reserved for women{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QHxqAAAAMAAJ&q=Benigna+Mendiola |title=Latin America News Update |date=1993 |publisher=Latin America News Update |volume=9-11 |pages=13 |language=en}}) Mendiola was elected to the national directorate of the FSLN in 1994, alongside Monica Baltodano, Mirna Cunningham, Dora Maria Tellez and Dorotea Wilson.{{Cite book |last=Conway-Turner |first=Kate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HN16VCoI6KMC&dq=dorotea+wilson&pg=PA66 |title=Women's Studies in Transition: The Pursuit of Interdisciplinarity |date=1998 |publisher=University of Delaware Press |isbn=978-0-87413-643-2 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Hoyt |first=Katherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSkZqafaV_8C&dq=dorotea+wilson&pg=PA67 |title=The Many Faces of Sandinista Democracy |date=1997 |publisher=Ohio University Press |isbn=978-0-89680-197-4 |language=en}} To facilitate their election, the directorate was enlarged from nine to fifteen members.{{Cite book |last=Luciak |first=Ilja A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9rgXTpUYlNEC&dq=Benigna+Mendiola&pg=PA174 |title=After the Revolution: Gender and Democracy in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala |date=2003-05-01 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-7641-7 |language=en}} She was nevertheless critical of the FSLN's Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women (Spanish: Asociación de Mujeres Nicaragüenses Luisa Amanda Espinoza, AMNLAE),{{Cite web |date=2023-03-09 |title=Palabras de mujeres revolucionarias que nos inspiran con su ejemplo |url=https://cuadernosandinista.com/2023/03/08/palabras-de-mujeres-revolucionarias-que-nos-inspiran-con-su-ejemplo/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Cuaderno Sandinista |language=es |archive-date=1 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201030829/https://cuadernosandinista.com/2023/03/08/palabras-de-mujeres-revolucionarias-que-nos-inspiran-con-su-ejemplo/ |url-status=live }} including commenting on AMNLAE's "tendency to centralize" and "insensitivity to peasant women's realities."{{Cite book |last1=Prevost |first1=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEe_DAAAQBAJ&dq=Benigna+Mendiola&pg=PA184 |title=The Undermining of the Sandinista Revolution |last2=Vanden |first2=Harry E. |date=2016-07-27 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-27511-3 |pages=184 |language=en}} Mendiola later returned to working organising peasant farming women.{{Cite book |last=Randall |first=Margaret |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hc1HV7jWZNUC&dq=Benigna+Mendiola&pg=PA16 |title=Sandino's Daughters Revisited: Feminism in Nicaragua |date=1994 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-2025-4 |pages=16 |language=en}}

Mendiola's son Lenin Mendiola was shot to death in 2018 during a confrontation in Matagalpa between anti-government demonstrators and groups related to the Nicaraguan government.{{Cite web |last=Salazar |first=Maynor |date=2018-10-27 |title=Farm Leader Benigna Mendiola Sows Doubt about Those Accused of Shooting Her Son |url=https://confidencial.digital/english/farm-leader-benigna-mendiola-sows-doubt-about-those-accused-of-shooting-her-son/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=Confidencial |language=es |archive-date=19 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250319083158/https://confidencial.digital/english/farm-leader-benigna-mendiola-sows-doubt-about-those-accused-of-shooting-her-son/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Policía esclarece el asesinato del compañero Lenin Mendiola |url=https://www.policia.gob.ni/?p=21148 |access-date=2025-05-04 |language=es-ES}}

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Category:1944 births

Category:Living people

Category:Nicaraguan socialists

Category:Nicaraguan women's rights activists

Category:Nicaraguan women activists

Category:Nicaraguan socialist feminists

Category:20th-century Nicaraguan women politicians

Category:Sandinista National Liberation Front politicians

Category:Members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front