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Images and Memory as the First Female Nicaraguan Photojournalist

Mar 29, 2019 2:00pm - 4:00pm
University Library: Jack & Florence Ferman Presentation Room

Margarita Montealegre

Margarita Montealegre (photo: Gloria Ruiz)

Margarita Montealegre pioneered in the field of war photojournalism in Nicaragua, where she worked as the first female staff photographer for the newspapers La Prensa (1977-1979) and Barricada (1979-1983). Montealegre documented the revolution in Nicaragua and the war in El Salvador. Recently she has documented the stories of femicides in Nicaragua. Her work has been published in half a dozen books, including Nicaragua, insurrección y revolución (Nicaragua, Insurrection, and Revolution). Her photos have been exhibited in the United States, Sweden, Cuba, and Nicaragua, including the recent exhibition We Want Them Alive! Testimonies of Violence Against Women in the South Caribbean of Nicaragua. Montealegre has taught photography at the Universidad Centroamericana and at Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia.

This event is co‐sponsored by the Oviatt Library, the Department of Journalism, and the Department of Central American Studies.     

This event is part of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center Featured Lecture Series.

Peasants demonstrating for agrarian reform -- original photo and twenty-cordoba bill

In March 1980, Montealegre took a photograph of a group of peasants demonstrating in favor of agrarian reform with a placard that said, "We are not birds to live from the air, we are not fish to live from the sea, we are men to live off the land." In 1985, the Nicaraguan government released a twenty-córdoba bill illustrated with a drawing based on that photograph. Photo: Margarita Montealegre.

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Assistive Services

Requests for accommodation services (e.g. sign language interpreters or transcribers) must be made at least five (5) business days in advance. Please email library.event@csun.edu in advance of the event.

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Last Updated: 03/14/2025