To most viewers, this image in Masaya would just be a simple snapshot of a typical Nicaraguan street scene. But I see a whole capsule of Nicaraguan history and culture.

The vendor is selling nancite (or nance) fruit. This is a small, sweet and yellow fruit found in tropical America. This photo was taken in September during nancite season when the nancite were abundant. The Nicaraguans would just eat them as is or make a sweet dessert with them. They didn’t thrill me. I’d eat them if offered but I never went out of my way to buy them.

The man in the back is wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap. The Americans introduced baseball in the late 1800s but it wasn’t until the US Marines came to Nicaragua in the early 1900s that the sport took off. It soon became Nicaragua’s national sport and the Nicas became baseball mad. In 1985, interest in Major League Baseball was returning after the civil war. I could tell by reading the graffiti on the walls and talking to the Nicas that the favoured team coming into the 1985 season was the Cachorros. The Chicago Cubs had a great season in 1984 but lost to the Padres in the National League pennant race. The Cubs bombed out in 1985 and this man no doubt replaced his Cubs cap with a Dodgers cap who also reached the pennant race but fell short just after I took this photo.

The silhouette of Augusto Sandino was literally everywhere in post-revolutionary Nicaragua. Sandino is the national hero of Nicaragua and led a guerilla-style rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the US Marines who were occupying Nicaragua. He was captured in 1934 by National Guard forces of General Anastasio Somoza García and executed. Somoza later led a coup and established a dictatorship which would rule Nicaragua for four decades. Sandino’s wide-brimmed hat makes his silhouette instantly identifiable anywhere in Nicaragua.

Finally, to the right of the photo we see the ubiquitous Soviet Ladas. The Soviets provided endless shiploads of Ladas to Nicaragua. Nearly all military vehicles were Lada but also many private vehicles. Private vehicles were well out of reach of nearly all Nicaraguans and those running in 1985 were probably purchased during Somoza’s days. The Sandinistas offered Ladas for US$1-2,000 to professionals as an incentive to keep them in the country.