Liberation Theology set to music: The Nicaraguan “Misa Campesina”

This talk by Gilberto Vazquez Valle from KFAI will also address some of the basics aspects of Liberation Theology. The recorded fragments from the “Misa Campesina Nicaragüense” to be played will include an English language translation.

Through Nicaraguan folk music and a fresh, vernacular language the “Misa Campesina Nicaragüense” (Nicaraguan Peasants’ Mass) expresses basic tenets of liberation theology; among these, the “preferential option for the poor” and the Christian duty to become actively involved in the struggle for liberation from unjust, oppressive economic, political, or social conditions.

The “Misa Campesina Nicaragüense” was composed by Carlos Mejía Godoy and was first performed in Solentiname, Nicaragua, in 1975. The mass was broken up by the Nicaraguan government’s “Guardia Nacional” and almost immediately the Archbishop of Managua banned its performance in churches. Since 1989 the Vatican officially prohibited its liturgical use.