Nicaragua Culture & Language

Spanish is the official language and the language of the Pacific lowlands, where most Nicaraguans live; on the Caribbean coast the Creole and Miskito communities speak their own languages and English, and nine per cent of the population, mostly Black Nicaraguans, live there under two autonomous regions. The poet Rubén Darío, buried in León's cathedral, is the national figure that everyone agrees on; the university founded in León in 1812 is the second-oldest in Central America.

Faith is in motion. The Catholic Church, historically dominant, is in open conflict with the Ortega government, and evangelical Protestant congregations have grown rapidly since the 1990s. The great popular festival is La Purísima in early December, and Holy Week empties the cities for the beaches and the lake.

Politics is the culture's centre of gravity and its forbidden ground for visitors. Nicaraguans across the spectrum will tell you where they stand, often at length, but it is illegal for a foreigner to take part in any political activity, including using the national colours in protest, and the law is enforced. Listen; do not join.

Spanish is the official language and the only one a visitor needs on the Pacific side; English is spoken in the tourism trade of Granada, San Juan del Sur and the Corn Islands and thinly elsewhere. On the Caribbean coast the picture reverses: Creole English and Miskito are the languages of Bluefields and the autonomous regions, with Spanish second. A greeting and a thank-you in Spanish, and the patience to be corrected, go a long way in a country where the visitor is still a novelty outside the circuit.