History tours and tour guides bring to mind commercialized and exaggerated accounts of history that can often times be boring. I was eager to learn more about the tumultuous history of Nicaragua, but my expectations of a guided tour were actually quite low. I was definitely in for a surprise. Julio, from Julio Tours, started our day chatting about different things going on in the Central Market of Leon. He explained that the beautiful, baroque-style cathedral of Leon is recognized as a World Heritage Site and was blessed by the Pope in the 1800’s following its construction.
Soon, we came upon a park with a mural depicting notable moments of Nicaragua's history, the US occupation before the Great Depression, the Sandino guerilla movement, Samoza, Chamorro and so on. I'm not exactly sure when the story transitioned from knowledge about his country to personal accounts, but it quickly became apparent that Julio wasn't a regular civilian who had learned about his country's history in a classroom and then decided to become a tour guide.
Julio had seen the revolution start when he was just a boy, when male gender bought you a gun and a place in the Nicaraguan army. He had gone to prison at fourteen years of age for frivolous reasons and saw his homeland decimated by war. While in the army, he moved through the ranks to lieutenant, serving in both the USSR and Cuba. Following retirement from the military, Julio worked at a variety of positions, made attempts to travel to the US and eventually lost all of his money to a Sandanista congressman before founding Julio Tours. Meeting him, you would never believe a man of such warmth and natural sweetness had been through so much. I wonder if facing that much hardship would have eventually broken my own spirit.
How lucky most of us are to live relatively sheltered from tragedy. I think back on how I lived through 9/11 and what it would be like if that story occupied more than half my life. I was so inspired by this city tour that it brings tears to my eyes sitting here now. Makes you stop and think about who the people around you really are, especially those that aren't so full of light and hope; and if they are your patients, how you may bring some light back into their lives.
