Had Marx been born in Costa Rica, tradition probably would have been more like a placid dream. Had he been born in Nicaragua, it would have been a nightmare indeed. Of course, had he been presented with these options, he probably would have preferred not to be born at all. In any case, the central point remains: Because our perception of tradition varies across time and place, so does the relationship between legacies and agency. This holds most clearly when political actors are confronted with a tumultuous play of normative dictates and shifting interests. At such moments, we have seen, leaders seek to create and convey compelling reasons that enable and perhaps even embolden them and others to make difficult choices.

By the close of the 1980s, Nicaraguans found themselves at just such a juncture. Political elites shared both a long-standing Manichean historiography – with its concomitant injunctions – and an immediate interest in ending the armed conflict between the FSLN regime and the National Resistance Movement (Contra). This common interest stemmed from a combination of factors: the end of the Cold War, the country's economic devastation and social exhaustion, and a number of foreign governments pressing the relevant domestic actors for pacification.