Notebook
From Chelsea to Nicaragua: A legacy of hope
By Kathy Casey
The words “Ben Linder, presente” have been said by hundreds of thousands of people who remember the young engineer, clown, juggler and unicyclist. Linder was killed by contras in rural northern Nicaragua in April 1987 while helping to set up small hydroelectric generators for the villages of El Cua and Bocay, and the Spanish phrase acts to recall his still-present spirit today.
“Ben, it ain’t over till it’s over” is the watchword now for members of the Chelsea/El Jicaral Sister City Project, founded shortly before Linder’s death. Chelsea had been matched with a “sister city” in Nicaragua as part of a worldwide grassroots friendship movement. (El Jicaral is a straggling village, but Chelsea isn’t a city either.) Chelsea’s link with Nicaragua was one of several in New York City and the state.
Many Chelsea/El Jicaral activists still live here, and most still support the Ben Linder Cooperative’s new power-generation system, which already supplies a technical institute in Bocay, where women learn computer skills to get urban jobs other than as sewing-factory operatives, domestic servants or prostitutes.
Engineer Rebecca Leaf and Nicaraguan coworkers have installed major turbines at a waterfall, plus links to the distribution grid to bring light and power to a large area of the Jinotega province. The cooperative that built and owns the generating system will earn about $250,000 annually for locally planned community development.
The catch: The cooperative took a $3 million loan from the World Bank, “on reasonably favorable terms.” The Nicaraguans are starting to generate income, but the bank will foreclose if they’re not paid $117,000 in back interest, and the first $87,000 regular loan payment this month.
That’s why the Chelsea “sisters” are reaching out to everyone who remembers Ben Linder’s courage, grace, kindness and generosity.
M. J. Chilcote, a graphic designer, was a leading Chelsea Sister City activist and designed the “Nicaragua Libre” history calendar for 1987, though she already was retirement age at that time. She said this week with her usual verve, “We can’t just sit on our asses and let the power project be lost.”
Chilcote recalled the Chelsea efforts to support drilling a well at El Jicaral. The Ben Linder Cooperative in Jinotega has made a local waterfall a valuable asset, but, Chilcote said, “those villagers need help now to reap the benefits of all their years of work.”
Sarah Durand’s trademark 1980s fund-raiser for El Jicaral was a samba festival that she led with mesmerizing dance. She said this week, “The hydroelectric plant needs the constructive power of the Chelsea ‘Sisters,’ which draws on a spirit in the entire Chelsea community.”
Dianna Maeurer helped create an alphabet coloring book in Spanish for Nicaraguan children, which also raised money for the Sister City Project. She recruited her college roommate, Lesley Doyel, who grew up in one of Chelsea’s oldest homes, to donate more than a dozen drawings.
Maeurer’s mother, a nurse who died in 1995, provided towels and sheets for El Jicaral’s health post. This week, Maeurer found a 1999 letter from Ben Linder’s brother, about the hydroelectric project, among her father’s papers.
“It would be a travesty if the hydroelectric system were lost to the people who built it,” said Maeurer, adding, “We raised small amounts of money in Chelsea to assist the people of El Jicaral with modest projects to improve their community. Small contributions now can save the Jinotega project.”
Nicaragua relies on oil to generate less than half of its electricity; most of the rest is hydro power. In contrast, nearly 60 percent of Con Ed-generated power in New York State comes from fossil fuels, 35 percent is nuclear (two reactors teeter on a seismic fault at Indian Point, a few miles up the Hudson River from Chelsea), and only 4 percent is water-generated.
Right now, the people in the Ben Linder cooperative—who have done so much with so little—need Chelsea solidarity. Visit www.greenempowerment.org for more information.
