Survivors of contra war focus of lecture

By the Standard Staff - 10/09/2005

Luz Mabel Lumbi Rizo lost her arm to a bullet when the contra attacked her home in 1986 in La Union, Nicaragua. The photo was taken in 1987 by Paul Dix of Bozeman.

Bozeman’s Paul Dix and Pam Fitzpatrick will share Nicaragua slides and interviews from the 1980s and from 2002 to 2005 at 7 p.m. Thursday at Montana Tech.

It is another in the free speaker series of the Montana Tech Peace Seekers Club and Butte’s Taking Action for Peaceful Solutions.

The presentation is titled “Nicaragua, Then and Now: Living with the Consequences of U.S. Policy.” Professional photo- grapher Paul Dix captured with his camera effects of the U.S.-funded contra war on civilians in Nicaragua from 1985 to 1990. During this time, Pam Fitzpatrick worked as a northwest regional coordinator of Witness for Peace, a U.S. faith-based group that worked to stop the U.S. funding of the contra war.

They returned to Nicaragua for six months in 2002-03 and for seven months 2004-05 to search for people Dix had photographed during the war and to gather new photographs and interviews. They found a large percent of those they had hoped to find.

After much searching, they found Luz Mabel Lumbí Rizo.

On the evening of Dec. 8, 1986, in the community of La Union, at about 11 p.m. contra opened fire on the home of 22-month-old Luz Mabel.

During the next few minutes, she was shot in the right arm. Several other family members were shot, but survived. Her father, José, and 38-day-old sister, Zaida, were both killed.

After years of fearing life in La Union, Luz Mabel returned to her community and now has a daughter of her own, Luz Noelí.

Audience members will meet, through slides, some of the nearly 100 people Dix and Fitzpatrick interviewed and hear in their own words how they have managed to continue against so many odds.

The program will be shown in the Kelley-Steward Room of the Student Union Building at Montana Tech. For more information call 723-3851.