Hundreds took to the streets in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, on April 18, 2018, to protest the government’s changes to the country’s social security program. Police responded with lethal force. Among those protesters in the crowd: Alice Ruiz.
Ruiz, who now works and volunteers at the Women’s Building, had dedicated most of her life in Nicaragua to advocating for children and seniors.
“The Nicaraguan government attempted to limit us, but we kept lending support to the people that needed it,” Ruiz said.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s reaction to the April 18 protest and what followed was a turning point. Human Rights Watch reported that between April 18 and 25 of 2018, an estimated 435 people were injured, 242 were hospitalized, and at least 26 people died.
Ruiz said she did not consider herself an activist that day, but a proud Nicaraguan who strongly believed that the country was unfairly targeting seniors in its pension cuts.
“All we had in hand was our country’s flag,” said Ruiz. “Álvaro Conrado, a student who died that day, begged for his life before he was shot and killed. ‘Don’t kill me, don’t kill me,’ Ruiz recalls him saying moments before he died. He was 15.
“What started as a beautiful movement was stained forever,” she said.
The terror did not stop there. The Nicaraguan government continued to hunt down activists and refused medical treatment to anyone involved. On one occasion, police entered Ruiz’s neighborhood and started shooting blindly. “Get down!” Ruiz remembered yelling to her two kids.
After moving several times within Nicaragua, she decided she had had enough, and applied to come legally to the United States through the Humanitarian Parole Program. One year after applying, she was set. Ruiz received work authorization, and the next day she packed her bags to leave everything she had ever known behind, including her two children, one 12 and the other 15.
“Let’s say it tears your heart to know that you will never see your beloved land again. You are never going to say goodbye to your loved ones.” said Ruiz, who arrived in San Francisco in May. After a little over six months here, she remains determined to reunite with her kids and family.
“That bubble of love that I left in Nicaragua, I want it here. I might not be able to have it all but at the very least I want to recover part of my life again.”
For now, she’s found community at the Women’s Building, where she volunteers at the food pantry every Monday morning. She also offers her services at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, distributing food on Saturdays. Ruiz has three part-time jobs. She is a retail employee at Ross Dress for Less, a caregiver, and works some hours in the food pantry office for the Women’s Building.
Ruiz said she came to this country with a purpose, and it wasn’t to waste any time.
“Everyone says this country is the place of the American dream, but I think the dream is what you make of it. This country opens all the doors for you, and has so many benefits, but it’s up to you to focus on how you want to take it. Time is gold, and you have to know what to do with it and how to utilize it.”
So what if Nicaragua has a dictatorship? We’re about to have one starting on 1/20/25 and it’ll be worse than anything in Central or South America EVER had.