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Front: Miguel de Larreynaga (1772-1847), one of the founding fathers of independence

Larreynaga was orphaned at birth, and was raised by his paternal grandfather. He received his primary education at the Convent of the Favor. At the age of 10, he entered the Council Seminary of San Ramon, the best secondary training center. He obtained the baccalaureate in Civil Right and Canonical from the university of San Carlos, Guatemala in 1790. He came back to Nicaragua in 1799, and The Bishop of Leon appointed him professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy at the University of Leon. In 1801 he left for Guatemala, and never returned to his Mother country again.

In Guatemala he became a Lawyer. Larreynaga served in official positions in the Government of the Federal Republic of Central America and in the Mexican Empire.

He traveled to Spain in 1818 to ask the King for independence of the Central American Republic. Larreynaga returned to Guatemala in 1821, a month before the proclamation of Independence.

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Front: José Santos Zelaya (1853-1919), president of Nicaragua (1894-1909)

Although a leader of the Liberal party, he kept power by playing the Liberal and Conservative parties against each other and established an unswerving dictatorship. Zelaya developed railroad and steamer transportation, coffee growing, and education, but nevertheless he drained Nicaragua's resources for his own profit. He seized (1894) the Mosquito Coast by force, thus ending British control. He fomented revolutions in neighboring countries and tried to reestablish the Central American Federation with himself as head. His ambitions created intense opposition, which led to the Washington Conference of 1907 and the establishment of the Central American Court of Justice. The United States was highly antagonistic to him, and the presence of U.S. cruisers helped rebel forces to overthrow and exile him.

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Front: Pedro Joaquin Chamorro (1924-1978), publisher and editor

Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, crusading publisher and editor of the independent daily La Prensa and the leader of an opposition alliance campaigning for the removal of President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. He was gunned down on his way to work in Managua on Jan. 10, 1978. His murder provoked violent demonstrations and demands for Somoza's resignation, touching off a civil war in Nicaragua and marking the beginning of the end of the authoritarian Somoza family regime.

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Front: Rubén Dario (1867-1916), Father of Modernism and Prince of Spanish Literature.

Rubén Dario wrote his first poem, The Faith, when he was only twelve years old. His first verses appear in the newspaper "The thermometer" in 1879. In 1881, the fourteen years old Dario wrote articles for the political newspaper "The Truth".

Between 1884 and 1888 Dario worked in the National Library as the private secretary of the president. He published many poems and stories, among them The Eruption of Momotombo, Emelina, and Blue.

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