Songs, tears and resistance: the Nicaraguan exile rallying audiences in Costa Rica

Olguita Acuña, who says ‘artists have a huge responsibility with historical memory’. Photograph: Jamie Fullerton

When Olguita Acuña starts singing and playing guitar, the audience in San José, Costa Rica’s capital city, responds with chants of “Olga! Olga!”.

“My people cry, and they cry for all the blood shed due to the repression,” she sings in one song. Another is about missing her grandmother’s funeral because she could not return to her home country.