Artist Profile
Ludwing Gómez
Nicaragua
Status: In Exile
“I had never thought I would be in exile. I always said, ‘I will continue to live in Nicaragua.’ I had my home. I had already established a life with my girlfriend and our many pets…So we have had to start from zero, and…”
“There is something I want to show you.”*
From his new home in Costa Rica, Ludwing Gómez pans his camera, exposing the back wall of a room featuring photos, art, and a Nicaraguan flag.
“This is what keeps me going.” He gestures, “This painting is of my hometown…so I live eternally with Nicaragua, and these things keep me alive. I love to wake up in the morning and see the place where I was born, see the flag, and feel that these are my driving forces to be alive and continue to move forward.”
Music and Homeland
Ludwing Gómez is a Nicaraguan musician exiled in Costa Rica and a founding member of Ximena, a band that fuses Latin and Spanish rhythms. In conversation with ARC, Gómez attributed much of his creative expression to his unique upbringing outside the country’s capital in San Carlos, a province of Rio San Juan. “I learned to write songs thanks to San Carlos, thanks to my hometown. I was inspired by the everyday situations of my town: gossip, customs, food, family reunions, nature…This is why I am eternally grateful, because if it were not for that sunset… or that custom rooted in my town, I wouldn’t have learned how to write.”
Even still, Goméz had always dreamed of performing on stage in the capital city, Managua. He was self-taught, learning how to play guitar through tutorials online. It was in his later teens when he was introduced to, and gained an affinity for, Rumba. An uptempo style of music with Afro-Cuban roots, Rumba is also related to genres such as guaracha and over time has developed distinct variations throughout Latin America and Spain. “It had a rhythm that I really liked, and I started to practice it until I felt comfortable with the rhythm and different chords.” His passion for music was constant, he wrote non-stop from 2015 to 2019. It was during the beginning stages of his artistic trajectory, in 2015, when he formed, along with others, the band Ximena. As the band continued to evolve and perfect its craft, Ludwing, then at university in Managua, would travel six hours on the weekend back to San Carlos to write and perform with his band members.
The trajectory of Ludwing and Ximena’s artistic endeavors was far from a straight shot. “Being a musician in Nicaragua was one of the greatest challenges that I could face in my life,” he said.
Persecution
It was in 2018 when Ludwing and the other members of Ximena decided to create their first album, Suena la Calle. Released in 2019, the 10-track project covered various socio-political themes with tracks such as “Revolver,” which highlighted violence in the country and described “society [as] a revolver that can shoot you.” The track “Suena la Calle,” speaks to protests, popular discontent, and calls for greater freedom and unity in Nicaragua, including support for marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community.
Ludwing and his band faced new challenges toward the end of 2018. The issue “was no longer having to move to the capital, but rather having to live with the repression, having to live with the threats from people, and having to live with a lot of caution. But we always had an aim that we never gave up on, and that was to protest. To protest the injustice experienced in Nicaragua and that was felt on a daily basis.”
The release of Suena la Calle and the artivism of Ludwing and Ximena occurred amid the backdrop of social unrest in the country. Beginning in April 2018, there were mass protests across Nicaragua, in part driven by a proposed social security reform, government corruption, and the deteriorating state of human rights. In the five years since then, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has reported at least 355 dead and 2,090 detained arising from the government’s response to the protests.
The Nicaraguan state's actions have been internationally condemned. Most recently, in February 2023, the government released 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners, deporting them to the United States. Those who were forcibly expelled from the country were also stripped of their citizenship, among them artists, writers, and journalists.
Ludwing commented that while threats lessened in 2019, he observed continued censorship and a change in those who hired Ximena to perform. “The owners of the locales would say ‘you can’t play Suena la Calle’ [or] ‘today you can’t play Revolver’...The owners wouldn’t let us protest, but we did, unconsciously.”
In 2021 and 2022, the band alleged their concerts were canceled due to threats from police and state security and faced heckling from pro-government audience members. One time in particular, Ludwing recalled: “I went up to perform that night and I remember in front of me was a table of government supporters…The guys spent the whole concert offending me, making gestures that they were going to slit my throat, gestures like they wanted to kill me like they were wanting to point a pistol at me…This was a month before I had to flee due to political persecution.”
In April 2022, Ludwing found out his producer and manager were imprisoned. At the same time, police had surrounded the last home Ludwing had rented. At that time Ludwing was staying with his partner and was no longer living in that residence, but he knew it meant they were coming for him.
“I didn’t even have enough time to pack my bags. I just had to flee. I was in a safe house for two days, trying to figure out what I could do, but I realized that I was already a fugitive on the run. I was in the news, on Twitter, on international news, on the national channels…that worsened the situation…I had to cut my hair, shave my beard, and I was basically fleeing for three weeks between different safe houses.”
While fleeing to Costa Rica, Ludwing received news from someone working in immigration that there was an arrest warrant issued for him for treason. It was then that he realized there was no turning back. He went into exile on May 2, 2022. His manager and producer believe that had Ludwing not fled, he could have faced 10 or 15 years in prison.
Exile
The abrupt and destabilizing force of exile has also instilled a moment of reflection and rebuilding. Ludwing and other members of Ximena left the country without their instruments and lost many of the recordings of their songs. Now in Costa Rica as an asylum seeker, Ludwing says the difficulties finding a job given his migratory status have emphasized the need to dedicate himself completely to his art and the responsibility of artists to create social change.
“There are many people that have lost hope that Nicaragua will be free someday, but when they hear these songs, they can imagine a free Nicaragua. This is my way of protesting…No organization pays me to sing for Nicaragua. I sing because I want Nicaragua to be free. I sing so the people can feel free…and not feel the repression we live with.”
As Ludwing and Ximena begin to tour and create music again, Ludwing has found a sense of home abroad, a feeling that transcends physical boundaries. “I’ve come to the conclusion that a house is not a home. Your home is the things you bring with you, the things that surround you. My home is my suitcase, my home is my guitar, my home is my songs, my home is my pets…So that is my plan for the future, to journey and live with my songs in the world. To bring my message and speak to who I am, of what I was in Nicaragua, what [it] gave me because thanks to Nicaragua I am here…I am Nicaragua. When I miss Nicaragua, I think I am Nicaragua.”
By Jake Neuberger, July 2023. Jake graduated from the George Washington University, majoring in Political Science and International Affairs with minors in Spanish and Sociocultural Anthropology. He is a Program Assistant for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC).
*ARC's interview with Ludwing Gómez was originally in Spanish. ARC provided the English translations for all quotes.