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ternot macrenato

Ternot MacRenato

  • Class
    1968
  • Honors
    Men's Soccer (1964-1968)
MacRenato was born in Diriamba, Nicaragua, in 1942 and moved to the United States at age 14. He played soccer for four seasons with the Dons, and he earned Degrees from the University of San Francisco in Political Science and UC Berkeley and has taught history at City College since 1971. But he didn’t spend all his time in the classroom.  MacRenato served with the Third Force Reconnaissance Company in Vietnam. Several times he saw action, and this experience was later to serve him well in his homeland. His direct role in the Nicaraguan revolution ended in 1980. 

MacRenato became part of an anti-Somoza support network in the United States. In 1978, a group of commandos led by Comandante Zero Eden Pastora seized the national palace and captured the government. Though not then a combatant, MacRenato was in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua at the time. 

MacRenato returned to the United States in 1978 and kept working with the support network. Then, in May 1979, he took a leave of absence from teaching and joined the armed struggle against Somoza. Before he left, he got word that his cousin, Eduardo Sanchez, had been killed in action.

MacRenato found some of his best efforts rejected. “I was there to fight a revolution and use my military knowledge, but I also had a Peace Corps mentality. I even tried to get the Peace Corps to come back, but the comandantes were not interested. The Sandinistas wanted the Cubans. I also brought an offer of $9 million, and all they had to do was ask for it. They wouldn’t have anything to do with that either.

“I was once interviewed for a White House fellowship. One of the questions, which I didn’t expect, was ‘Do you regret anything in life?’ I thought about it and realized that the correct answer was ‘I regret nothing,’ because there is nothing you can change. The fact that we were naive in certain areas or were betrayed by the Marxists doesn't change the fact that we had to get rid of Somoza and his thieves. The people later took care of business and got rid of the Sandinistas, although they are not all out. And to the extent that they remain, creating mischief, the economy will sink deeper and deeper (SanDiegoReader)."


 
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