“Left on the web: The digital afterlives and connective memories of 1980s US Nicaragua solidarity”

Abstract This article examines the digital afterlives of 1980s US Nicaragua activism through the online platform and blog NicaNotes , arguing that remembering past activism online is not only inherently political but also creates new digital memoryscapes that forge particular understandings of the past. Drawing on (digital) narratology and Andrew Hoskins’ concept of connective memory, this study demonstrates how NicaNotes mobilizes traditions of autobiographical storytelling and uses digital affordances to produce a digital memoryscape: A multimodal environment where past experiences are recalibrated across time and space, linking dispersed activist communities and shaping collective identity. The analysis finds that by intertwining digitized life narrative conventions with born-digital affordances a distinct digital activist genre emerges. This grants access to a formerly vocal generation of US leftists that has shifted from letter writing to keyboard activism; hence, a “Nicaragua activism 2.0,” with Nicaragua serving as both a mnemonic anchor and a synecdoche for broader anti-imperialist debates. NicaNotes not only preserves historical memory but actively repurposes it to engage contemporary political concerns, mobilizing support for Nicaragua’s current authoritarian regime and ultimately illuminating the enduring legacies and complexities of US–Nicaragua relations.