![ernesto cardenal, man in black turtleneck with glasses and white beard.](/sites/default/files/2023-02/cardenal-face-for-web-72-dpi.jpeg)
Ernesto Cardenal, the Nicaraguan poet, priest, and revolutionary, died in Managua on Sunday, March 1. He was 95.
Admired and controversial, Cardenal was a towering figure in Central American culture and politics. As Nicaragua’s minister of culture under the Sandinista government, which took power in 1979, he oversaw a national program that taught poetry to Nicaraguans of all ages and all walks of life.