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Gioconda Belli, of Northern Italian decent,<3> was an active participant in the Sandinista struggle against the Somoza dictatorship,<4> and her work for the movement led to her being forced into exile in Mexico in 1975.<5> Returning in 1979 after the Sandinista victory,<6> in 1982 she became FSLN's international press liaison, the director of State Communications in 1984, and was responsible among other things for a major literacy campaign. During that time she met Charles Castaldi, an American NPR journalist, whom she married in 1987.<7> She has been living in both Managua and Los Angeles since 1990. She has now turned against FSLN, and is a major critic of the current government.