Central American University (Managua) heard in a world that seems tuned out from the problems of the South. Encounter is the oldest scholarly academic journal in Nicaragua, originating in 1968. The intellectuals who created this quarterly envisaged reflections on the confrontation of cultures in Nicaragua, between North and South America and also between the Mexican (Nahua and Aztec) and Andean (Inca and Chibcha) cultures. It searched for human solidarity, beginning with teachers and students. Publication was interrupted for a year after the earthquake that destroyed Managua in 1972 and from financial constraints at UCA from 1990 to 1993. After 1972 "Encounter" was an annual,
Managua and reconstruction programs were expanded. New governmental buildings, galleries, museums, apartment buildings, squares, promenades, monuments, boat tours on Lake Managua, restaurants, nighttime entertainment, and broad avenues have resurrected part of downtown Managua's former vitality. Commercial activity, however, remains low. Residential and commercial buildings have been constructed on the outskirts of the city, in the same locales that were once used as refuge camps for those who were homeless after the earthquake. These booming locales have been of concern to the government because of their close proximity to Lake Managua. The construction of a new sewer system and the redirecting of