gained preponderance over its more doctrinaire rivals during the revolutionary years. The Tercerista's identified capitalism as 'the main obstacle to social progress'. They believed in a gradual transformation of society toward socialism. The Terceristas believed Nicaragua would have to go through a transitional popular-democratic revolutionary phase that would not be explicitly Marxist-Leninist until it reached a socialist society. The Sandinismo of the Terceristas called for "Marxist ideological clarity" only among its top ranks and not among the "masses" in fear of Nicaraguans' reaction to such policies. What differentiates Tercerista ideology from other Sandinismo strains is their willingness to have tactical alliances with "bourgeoisie" sectors of society. Their appeals for "tactical and temporary broad alliances" were victorious within the party's National Directorate, however, not without controversy over the preservation of pure Marxist analysis. Symbolism Fonseca was highly influenced by Nicaraguan hero Augusto Sandino, whose history he was introduced to by Cuban revolutionaries. Sandino led a peasant insurgence against the first Somoza government in the 1930s under the Liberal Party banner. When the Somoza dictatorship was in power they had failed to develop proper educational institutions. To the dismay of Sandinistas, in school classes Sandino was described as a bandit and an enemy of good government. In the 1970s, Fonseca brought a new interpretation of Sandino to the Sandinista party members he wished to dispense upon the masses: his quest to attain the sovereign-independence of Nicaragua had not been accomplished generations after his assassination. Sandino wished to remove the foreign influences that were dominant in the country, and prevented the government from conducting business for the well being of the Nicaraguan people. Fonseca wished to use his newly developed history of Nicaragua to unite the rural peasants to instill a greater sense of pride, to encourage men to take part in the anti-imperial struggle and to increase revolutionary solidarity. Unlike Fonseca, Sandino was not a Marxist-Leninist. The Nicaraguan people's struggle against William Walker and Sandino's struggle against the Somoza forces was not directed at a socialist telos. Like Sandino, Fonseca wished to ignite the consciousness of the peasantry, and they were a collective force that Fonseca showed could be in control of their own futures. Fonseca believed that the first liberty that the masses should have was the ownership of the land where they labored. Economic sovereignty in the majority of Nicaragua's economic sectors would allow growth to remain in the state,