Revista de Temas Nicaragüenses
What is it?
Revista Temas Nicaraguenses RTN) is an academic profile magazine published in a monthly basis, in PDF, MOBT, and EPUB versions, edited by volunteers. It’s a project of the Mejia family from Granada, Nicaragua, who invest money and efforts into it.
Besides the editor Jose Mejia Lacayo, other family members collaborate in the project: his brother Manuel Antonio Mejia L. as art and genealogy advisor; Constantino Mejia Narvaez as website administrator and advisor for IT issues; Pablo Mejia Estrada and his wife Lynette de Mejia as website designers and advisors in the development of the site.
The magazine has been published since May 2008, and 40,000 letter size pages (8½x11) have been published to document Nicaragua related matters. It’s published and distributed for free at https://www.temasnicas.net/, it’s also distributed on the virtual library of Enrique Bolaños, Memoria Centroamerica, and bio-nica.info.
Each edition publishes ten sections, each with a different editor who outputs his own focus on the Nicaraguan culture.
HISTORY
The project initiated in 2008 as a suggestion from Flavio Rivera Montealegre, and for an idea arisen from the editorial activity of the Genealogy Newsletter published by Jose Mejia Lacayo for the Nicaraguan Academy of Genealogical Sciences.
The founders of the magazine in alphabetical orders are: Jose Eduardo Arellano, Esteban Duque Estrada Sacasa, Aldo Guerra Duarte, Eddy Kuhl Arauz, Jose Mejia Lacayo, Flavio Rivera Montealegre, and Carlos Tunnermann Bernheim.
INDEX
The magazine keeps updated onomastic and thematic indexes.
As of November 2020, we had published 3,645 essays as a result of 1,500 collaborations. All ten sections represent 123 essays and 64 collaborations.
The sections with more articles total 2,186 from 193 collaborations.
The essays can be general, historic or literary and total 732 from 280 collaborations. The history essays are 454 from 218 collaborations. Natural sciences follow in third place with 229 essays from 89 collaborations. We have grouped the old Zoology and Natural Resources sections together with the current Natural Sciences edited by Eng. Guillermo Bendaña.
The Biography section has accrued 303 essays from 153 collaborations, followed by Las Segovias and Reviews, and lastly an RTN section where there are a variety of themes which do not fit in the other sections for they represent a summary or themes of difficult classification.
If we add the history essays to the history articles the total is 712 essays, which is the more frequent theme at RTN. For this reason, we can affirm that we represent a magazine of history. We should include the archeology themes which are 42, because archeology is our native history, our prehistory.
We have left aside the essays related to the Caribbean Cost and The Segovias, which usually referred to historic themes also. Between the two of them the total is 348 essays.
We are not a literary magazine nor do we pretend to be one. We accept literary essays and the ones related to Ruben Dario, although we wish no to publish them. The editor is an engineer not a litterateur; he is not a good at entertaining people.
AUDIENCE
RTN is a magazine of academic profile edited by volunteers. During November 2020 the number of new visitors was 608, and the number of frequent visitors was 807, which make a total of 1,415 visitors.
There was a decrease in the total of visitors in November 2020 (1,415) compared to October 2020 (1,778) that was the first month lodged in WIX. It is possible that October number was inflated by the frequent visits of the designers.
The visitors were distributed in 30 countries. The major number of visitors comes from Nicaragua with 736, followed by the United States of America with 358. The major circulation is in Nicaragua, USA, Europe, and Hispanic America.
The magazine can be downloaded from the following sites: Biblioteca Enrique Bolaños, Bio-Nica, or searching in Memoria Centroamericana.
The high circulation of the magazine is shown by the frequent Google searches. The more read files are in PDF format with 71.9%, followed by MOBI with 19.3% and EPUB with 8.0%. This is why it is important to publish in MOBI and EPUB.
COVER ILLUSTRATIONS
The first eight sections of the magazines (between May and December 2008) did not have cover illustrations. The illustration used to be an incent text in yellow color indicating the names of the editor and collaborators of the edition.
As the general editor was learning, the cover illustrations changed from being informative to be more attractive in order to draw the reader’s attention, adding color illustrations as well as interesting subjects.
The first covers were designed by Jose Mejia Lacayo; afterwards architect Flavio Rivera Montealegre was in charge of the design, and finally the task returned to the general editor.
SECTIONS
Some sections have not developed well, others have been cancelled, or perhaps the editor has overlooked the issues of art, climate change, ecology, economy, flora, geology, innovation and science, research and development, pirates, and healthiness.
In some cases, the editor of a section has ceased collaboration because of illness, as it is the case of the Innovation and Science, and Research and Development sections.
Another group of sections has not thriven because of lack of support or lack of readers. After all, we are literary people that enjoy entertaining others with poems and songs. Far from us are the formal sciences like mathematics. We now publish philosophy themes in the essays section.
Bibliography and library sciences are related, but it seems there is a lack of interest in these themes; very few volunteers are encouraged to send collaborations (42). It seems that law is not a very popular subject either with only 65 essays. Esteban Duque Estrada used to collaborate with economics issues, but he stopped doing it. It is a shame because the historic materialism considers that the economy determines many events.
Currently the magazine publishes articles in the following sections: Cover, Guide for the Readers, From the Editor’s Desk, Current News, Natural Sciences, Las Segovias, Caribbean Coast, Essays, History, History of Ideas and Mindsets, Geography, Anthropology, History of Life, Reviews, Law, Genealogy, and Editorial Information.
SECTION EDITORS
Initially the general editor searched for a replacement who could volunteer as general editor. When the search failed, it was thought of editors of sections to divide the task of the general editor, and that at the same time these persons could contribute with specialized knowledge in their fields.
In the Law section, we had Dr. Humberto Carrion who also contributed with his legal knowledge to determine the copyright. Currently the Law editor is Dr. Robert Ferrey Echaverry.
In Anthropology we had Dr. Rigoberto Navarro Genie, archeologist, now emeritus editor. Currently we have Dr. Geoffrey McCafferty, archeologist and professor of the Calgary University of Alberta, Canada, who has made archeological excavations in the zone of Granada, Nicaragua; he is also the former director of Mi Museo, the native museum of ceramic in the same city of Granada.
Volunteer advisors who have assisted the editor are: Dr. Jean-Michael Maes, entomologist and member of the Academy of Sciences of Nicaragua; Dr. Karl Offen, historic geographer; Humberto Carrion, attorney.
TRANSLATORS
Nubia O. Vargas is in charge of translations; Maritza Corriols translates English to Spanish; Arturo Castro Frenzel translates German and English to Spanish; Constantino Mejia Narvaez translates Czech and English to Spanish.
ADVISORS
Carlos Arellano Hartig, graphic designer, has designed the text of the magazine and the image format, Manuel Antonio Mejia Lacayo advises on genealogy and art issues, Dr. Karl Offen, on Caribbean Coast matters, and Dr. Jean-Michael Maes has on general matters of the magazine.
The magazine does not have peer review, but we have an editorial review of all the essays to be published; each collaborator has the right to veto the release of any essays which does not comply with the editorial guidelines or lacks of verifiability.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Board of Directors is formed by Carlos Arellano Hartig, Alberto Barcenas, Guillermo Bendaña Garcia, Manuel Fernandez Vilchez, Eddy Kuhl Arauz, Jean Michel Maes, Harlan Oliva Regidor, Marvin Saballos Ramirez, Nubia O. Vargas, and Carlos Tunnermann Bernheim. This Board is in charge of reviewing and authorizing the editorial policy.
SECTIONS HEAD
The head of Sections are in charge of editing their sections, selecting themes to be published, and supervising that the editorial policy is followed. The editors are: Guillermo Bendaña Garcia, Humberto Carrion McDonough, Jaime Incer Barquero, Eddy Kuhl Arauz, Ligia Madrigal Mendieta, Geoffrey McCaffrey, and Alexander Zosa-Cano. The emeritus editors are: Carlos Arellano Hartig, Humberto Carrion McDonough, and Rigoberto Navarro Genie.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
This committee is in charge of reviewing each edition and approving the publishing of the magazine. The committee members are: Guillermo Bendaña Garcia, Humberto Carrion McDonough, Jaime Incer Barquero, Eddy Kuhl Arauz, Ligia Madrigal Mendieta, Rigoberto Navarro Genie, Nubia O. Vargas, and Alexander Zosa-Cano.
Nubia O. Vargas reviews spelling and typos. She also acts as secretary of the Board of Directors.
GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS
We keep online the editorial policy, licenses and copyright, norms to publish, image management, stylebook, and verifiability. These rules can be found to consult by visiting the magazine website at https://www.temasnicas.net/enviar
EXTERNAL LINKS
US Library of Congress, Revista de temas Nicaragüenses
Marvin Alberto Saballos Ramírez, Temas de la nicaraguanidad
Francisco-Ernesto Martínez en https://es-la.facebook.com/pages/Temas-Nicas/276987855768357
Jorge Eduardo Arellano, La Revista de Temas Nicaragüenses en su primer cumpleaños.
Enrique Bolaños Geyer, Revista de Temas Nicaragüenses
Enrique Bolaños Geyer, Introduction to Revista de Temas Nicaragüenses
Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamericana-UCA, Memoria Centroamericana
Sitio web RTN, All editions are available in https://www.temasnicas.net/revistas