letter of singleness

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To get married in Nicaragua you have to be civilly married and have the marriage certificate presented to the pastor or padre in order to be married in a church.

To be civilly married you can be married in the courthouse by a judge or by a lawyer wit the power to marry. In our case, we are using the judge in our municipality. In order to get married, you have to be single. Or divorced or a widow(er). In any case, if you’ve never been married before, you have to have a carta de solteria, or a singleness letter. For Nicaraguans, this is standard stuff. There’s a form that can be picked up, filled out, etc. For me, it’s an issue.

The judge said I have to have a lawyer/notary write up a document saying that I’m single. So Lenin and I have been lawyer searching, and we finally found a decent, cheap, legit lawyer who wasn’t going to charge me a hundred bucks because I’m a gringa. In fact, she’s charging us $15 to draw up the paper. I have to have two witnesses to testify that I am indeed single. Two volunteers in Madriz are acting as my singlehood witnesses.

It all seems very … old. Like, in the States it’s all in the records. Computer records? What happened before there were government computer records? How was anyone to know if you were single or not? I mean, wasn’t that the story. That some guy had 5 wives, all in different towns. Kinda like that here, except they just have queridas. With whole other families. Amazing, actually.

Anyway, so my letter of singleness is being drafted. I will go in on Monday to sign, or maybe even tomorrow? Sign, and post this blog.

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Comments

[Mom]

WOW......like,....
like,.....I've nearly forgotten how to turn on this computer! Ha! It "seems" like it's been weeks and weeks since we've seen blue skies here in Missouri. With heavy rains and thunderstorms and etc., we always unplug the thang so as not to BLOW IT UP! So, finally, Molly, we're back online. Sure has been WONDERFUL chatting with you on the phone, though (I ju$t love it $O much!). ;) Hope your Letter of Singleness, and it's witnessing and all, went smoothly for you guys. Keep us up on it, OK? *******ALSO, HOW IS YOUR LEG MENDING BY NOW??? Infection gone and all closed up?? Love you and worry (**JUST A LITTLE, NOW AND THEN, YOU KNOW**). Mom

[Memo]

Hi there from Mexico
Hi Molly Let me tell you that the same rules or procedure apply for weddings in Mexico, except for the singleness letter. If you divorced you need you need a paper to support your civil situation. If you are divorced and you marriged in church you can have another marriage in church again if you get an special letter from the church. Well I wish for you and Lenin the best of the best. CONGRATULATIONS... By the way if you talk with Arielle please say hello for me and tell her that I miss her a lot... Best regards