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This article studies the relationship between political moments, the ideological and organizational transformations of the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional), and its activists’ strategies to insert themselves professionally into spaces and organizations in charge of representing the interests of social groups, which had been historically excluded from politics. In order to illustrate this process, the political trajectories of four activists will be presented: how they got involved in the Sandinista movement, what knowledge and skills they acquired, and how they applied these skills to mobilize specific social groups according to the FSLN’s strategic objectives. Thus, the paper aims to contribute to the debate on the factors that explain the consolidation of the FSLN’s position after 1990 in the Nicaraguan political system, which cannot be reduced to its leaders’ ability to negotiate the spaces of institutional power with other political forces.