Sierra Becerra, Diana Carolina. Cambridge, 2025

• 277p bibl index, 9781009200066 $100.00, 9781009200103 $29.99, 9781009200097 $29.99
• LC Call Number: HQ
  1497

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Sierra Becerra (Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst) presents a compelling analysis of the 1980s revolutionary war in El Salvador. She notes that the existing scholarly literature exaggerates the role of urban intellectuals, in part because they comprise the sector of society most accessible to academics. In contrast, Sierra Becerra grounds her study in 50 interviews with rural women who participated at the grassroots level in mass organizations, revolutionary mass fronts, and political-military organizations (guerrillas engaged in an armed struggle). Rooted primarily in a discussion of the Association of Women of El Salvador (AMES) and the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), two of the largest and most powerful popular organizations, Sierra Becerra challenges assumptions that the political Left subordinated gender concerns to class struggle. While acknowledging persistent problems such as sexual double standards and gender-based violence, she demonstrates how a revolutionary as opposed to an imperial feminism shaped the FPL’s efforts to promote the political participation of peasant women. Sierra Becerra builds on a robust body of scholarship on the civil war and nicely complements works such as Molly Todd's Long Journey to Justice (CH, Mar'22, 59-2073).

Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.

• Reviewer: M. Becker, Truman State University
• Recommendation: Recommended
• Readership Level: General Readers, Lower-division Undergraduates, Upper-division Undergraduates, Graduate Students, Researchers/Faculty, Professionals/Practitioners
• Interdisciplinary Subjects: Latin American & Latina/o Studies , Women's & Gender Studies
• Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences - History, Geography & Area Studies - Latin America & the Caribbean
• Choice Issue: oct 2026 vol. 64 no. 2
• Choice Review #: 64-0347