Making the revolution : histories of the Latin American left

"Many treatments of the twentieth-century Latin American left assume a movement populated mainly by affluent urban youth whose naïve dreams of revolution collapsed under the weight of their own elitism, racism, sexism, and sectarian dogmas. However, this book demonstrates that the history of the left was much more diverse. Many leftists struggled against capitalism and empire while also confronting racism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism. The left's ideology and practice were often shaped by leftists from marginalized populations, from Bolivian indigenous communities in the 1920s to the revolutionary women of El Salvador's guerrilla movements in the 1980s. Through ten historical case studies of ten different countries, Making the Revolution highlights some of the most important research on the Latin American left by leading senior and up-and-coming scholars, offering a needed corrective and valuable contribution to modern Latin American history, politics, and sociology." -- Publisher's description Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 List of Figures 11 List of Contributors 12 Editor’s Note 15 List of Abbreviations 16 Introduction Revolutionary Actors, Encounters, and Transformations 21 1 Common Ground: Caciques, Artisans, and Radical Intellectuals in the Chayanta Rebellion of 1927 39 2 Identity, Class, and Nation: Black Immigrant Workers, Cuban Communism, and the Sugar Insurgency, 1925–1934 64 3 Indigenous Movements in the Eye of the Hurricane 97 4 Friends and Comrades: Political and Personal Relationships between Members of the Communist Party USA and the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, 1930s–1940s 125 5 Total Subversion: Interethnic Radicalism in La Paz, Bolivia, 1946–1947 149 6 ''Sisters in Exploitation'': The 1959 Congress of Latin American Women and the Transnational Origins of Cuban State Feminism 176 7 Revolutionaries without Revolution: Regional Experiences in the Forging of a Radical Political Culture in the Southern Cone of South America (1966–1976) 205 8 Nationalism and Marxism in Rural Cold War Mexico: Guerrero, 1959–1974 232 9 The Ethnic Question in Guatemala’s Armed Conflict: Insights from the Detention and ''Rescue'' of Emeterio Toj Medrano 260 10 For Our Total Emancipation: The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in Insurgent El Salvador, 1977–1987 286 Index 314 "Many treatments of the twentieth-century Latin American left assume a movement populated mainly by affluent urban youth whose naïve dreams of revolution collapsed under the weight of their own elitism, racism, sexism, and sectarian dogmas. However, this book demonstrates that the history of the left was much more diverse. Many leftists struggled against capitalism and empire while also confronting racism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism. The left's ideology and practice were often shaped by leftists from marginalized populations, from Bolivian indigenous communities in the 1920s to the revolutionary women of El Salvador's guerrilla movements in the 1980s. Through ten historical case studies of ten different countries, Making the Revolution highlights some of the most important research on the Latin American left by leading senior and up-and-coming scholars, offering a needed corrective and valuable contribution to modern Latin American history, politics, and sociology." -- Publisher's description Through historical case studies of ten different countries, this book offers new insights into both the successes and the limitations of Latin America's left, arguing that the Latin American left in the twentieth century was more diverse, feminist, and anti-racist than conventional wisdoms would have us believe.