Poets and Prophets of the Resistance: Intellectuals and the Origins of El Salvador's Civil War - Softcover

Chávez, Joaquín M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0190067675 ISBN 13: 9780190067670

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2019

Synopsis

Poets and Prophets of the Resistance offers a ground-up history and fresh interpretation of the polarization and mobilization that brought El Salvador to the eve of civil war in 1980. Challenging the dominant narrative that university students and political dissidents primarily formed the Salvadoran guerrillas, Joaquín Chávez argues that El Salvador's socioeconomic and political crises of the 1970s fomented a groundswell of urban and peasant intellectuals who collaborated to spur larger revolutionary social movements.

Drawing on new archival sources and in-depth interviews, Poets and Prophets of the Resistance contests the idea that urban militants and Roman Catholic priests influenced by Liberation Theology single-handedly organized and politicized peasant groups. Chávez shows instead how peasant intellectuals acted as political catalysts among their own communities first, particularly in the region of Chalatenango, laying the groundwork for the peasant movements that were to come. In this way, he contends, the Salvadoran insurgency emerged in a dialogue between urban and peasant intellectuals working together to create and execute a common revolutionary strategy--one that drew on cultures of resistance deeply rooted in the country's history, poetry, and religion. Focusing on this cross-pollination, this book introduces the idea that a "pedagogy of revolution" originated in this historical alliance between urban and peasant, making use of secular and Catholic pedagogies such as radio schools, literacy programs, and rural cooperatives. This pedagogy became more and more radicalized over time as it pushed back against the increasingly repressive structures of 1970s El Salvador.

Teasing out the roles of little-known groups such as the politically active "La Masacuata" literary movement, the contributions of Catholic Action intellectuals to the New Left, and the overlooked efforts of peasant leaders, Poets and Prophets of the Resistance demonstrates how trans-class political and cultural interactions drove the revolutionary mobilizations that anticipated the Salvadoran civil war.

About this title

About the Author

Joaquín M. Chávez is Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Review

A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

"This book greatly enriches our understanding of the cultural roots of revolution in El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America."--Roger Atwood, Times Literary Supplement

"The author provides a model for understanding the intersection of 'old' and 'new' Lefts in building a powerful revolutionary movement that scholars elsewhere will want to emulate. This is a key work for understanding the origins and evolution of one of Latin America's best-organized social movements."--M. Becker, CHOICE

"This remarkable book addresses the puzzling origins of the civil war in El Salvador. ...The literature has documented aspects of the mobilisation....Yet no one has analysed precisely why and how collective action continued despite sharply increasing violence, and why and how it evolved from mass mobilisation by diverse social sectors in the streets of major cities to armed rural insurgency....Chávez shows that the crucial link is an adequate accounting of the emergence of popular intellectuals (particularly, peasant intellectuals) in the ferment of the 1960s and 1970s....The book--a compelling mix of intellectual and social history--is an important work that deepens our understanding of one of the paradigmatic civil wars in Latin America."--Elisabeth Jean Wood, English Historical Review

"A superb work of historical scholarship. Through solid research and styled prose, Chávez has constructed an intricate and absorbing chronicle that acknowledges the contributions of multiple different leaders of the Salvadoran social and revolutionary movements. Accessible to a wide audience, it will resonate especially deeply with scholars and students interested in grassroots histories of the conflictive Cold War era."--Molly Todd, American Historical Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0190067675
• ISBN 13: 9780190067670
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336