UMass historian Diana Carolina Sierra Becerra published her first book The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador with Cambridge University Press. The book tells the stories of rural and working-class women who fought to overthrow capitalism, patriarchy, and US imperialism. Members of the public are invited to join Sierra Becerra for a book talk and conversation with Salvadoran revolutionaries at the UMass Amherst Old Chapel on Tuesday, October 28 at 5pm.
Covering five decades of struggle from 1965 to 2015, Sierra Becerra weaves oral histories with understudied archival sources, including one buried in a cornfield, to illustrate how women developed a revolutionary theory and practice to win liberation. In foregrounding this multigenerational movement of women who broke with patriarchal tradition and rose up as leaders, the book is “a must-read for understanding the recent history of Central America,” says Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, Director of the Museum of the Word and Image in El Salvador.
The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador begins with an exploration of how in the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of teachers and peasant women led a militant class struggle against the landed oligarchy and military dictatorships. It goes on to detail how women took up arms in the 1980s to survive US-backed state terror and built a revolution that bridged socialism and women's liberation. “In the guerrilla territories, combatants and civilians politicized reproductive labor and created democratic institutions to meet the needs of the poor,” explained Sierra Becerra. Highlighting women's agency, she challenges dominant narratives of revolutionary movements as monolithic, static, and dominated by urban men. As the noted feminist scholar Elisabeth Armstrong puts it, Sierra Becerra's book is “a beacon for despairing times.”
Diana Carolina Sierra Becerra is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received the Outstanding Public History Award by the National Council of Public History in 2022. Sierra Becerra is a historian of women and gender in Latin America. Her teaching focuses on social and political movements throughout the region, encouraging students to understand these histories as mechanisms to address modern-day injustice.
Titled “Build Popular Feminist Power,” the October 28 book talk at the UMass Old Chapel will feature a presentation by Sierra Becerra and a conversation with several of the women featured in her book. The event is free and open to the public and a book signing will follow, with books available for purchase courtesy of Amherst Books. See event details.
The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador is available for purchase at Amherst Books and from Cambridge University Press.