To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador, 1920-1932. JEFFREY L. GOULD and ALDO A. LAURIA-SANTIAGO: Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008

Abstract

To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador, 1920-1932 contributes to a clearer understanding of a complex period of political, social, and cultural history, including how its contemporary interpretation reveals the dynamics of individual and social memory. In January 1932 a popular insurrection in western El Salvador was met with swift and brutal state-sanctioned retaliation resulting in the massacre of at least 10,000 mostly indigenous Nahuat-Pipil individuals followed by a long period of national military dictatorship. Over the years, interpretations and memories of the episode, commonly referred to as theMatanza (“the slaughter”), associate the violence with both pro- and anti-Communist discourse and mobilization, and the evanescence of an indigenous people and culture. Due in part to the scarcity of research on the topic, popular understanding about the Matanzamay have exaggerated the number of victims, perpetuated misinformation about immediate government policy toward indigenous culture, and attributed innocence or a lack of agency to indigenous people. To Rise in Darkness takes on the above-referenced associations and misunderstandings by examining a period of national history remarkable for its alignment of subaltern interests and revolutionary zeal.