Diana Sierra Becerra to Discuss New Book, ‘The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador,’ with Salvadoran Revolutionaries on Oct. 28

Diana Carolina Sierra Becerra, assistant professor of history and author of the new book "The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador," will host "Build Popular Feminist Power," a talk and conversation with several of the Salvadoran revolutionaries featured in her book, in Old Chapel at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The event is free and open to the public and a book signing will follow, with books available for purchase courtesy of Amherst Books.

Sierra Becerra's debut book, published by Cambridge University Press, tells the stories of rural and working-class women who fought to overthrow capitalism, patriarchy and U.S. imperialism. Covering five decades of struggle from 1965-2015, 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 book begins with an exploration of how thousands of teachers and peasant women led a militant class struggle against the landed oligarchy and military dictatorships in the 1960s and 1970s, and goes on to detail how women took up arms in the 1980s to survive U.S.-backed state terror, ultimately building 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," Sierra Becerra explains.

Called "a beacon for despairing times" by feminist scholar Elisabeth Armstrong, "The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador," highlights women's agency and challenges dominant narratives of revolutionary movements as monolithic, static and dominated by urban men.

A historian of women and gender in Latin America, Sierra Becerra received the Outstanding Public History Award by the National Council of Public History in 2022. Her teaching focuses on social and political movements throughout the region, encouraging students to understand these histories as mechanisms to address modern-day injustice.

More information about the book can be found on the Cambridge University Press website.