Urban Guerrilla vs. Citizens Revolution

In comparison to guerrilla movements in other Latin American countries, ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! (AVC)—in English, "Alfaro Lives, Dammit!"—in Ecuador was relatively minor and short lived. Taking its name from former President Eloy Alfaro, a general who led a liberal revolution in 1895, the AVC first emerged in 1983. By 1986 state security forces had largely dismantled the group, killing many of its leaders and imprisoning and torturing many of its members. As with many other guerrilla movements, the AVC still lacks a strong synthetic study. Instead, there are only a number of often self-published narratives and memoirs that lack broad distribution. In this short book, which was originally published in Spanish, Buckley presents oral interviews he collected from the group’s former members during a seven-year residency in Ecuador. [The] book approaches the topic[s] from the perspective of cultural studies, emphasizing musings on modernity, especially as it relates to mestizo and Indigenous identities. Recommended. Faculty and professionals. * Choice Reviews *
This is a wonderfully rendered work of historical recuperation. Buckley, with graceful style, captures both the hopes and fears that ran across the political spectrum in Ecuador. Invaluable. -- Greg Grandin, Yale University
The current text brilliantly highlights AVC's political, social and cultural contributions, and assesses its greater impact within the problematics of modernity. It is without a doubt a welcomed document to the greater understanding of social reality in South America and the Andes. -- Oswaldo Hugo Benavides, Ph.D and Independent Scholar
Part meditation on modernity, part reflection on the aging of revolutionary activism, part oral history collection, this readable volume on Ecuador’s Alfaro Vive Carajo offers the first systematic account of a unique if often overlooked guerrilla movement from Latin America’s Cold War. -- Ernesto Capello, Macalester College