Booklist
Gorkin, an American psychologist, teamed with two Salvadoran women psychologists to explore the life histories of three generations of women in El Salvador. Their recollections of childhood, courtship, marriage, and child rearing are conveyed against the backdrop of the social upheaval of El Salvador's 12-year civil war that ended in 1992. The subjects--grandmother, mother, and granddaughter--reflect the range of Salvadoran social and economic strata. The Nunez family are wealthy owners of a sugar plantation. The Rivas family (the teacher mother and the university student daughter) represent the growing middle class. The Garcia family are poor campesinas who live in a community that benefited from land reform that came out of the civil war. Maria Garcia was a former member of the guerrilla faction. The interviews reflect the changing structure of Salvadoran society, growing opportunities for women, and resistance to the machismo culture. Gorkin, author of a similar book on Palestinian women, sees parallels between the Middle Eastern and Central American nations, both culturally repressive toward women and recovering from the upheavals of war. Vanessa Bush
--Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Book Description
The life histories and testimonies of nine Salvadoran women from different generations shape this intimate portrayal of contemporary El Salvador. The authors interviewed a grandmother, mother, and granddaughter from three Salvadoran families: La Familia Nuez, members of the upper class; La Familia Rivas, from El Salvador's growing middle class; and La Familia Garc'a, from the campo, the Salvadoran peasantry. The voices we hear convey a deep sense of the world of Salvadoran women and how life is lived in that Central American country today.
Each woman tells her own life story, and interspersed with recollections of childhood, marriage, and childrearing are revealing accounts of El Salvador's turbulent political past and present. Reflected in the stories are the vast changes in educational and occupational opportunities for women and the shifts in male-female relationships. Class differences are still a fundamental part of Salvadoran life, but changes are occurring in this area as well.
From Grandmother to Granddaughter is a vivid and authentic portrait of today's El Salvador that convincingly illustrates how individual lives can reflect the larger changes within a society. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
