When Women Rebel: The Rise of Popular Feminism in Peru by Carol Andreas, Lawrence Hill & Company, 1985, 233 pp., $19.95 (cloth), $12.95 (paper). Eloquent and angry account of Pe- ruvian Indian women's struggles to protect their families and preserve tra- ditions that give them a voice and dig- nity, in four contexts: the coastal fish- ing town of Chimbote, where women have unionized in Starkist and other U.S. canning factories; the Andean sierra, where land reforms have under- mined women's autonomy and made them receptive to Sendero Luminoso; the urban shantytowns, especially in Lima; and the Amazon jungle and most isolated mountain areas, where Andreas speaks of "ethnocide." Although strongly partisan, and sympathetic to Sendero Luminoso, she scrupulously documents her arguments, which should not be ignored, even by those who dis- agree with her. Neighbors in Turmoil: Latin Amer- ica by James D. Cockcroft, Harper & Row, 1989, 649 pp., $26.50 (paper). This "analytical textbook" is, as the author proclaims, "the first in two decades to bring under single author- ship a separate treatment of every Latin American country." When John Gerassi wrote The Great Fear in Latin America (1963), the "great fear" was that Marx- ist revolutions would seize power throughout the region. Cockcroft seeks to explain why that didn't happen and why the counterrevolutionary military governments themselves have been unable to remain in power. He then lists ten elements of Latin America's "new politics," including alliances (Marx- ists and Catholics), the "assertiveness of women as political actors," and the political movements of the urban poor. Country essays on dependence and its foes are enlivened with energetic prose and jumbled metaphors. This book should be most useful for undergradu- ate courses, shaking up some tradi- tional views and giving students the elements (bibliography, statistics, etc.) to construct their own arguments or pursue these further. Cities in Crisis: The Urban Chal- lenge in the Americas edited by Mat- thew Edel and Ronald G. Hellman. Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, CUNY, 156 pp., $26.95 (cloth), $11.95 (paper). A collection of papers originally presented in 1984-1985, including two on Mexico City and one each on Sdo Paulo, Santo Domingo, New York, Buenos Aires, Medellin and San Miguelito (Panama). They go from Vilmar E. Faria's distressing statistics on metropolitan Sho Paulo (pop. 13 million), where $30 billion, or 12 times the present city budget would be needed to meet deficits in infrastructure, hous- ing, etc.; to Jos6 Francisco Pefia G6mez's campaign statement, recount- ing how as mayor of Santo Domingo (1982-1986) he strove to meet great needs with scant resources. Matthew Edel's essay on New York is concise and coherent, but the author strains to make the case that it was analogous in any helpful way to Latin America. Memoria del Pedregal, memoria de mujer: Testimonio de una colona by Alejandra Massolo, Mujeres para el Didlogo (Apdo. Postal 19-493, Mixcoac, 03910 Mexico, D.F.), 1988, 87 pp., $10 (paper). This testimony by one of the pio- neer settlers of Mexico City's colonia of Santo Domingo, on the rocky terrain next to the campus of the National University, provides vivid details of three closely related processes: the political radicalization of a once-naive and humble poor person, the develop- ment of a community-based organiza- tion to protect and improve housing, and the struggle against machismo. Massolo's introduction, concluding re- flections and footnotes to "Aurora's" words are helpful for understanding the social and political context, but the joy of this little book is the description by "Aurora" of the personal and commu- nal dramas within the national drama of urbanization and homelessness. In- cludes a bibliography on "Women in Urban Issues and Social Movements."
