Comunismo y Literatura en Centroamérica: tres fantasmas en el siglo revolucionario 1932-1990

There is a history and there is a story about Central American revolutions in the 20th century. This dissertation focuses on the story of Central American communism between 1932 and 1990. The first question to answer is: What means should be use to reconstruct this story? The answer is revolutionary literature. To successfully trace these historical events, I have come up with a corpus of numerous cultural texts that can be classified as testimonies, novels and political essays. It is important to point out that, in the specific case of Central America, revolutionary experiences were collected in an unsystematic way by grassroots intellectuals from the various communist movements using writing styles that belong in one way or another to the literary tradition. Ultimately, many political activists who will be studied as part of this research project were also writers themselves. The essential literary texts to be studied, though not the only ones, are the following: the testimony, Miguel Mármol (one of the founding members of the Salvadorian Communist Party), collected by Roque Dalton, a poet and revolutionary from El Salvador who was assassinated in 1973. Also, the narratives that are part of what is known as the “Banana Literature Cycle” in Central America, Bananos y hombres by Carmen Lyra, Mamita Yunai by Carlos Luis Fallas, both Costa Rican writers, and Prisión Verde by the Honduran author, Ramón Amaya Amador. These texts address the subhuman living and working conditions suffered by Central American workers of the United Fruit Company. Lastly, two compilations of political essays written by guerrilla leaders. Specifically, Bajo la bandera del sandinismo by Carlos Fonseca Amador, a founding member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Nicaragua) and Los fusiles de octubre by Mario Payeras, a founding member of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (Guatemala). The central aim of this undertaking is to conduct a critical assessment of the historical and cultural forms of the communist project in Central America and to engage in the ongoing 21st century discussion on the relevance, or not, of thinking communism once more as a horizon for collective human activity.\u