Tortillas, beans, and M-16s

the long version

Wendy Shaull's recounts her experiences while living in the guerrilla controlled territory in El Salvador in the mid 1980s. Her goal is to document with photographs the guerrillas and their efforts to overthrow the US-supported, repressive Salvadoran government. I have read a number of war memoirs by Salvadoran guerrillas, one US doctor, and several "internationalists", like Wendy, who went to live with and help the guerrilla effort. Her account meshes quite well with other accounts so her story is no doubt accurate. What makes her story particularly fascinating is that she's quite honest about her experiences and thus at times expresses her doubts, sometimes deep frustrations, about being there and also about some of the groups that she gets involved with. Nevertheless, her humanity and the humanity of the guerrillas and peasants come through, yielding a superb book that would be enjoyed by pretty much anyone.