This is an account of the uprising and general strike which, without much violence, toppled the long-time dictator of El Salvador, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. Parkman points out that this nonviolent insurrection became a model both for other countries and for the Salvadoran left in the 1970s. The work is thoroughly researched, both from U.S. and from Salvadoran archives. Interviews which she conducted in the ’70s, many with persons not alive today, are also valuable. As the first complete study of the events of 1944, this book is particularly of interest. The writing is competent, although uninspired, and the narration is clear. Intended for the scholarly reader, it will be valuable to college and university libraries.
The author sees the nonviolent insurrection of May 1944 as an instance of the people as a whole—university students, business groups, and workers—being able to triumph over repression. But perhaps not enough is made of the abortive military and civilian armed insurrection of April 1944. After putting down this insurrection, General Martínez officially executed 13 officers and one civilian, though evidently many more people were actually killed.
The execution of the officers and the general repression cost Martínez the support of the armed forces in April. If he had had that support, it is possible that no amount of strikes and demonstrations would have been able to topple him in May. The idealism growing out of the democratic slogans of World War II may have sparked the May insurrection, but the inaction of the military made it work.
