Don't Be Afraid, Gringo

by Elvia Alvarado, Medea Benjamin (Translator)

The award-winning oral history of Elvia Alvarado, a courageous campesina (peasant) activist in Honduras, the poorest country in Central America. Trained by the Catholic Church to organize women's groups to combat malnutrition, Alvarado began to question why campesinos were malnourished to begin with. Her growing political awareness, her travels by foot over the back roads of Honduras, and her conversations with people frm all over the country have given her insights into the internal workings of her society that far surpass those of the majority of campesinos who have never ventured outside their villages. Working as a campesino organizer, Alvarado has led dangerous land recovery actions in an effort to enforce the national land reform laws. As a result of these activities, she has been harassed, jailed, and tortured at the hands of the Honduran military.

Skillfully translated and edited by Medea Benjamin, an expert on Central America, this book takes us into the heart of campesino struggle and political conflict in Honduras today.

"Elvia Alvarado tells the story of her life and the life of the people of Honduras. Read it and understand the struggle against tyranny of the poor. Read it and act."--Alice Walker

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Politics, Feminism, Biography, Read For School

169 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her mid-30s at the time, activist Medea Benjamin assembled hours of interviews with campesina organizer Elvia Alvarado into a coherent, readable take on life, society, and power among the campesinos of Honduras in the 1980s. Although it is nearly 30 years old (published originally in 1987), the book is a rewarding read. Alvarado tells the story of her life and presents a down-to-earth critique of corruption and violence. She explains why campesinos have organized to take back land they beleive they are owed under land reform laws, and offers a sense of the risks and personal hardships she has suffered as an advocate. She blames the United States for strengthening the Honduran military at the expense of civil institutions, for propping up corrupt leaders, and for investing in development projects that benefit the oligarchs without helping ordinary Hondurans. But the book is also valuable for the insight it offers into the practical problems of living in poverty in a developing Latin American country - the pervasive sexism and violence against women, the way every effort a campesino makes to get ahead legally gets eventually checked by corruption or abuse of power by wealthier landowners.

It's far from clear, on the basis of this book, whether extra-legal land occupation can actually accomplish change. Alvarado believes that without land, the campesinos can't support themselves or provide for their families. The book doesn't ask whether, given rapid population growth and traditional cropping techniques, settling tens of thousands of campesinos on their own tiny farms would be a sustainable solution. Since the Hondurn government of the 1980s wasn't about to do that, the theoretical question was moot. Instead, trapped under a largely lawless regime, Alvarado and her colleagues are engaged in a kind of strategic brinksmanship - up to a point, if they choose targets for land occupation carefully, it will cost the government more to send in the army to crush or evict them than to accommodate them. In that context, it makes a lot of sense than Alvarado does not promote revolution, and she specifically disavows that the campesinos are 'communists'. In the long tradition of peasants fighting the overwhelming power of oligarchies, reaching back to early modern Europe, she presents the campesinos as loyal Hondurans, acting to uphold rather than subvert the promises of the existing system, while being totally skeptical of the capacity of that system to deliver any real justice on its own.

A lot has changed since the book was published. The population of Honduras is larger, and still growing rapidly. The extradition from the US in the early 1990s of criminals hardened in American prisons has introduced a new and even more vicious source of instability to the nation, with competing gangs setting up extortion and trafficking rackets that have inevitably preyed on the campesinos. A short July 2014 article on Slate suggests that fighting between groups of campesinos has emerged as another source of oppression, on top of the gang warfare and continued abuses of power by large landowners and the army. I've searched unsuccessfully on the Internet for recent information about Elvia Alvarado; it would be nice to think she's found success and some measure of personal security and comfort, though she didn't appear to expect that in 1987.

[Kim Novak (The Reading Rx) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read while on a medical brigade in rural Honduras. Written in 1987, Elvia’s story lends insight into Honduran politics and class culture and their impact on common citizens. It was interesting to be able to read up on how subsequent history in Honduras played out after that particularly turbulent time in Central America. Her story is also a highlight of how a motivated and inquisitive individual can affect change at a high level… a perfect example of leadership from the heart.

[Fadillah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you visit Honduras and just drive along the main highway, you might think Honduras is a rich country. The road is all smooth and paved, and the people who live alongside the highway look pretty well off. But most Hondurans are campesinos who live far removed from the highway. They live in what we call asentamientos, or settlements. These are villages that are not even connected to the highway by a road. Oftentimes the only way to get to these asentamientos is by horse or hiking on foot. So the real Honduras is hidden from view, but for most campesinos it's the only reality we know. For the campesinos in the asentamientos, it's hard to make a living. If they have any land at all, it's usually the worst land-hilly with poor soils. Because the best land is the flat land the big landowners own. The campesinos who have land of their own plant corn and beans for their families to eat. When harvest time comes, they put part of the crop aside and sell the rest. They need money to buy things like clothing, medicine, and any food they don't grow themselves. Whenever there's a family crisis, they have to sell off part of their food to get cash. So they often run out of beans and corn to eat and have to go into town and buy them at the marketplace- for double the price they sold them for. The campesinos are always selling cheap and buying dear. That's why they never get ahead. The guys with the fat wallets, the middlemen, come into the village and buy the campesinos' crops for next to nothing. But the campesinos need the money and have no choice. Who else can they sell to? How can they get their crops to market? There are no roads to their villages, no buses that stop there. The only transportation is their mules and their own backs. Campesinos who don't have land are even worse off. They work as day laborers, either for a landowner or for another campesino who needs help. The daily wage in the countryside is $1.50 to $2.50 a day. But even with these low wages, they can't find enough work. Many campesinos are forced to migrate in search of work. When it's time to harvest coffee, they go to the mountains where the coffee is. They stay for a few months. Sometimes they take their families along so everyone can help. Sometimes the men go alone. In the south there used to be temporary work in the cotton fields, but no one seems to grow cotton any more. There also used to be more work on the banana planta-tions, but they use so many machines nowadays that there's hardly any jobs for the campesinos any more. Now they have planes to spray the fields with pesticides. I think they even have machines to cut the bananas from the trees. So not only do the banana companies take land from the campesinos to grow the bananas, but with all their fancy equipment they don't even give us jobs.
- Real Honduras is hidden : Dont Be Afraid Gringo - A honduran Woman Speaks from the heart by Elvia Alvarado
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Power to the Grandma Elvia, Power to the Campesinos and Power to the movement! After a disappointing read of ‘women and socialism’ of supposedly theory of how working women were supposed to organise and demand their rights, this book managed to demonstrate how to create a movement of women who’ve been abused by the oppression system of their country, beaten black and blues by their useless husband/boyfriend/man generally in their society and being denied good education, healthcare and even food simply because of their status. I have to admit that i know next to nothing about Honduras so i appreciated the chapter specifically highlighted countries in Central America that are afflicted with poverty and rebellion. Honduras were painted differently as they were relatively free of Armed Conflict. However, it was not that long before all hell breaks loose. Leave it to USA government to wreak havoc and instigate chaos thus tragically dragged Honduras in the ‘foreign policy intervention’ of Nicaragua and El Salvador. The militarisation process emboldened the corruption and exacerbated the infighting. While Military chiefs and politicians is making money, Honduras Economy is affected severely causing the commodity prices to drop, unemployment to increase and the country debt is growing. Poor becomes poorer and rich becomes richer in the literal sense and for the ‘cheap ass’ democracy that was promised by USA government causing Hondurans specifically Campesinos (Peasant) to live dirt poor. This
is where the memoir introduced us to Elvia Alvarado. She is one of the prominent figures that fought for the the Campesinos. She was not educated, pregnant at the age of 15, abandoned by 2 husbands and were being chased here and there by the authorities for terrorising the landowners. But, what motivates her to organise, demonstrate and strike until government surrender and agree to negotiate is her grandkids. She wanted to leave a better future for her grandkids. The future whereby her grandkids are given an access to education, healthcare and land. She dreamed that her family members can escape the poverty cycle. Capitalism is truly an evil mechanism and the fact that it has been oppressing people in developing countries yet allowed to proceed as it is is beyond my understanding. How these foreign MNC companies and capitalists took over huge portion of Land, used up all the resources, did not employ local people and denied them a job and channeled back the profit to their home country. The government then decided to pass one law reform to at least helped Campesinos sustain themselves is Agrarian Reform Law 1975. This is what Elvia stated in the book : “The law is very clear. It says that land has to be fully used, that it has to fulfill a social function. Whether the land is private or state owned, if it's not being cultivated or it only has a few head of cattle on it, it's supposed to be turned over to the campesinos. The National Agrarian Institute, INA, is supposed to uphold the law. It's supposed to make sure the underused land gets turned over to campesino groups. But that's not what actually happens. While the 1975 law is a good law on paper, it's not being put into practice”. Unfortunately, the fight is far from over as Elvia has to unite, organise movement to demand for this land to be handed to them. Most of these landowners has resources, money and good lawyers causing the fight to be prolonged. It didn’t help when they even manipulate the media so nobody will side with these farmers. Countless massacres happened but Government still failed to protect Campesinos. The memoir is simple and straightforward. It doesn’t have a flowery language but what it did is lays out the reality of what Hondurans has been enduring. From Foreign Aid that did not go to the right person, International Association (From USA specifically) kept coming and saying they will help but being the complicit of their own government and these ‘Gringos’ that shamelessly plundering Honduras without any ounce of guilt - her frustration is valid because she knew her country is rich but decades of misuse of power, corruption, bribery and instability made it impoverished. Overall, this is a must read memoir. Read it because we need to know more about women out there trying to change lives and fought against the injustices that systematically already unfair in the first place.

[Audrey Approved · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read around the world project - Honduras

It was cool to hear the author's experiences and perspectives in her own words. I know this is dated (almost 40 years old) but it made me want to read up on Alvarado's life since. Definitely need to learn more about US intervention in Honduras!

3.5/5 stars

[Liu Zhen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado
Author: Elvia Alvarado, Medea Benjamin (Translator)
Pages: 208
Publisher: Published July 19th 1989 by Harper Perennial (first published 1987)
Isbn: 006097205X (ISBN13: 9780060972059)

“It’s often a tough battle to win the women over. But once you get them organized, they change overnight.” is a quotation with a picture of three women carrying a folk like tool on their shoulder walking at the beginning of chapter 9. Indeed, every chapter of Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado starts with a picture and a quotation from the text of the chapter.

Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado is an autobiography of Elvia Alvarado, who is a Honduran, a mother, and also a woman activist. Alvarado tells a melancholy non-fictional story of her sufferings in poverty. Alvarado’s writing style is very conversational through first person’s point of view, making her points very effective to readers in historical context. The book is very simple to follow, therefore making an easy read.

In my own words, I think this book serves to the purpose of persuading Gingos to be not afraid of speaking up; to unit together to advocate for help in struggles. Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado is a very inspirational piece of art from a woman. I believe that Alvarado has started a movement, not only through her actions, but also the wisdoms of her words.

Although the book was not a painful read for me, however during my reading process, I’ve compared this book too much to I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchu. Both book are very similar from a one person’s perspective. I have been taught in school that when a person is talking for themselves in a book, we have to be skeptical about its source of information. Especially when a book is written in first person, it could be biased when it is autobiographically put into historical context. In comparison to I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchu, I believe Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado is more persuasive because it is supported with actual documentary pictures, background fact sheets, timeline of the history, and actual organization founders such as Medea Benjamin. This book sounds more realistic to me. I think Elvia Alvarado deserves a Nobel Prize for she who has advocated for not only herself, but also her own people.

I would like to recommend this book to people who like literature, and history. This book is worded in simple powerful sentences. I would also like to recommend this book to teenagers, to whom reads will understand how fortunate we are to be given a free education and have food on our tables every day. Really, this book is for everyone who wants to witness a woman’s struggles in a dominant society in the 1900s.

[John Hubbard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elvia is an organizer of campesinos. She had a hard life by beginning to have kids at fifteen. The first three were by different men who played no part in raising their children. The next man she stayed with for 18 years and raised his three and to some degree the first three children with Elvia. A good percentage of the book demonstrates the customs and living conditions of the Honduran campesino. This part is enjoyable if slight. Another significant section of the book is rants about society and societal structure. These are usually not very good or well thought out. The most interesting part of this is her, a political activist’s complete ignorance about most of the world. The other third of the book is stories about the organization of campesinos and her role in this. Some quotes: “And then the very same church that organized us, the church that opened our eyes, suddenly began to criticize us, calling us communists and Marxists” (17). “We have a very different idea of what religion is. She (her mother) doesn’t understand what my work is about, why I want to make changes in the way we live. She thinks we should be thankful for the little we have and leave well enough alone” (30). The dominant theme, perhaps even more than economic repression, is the repression of women, one she thinks even exaggerated by class. “All the campesino organizations say they’re organizing women. All of them have a position in the leadership for “women’s affairs.” But what happens with most of these women’s groups is that they’re really created to get international funding. The foreigners love to fund “women’s projects” (87). “Everybody in Honduras votes. Here the people love to vote, they stand in long lines to vote. Election day is a big holiday. But why? Because the people are so excited about the candidates? No. Because on election day the politicians kill a bunch of cows and give away lots of food, lots of meat” (120).

[Matthew Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as a part of an assignment for Honors Latin American Studies. It's a memoir by and about Elvia Alvarado and her experiences as a campesino (poor rural resident) in Honduras. She is an organizer of women and poor against the repression of the U.S backed Honduran military. It highlights both dramatic first hand experiences she's gone through and others like her have gone through. She talks about the struggle of women, the poor and the repressive government, cold war paranoia, and a bit about the struggle between the Contras and Sandinistas. I thought it served it's purpose as a memoir, but I found it hard to not be skeptical about this since it's a personal account and I felt it was hard to identify with her story (of course not the author's fault by any means). I'm not sure I'd go out and recommend this book to anyone I know simply because I don't know anyone really concerned about the struggles of the poor in Central America.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written in the late 1980s, but the relevance it has 30 years later is shocking. Every American needs to read this book and compare what happened in Honduras in the 1980s with what is happening in America today. This book is one of the best books I have ever read. I contend that it needs to be in political theory classes across the country. If you have time to read one book this year, let it be this book.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tale of Elvia Alvarado is compelling, especially as it is her voice telling the story translated into English. The struggle of Hondurans and the role of the US in Central America is not widely known, but this book provides a meaningful glimpse into a reality vastly different than what is often portrayed. Well worth the read.

[Lauren Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super eye-opening and perspective-shifting, and I thought I already knew a lot about Honduras!

[Stephanie Mencia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt a bit repetitive at times

[Nicole Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1987 – so I don’t know how much things have changed since then, but I am so glad I read this book. What a great reminder that one person can make a difference for others. And that if we all assume we are not that person that can make a difference, that nothing will ever change.

Reading about Elvia Alvarado’s experiences and work was inspiring. It was also disheartening to me as an American, and as a person who has had a very privileged and, in so many ways, charmed life. I wish women like here did have a chance to talk directly to the President of the United States and that as a society we did more to improve her life, and the lives of all human beings rather than making decisions based around how things impact the GDP and the financial impact on businesses over people.

One thing I particularly appreciated throughout this book was Elvia’s ability and desire to focus on the root of problems. Why waste time with bandaid’s when we know they system is broken? Especially if focusing on those bandaid’s causes us to put the entire burden and blame on those in impossible circumstances.

Favorite Quotes:
- The Church wanted us to give out food to malnourished children, but they didn’t want us to question why they were malnourished to begin with. (p10)
- I don’t think God says, “Go to church and pray all day and everything will be fine.” No. For me God says, “Go out and make the changes that need to be made, and I’ll be there to help you.” (p28)
- There’s a saying that goes, “As long as the poor don’t believe in each other, they will continue to be poor.” And that’s the truth. (p30)
- If we’re ever going to get campesinos to stop drinking, we first have to look at why so many campesinos drink. And for that we have to look at what kind of society we have. We’ve built up a society that treats people like trash, a society that doesn’t give people jobs, a society that doesn’t give people a reason to stay sober. I think that’s where this vise comes from. (p55)
- We al have to make changes. Campesino men have to be more responsible with their women. They have to have only one woman. Because they have a hard enough time supporting one family, let alone two. Campesinos who drink have to stop drinking. And campesions who fight with their wives have to stop fighting. Our struggle has to begin in our own homes. (p56)
- When the soldiers arrest the campesinos, I’ve heard them say, “You idiots let a woman tell you want to do? What kind of men are you?” But the campesions never say anything like that. They have great respect for me and for the other women leaders. Once you win their respect, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman. (p89)
- I don’t think it’s right; I think a leader who has a wife at home and goes with other women is violating our principles. Because within our struggle we’re waging we have to be honest, we can’t be corrupt. And honesty begins in the home. If we’re not honest at home, I’m not sure we can be totally honest outside the home. (p90)
- I’m very grateful to all these organizations in the United States, especially the private and religious organization. I appreciate the food and clothing they send. I thank them sincerely for their willingness to help, and I know they do it with great love.
But I’d also like to say that this relationship—where we’re dependent on the goodwill of outsiders—isn’t the kind of relationship we’d like to have. It’s not our ideal kind of exchange.
Because this way we’re always waiting for handouts. We’re always waiting for foreign institutions to come and give us food, to give us clothing, to give us dollars. In the long run, we’re no better off. We’re not going to solve our problem through handouts. Because our problem is a social one. And until we change this system, all the charity in the world won’t take us out of poverty.
How can we get out of poverty if we can’t get a piece of land to work? If we had land to plant, we wouldn’t need to get food sent to us all the way from the United States. No. We’d have our own. But as long as the government refuses to give us land and other resources we need, we’ll continue to beg from the United States, and we’ll continue to have foreigners running our country. (p104)
- They say we have a democracy in Honduras, because when there’s not a coup, we have elections every four years. But democracy means more tan just elections. Democracy means that all people have the same rights. Democracy means that we all have the same opportunities, that we all have the right to live a decent life. Maybe there’s democracy for the right, but certainly not for the poor. (p117)
- It doesn’t matter if you start out small. Things that start out small get bigger and bigger. (p145)

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elvia Alvarado has shot straight to the top of my 'humans to admire' list, I'm quite tempted to name my daughter after her. But I do also really recognise her closing plea that just thinking "that was a good book" is not enough. I will keep thinking.

I really appreciate the authentic, straightforward, no-nonsense telling of the life of the Honduran campesinos. I basically got the opposite of red flags (gold flags? blue and white flags?) i.e. big rushes of admiration as I went through:
-when she said her school only went up to second grade but she loved learning so she repeated the second grade several times
-when she said sometimes even if she did want to share a bed with someone, "I've taken a hard look at my life; I've looked at the relationships I've had with men. And I realize that I could never again live with a man who didn't share my values [...]. The struggle is my life, and I could only share my bed with a man who shared the other parts of my life as well"
-when she invoked her human rights knowledge from courses that she had taken of her own initiative against the DNI
and basically throughout the whole book.

I'd love to have a conversation with the translator about her use of 'organising'. It strikes me as a really refreshingly powerful, practical and natural action describing genuine bettering of a tough situation, it contrasts with some sensationalist/propagandist language used by revolutionaries (e.g. "liberate", "bombard", "seize", "raid" "ransack" etc {okay yes, I studied 1950s China}).

I see the Spanish 'El pueblo, unidos, jamás será vencidos' is actually slightly better than the English equivalent. Interesting that the rhyming works out so.

Useful to have read this after To Bury Our Fathers. This isn't just for learning about Honduras but also the US' role in the rest of Central America, and it comes from a person who lives it as their everyday life.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that the title is all it took for me to decide to read this book. Benjamin does a great job of giving the reader just enough socio-political contexts to Alvarado’s story without including any of her own biases. This allows Alvarado’s strong personality to immediately capture the reader’s attention and show them just got tough one must be to fight against an entire society that deems you worthless. She narrates the difficulties of her upbringing not as hers alone but as further evidence of the unequal society she was fighting. She similarly acknowledges the help she received from the Catholic Church and other NGOs while also criticizing them for not having the courage to acknowledging the source of the campesinos’ problems and the societal changes that would be required to right those wrongs. Elvia also dismantles the conception of the poor ignorant peasant and gives scathing critiques of the overbearing US foreign policy that tacitly assumed the lack of value in her life and those of other poor farmers. This was a great window into the lives of those who, with the world set against them, fight mightily for what is unquestionably right.

[Kate Parr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't want to say this book was inspiring, because that suggests it inspired me to do something, and I'm far too lazy, but listening to Elvia's story about life in Honduras, and her work to improve the lives of the people there was fascinating, frightening and sometimes beggared belief. She gave both a very clear overview of how Honduras is in the state it's in, but also an incredibly detailed picture of life, right down to how a day is split up, what is eaten, what kind of houses they live in, what happens when a couple fall in love, what happened when she was arrested, imprisoned and beaten. She is passionate, knowledgeable, caring. It was sometimes difficult to empathise because she isn't intelligent in the western sense, that she has been through the school system (apparently their president would take trips to America to have his blood exchanged to cure his diabetes) but she has the kind of intelligence that has kept her fighting, and kept her out of the hands of the authorities for most of her life. I don't know if I could read it again, but I'm so glad to have met her and seen a glimpse into her world.

[Edwin Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elvia’s story is one that is attention-grabbing, passionate and full of frustration. Where her number one concern is about her own community, she picks up the fight for those that cannot. The book exposes the trickling effects of corruption brought in by outside parties while also giving us an inside look into her daily life of activism. As well as her upbringing into what led to her decision to become a leader for her people.
The book is one that tackles an array of topics, all of which are spoken from the perspective of Elvia and people close to her. People with the same driven mindset that work as a collective for the greater good while battling regional and global politics that work against their community.
Finishing this book leaves you with a comparative understanding that not much had changed in the actions from global and regional powers. Where corruption and propaganda leads the way to violent issues.
I left this book feeling secure in my own radical feelings. Knowing that if there is a change I want, it is a mountain to climb for just a chance to knock at the door of reason.

[Alexandra Cross]

This book is an oral history from a woman in Honduras in the 1980s. It’s eye opening to read from her point of view what life is like for someone of that time and place. My understanding of Latin America is pretty low, and now I know the next step in my reading is of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita bananas) history.

But I’m not going to let the geopolitics overtake this review. Elvia is a badass. I love the way she explains life and doesn’t think twice about it. She describes not only the political turmoil but also the food, sex lives, homes, etc of low income Hondurans. She describes the importance of organizing and education among women and the societal complications that come from asking “why are people starving in the first place” versus just feeding the poor.

I really want to recommend this just because it’s so interesting and important to read, I couldn’t put it down.

[Rachel B · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Disappointing.

Alvarado shares stories from her life's work: fighting alongside other campesinos (poor, rural farmers) to take back land that was essentially stolen from them and advocating for legal changes to an unjust system.

Sadly, Alvarado is a nominal Catholic Christian and clearly does not understand or believe the Bible. Therefore, she misrepresents God, Jesus, and the Bible. Ultimately, the campesino struggle appears to be her actual god.

In addition to the underlying messages that are inconsistent with the Bible, this book contains profanity, the names of God, Jesus, and Christ misused, and some brief sexual content.

From a practical standpoint, the narrative is repetitive and much of the information is long outdated, as this book is nearly 40 years old.

[Jennifer]

Elvia Alvarado is an amazingly brave campesina activist whose story and perspectives are translated here in Don't Be Afraid Gringo. The organizations she works with reclaim land that was stolen from the campesinos (the deeply impoverished class of rural farmers who form the majority in Honduras) by enforcing unused national land reform laws. The campesinos are ignored when they follow legal processes. They are beaten, imprisoned, and secretly murdered. At the end of this book, they are still fighting.

It was published in 1987, so amid Reagan-era activities in Central America (she has some interesting thoughts about Reagan, as you might imagine). If you wonder about what's going on in today's Honduras, this is a great place to start.

[Nicole Milazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #4 in my quest to read a book from every country in the world (Honduras). I was initially debating this choice as it’s fairly outdated, but with limited options of stories from actual Hondurans (rather than Americans who traveled to Honduras with one purpose or another, interestingly something that Alvarado speaks on quite a bit), I’m glad it provided the perspective that this reading goal intended in the first place. The struggle of life in Honduras hits you from page one, paragraph one. Alvarado’s story, resolve, and tenacity are remarkable, and her narrative put into perspective the close ties of countries rich and poor as well as political/social ideologies benevolent and predatory. Overall an eye-opening and inspiring read.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing this book I decided to invite Elvia Alvarado to speak before my students in Modern Latin America class. Of course she was suspicious of the Gringos, who wouldn't be, but put them at ease by telling the audience "Once I spoke at another university and asked the students 'do you know what Honduras is? Is it a banana'?" Hers is a story of organizing labor and peasants from the ground up to combat the military regime, U.S. bases used to wage the Contra War on Nicaragua, machismo inside Honduran trade unions and right-wing Protestant American-based evangelicals who see people like her literally as the Devil, in other words, practically the whole world. DON'T BE AFRAID, GRINGO is a profile in undaunted courage.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Global Read Challenge 98: Honduras

This was an incredible story. What Ms. Alvarado has been able to accomplish despite all the barriers against her is amazing. I would love to read a followup interview with her now 30 years later. This is a true testament to the power of organizing and a reminder that justice is never given, only fought for. The book was also very readable and informative in addition to being inspiring.

[Arlette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elvia displays enormous strength and courage and maintains a sense of humor despite hardships. This book encourages critical thinking and makes one consider U.S.-Latin American relations and how government policies have affected the people that live there.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published 1989, this true story provides great insight into the reality of Central America, including US military and diplomatic involvement. This was of particular, sad interest to me, since I was in Honduras in 1992 and 1994 to build schools with the Army Reserves.

[Carmen Lishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this years ago but it left such an impression on me. This remarkable woman who had multitudes of barriers erected before her but was able to see and express, with such clarity, all that is wrong in society and patriarchy.

[Ericka Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of hope and empowerment the world continues to need, cried many times and felt changed afterwards. Elvia is a G and will always be a role model for what it means to be dedicated and proactive with both love and strength 💗

[Julie J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1987, we learn the story of Elvia, a campesina (peasant)in Honduras. It's short chapters that tell of a different element of her life, each coming together to give us a framework of what it was like for the campesinas living in Honduras at the time of publication.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent account of a courageous woman.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent view of another area of the world & perspective of poor workers in Honduras & those who worked to find better life -- many jailed and too many lives lost

[Hoenese Ruebesch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Between the tyrant and the mistreated peasants, stood a woman who relentlessly fought the unjust and oppresive ruler. Telling truth the way it is, pulling no machete campesino style.