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Latin America in Translation
Sendero
Ningún conflicto armado ha estremecido al Perú tanto como el que provocó Sendero Luminoso: casi setenta mil peruanos muertos en la peor década de violencia interna de la que el país tiene registro. Sendero es un libro extraordinario, que revela y esclarece cómo se gestó una de las insurrecciones a la vez más letales y misteriosas en América Latina.
Con un brillante trabajo que combina el periodismo de investigación y la historiografía de guerra, Gorriti descubre los orígenes de la violencia senderista y escribe esta historia imprescindible para entender el Perú, durante el período mismo de la guerra. Publicado por primera vez en 1990, Sendero alumbró mediante la profusión de documentos y la precisión al detalle, lograda a través de años de cobertura y centenares de entrevistas, a los personajes, los guiones y los hechos de una lucha interna que destruía desde las sombras.
En la historia de las insurrecciones armadas, pocos libros han descrito con tanta precisión su complejo inicio: Cuando una organización violenta, en apariencia extraña y ajena al continente y al momento histórico, fuerza su presencia sobre una sociedad renuente, una democracia precaria y un Estado contradictorio.
Años después de su primera edición, este libro se ha convertido en la referencia fundamental para entender la génesis de la violencia en un país de América latina que, como muchos otros, aún padece de una inmensa fractura social.
Con un brillante trabajo que combina el periodismo de investigación y la historiografía de guerra, Gorriti descubre los orígenes de la violencia senderista y escribe esta historia imprescindible para entender el Perú, durante el período mismo de la guerra. Publicado por primera vez en 1990, Sendero alumbró mediante la profusión de documentos y la precisión al detalle, lograda a través de años de cobertura y centenares de entrevistas, a los personajes, los guiones y los hechos de una lucha interna que destruía desde las sombras.
En la historia de las insurrecciones armadas, pocos libros han descrito con tanta precisión su complejo inicio: Cuando una organización violenta, en apariencia extraña y ajena al continente y al momento histórico, fuerza su presencia sobre una sociedad renuente, una democracia precaria y un Estado contradictorio.
Años después de su primera edición, este libro se ha convertido en la referencia fundamental para entender la génesis de la violencia en un país de América latina que, como muchos otros, aún padece de una inmensa fractura social.
387 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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491 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 18, 2017
Este libro es increíble. Si vas a leer algo sobre el terrorismo, tienes que leerlo. Si te da flojera, al menos lee esta reseña: http://0enliteratura.blogspot.pe/2017...
June 27, 2020
Enorme documento del inicio de la lucha armada que asolo el Perú en los 80s.
Un análisis detallado de los liderazgos que permitieron que una ideología terrorista floreciera en el territorio nacional y los enormes errores que se dan cuando se tienen liderazgos excesivamente optimistas e ignorantes del contexto mirando soluciones en casuistica pasada sin análisis detallado; con instituciones corruptas hasta el tuétano y donde el éxito no se mide en la consecución de objetivos de un plan estratégico sino en la toma y mantenimiento de la cuota de poder para beneficio personal y de la camarilla de su facción en detrimento del pueblo.
Me encanto el libro porque nuevamente me alecciona acerca de lo que NO se debe hacer cuando se lidera una misión. Dura lección no aprendida del todo por mi sufrido país. Nunca mas!
Un análisis detallado de los liderazgos que permitieron que una ideología terrorista floreciera en el territorio nacional y los enormes errores que se dan cuando se tienen liderazgos excesivamente optimistas e ignorantes del contexto mirando soluciones en casuistica pasada sin análisis detallado; con instituciones corruptas hasta el tuétano y donde el éxito no se mide en la consecución de objetivos de un plan estratégico sino en la toma y mantenimiento de la cuota de poder para beneficio personal y de la camarilla de su facción en detrimento del pueblo.
Me encanto el libro porque nuevamente me alecciona acerca de lo que NO se debe hacer cuando se lidera una misión. Dura lección no aprendida del todo por mi sufrido país. Nunca mas!
December 6, 2021
En “Sendero”, Gustavo Gorriti nos ofrece una completa investigación sobre los primeros años de Sendero Luminoso. Y si bien el período abarcado es muy breve, la información al detalle nos permite entender mejor al grupo más sanguinario de nuestra historia republicana, así como las falencias de nuestra sociedad al momento de enfrentar la, entonces, incipiente amenaza terrorista. Este texto se publicó hace muchísimos años, pero su lectura sigue siendo pertinente hoy en día, especialmente por el contexto social y político en el que nos encontramos.
January 1, 2019
It's a very descriptive book, because of that, the reading can be a little heavy sometimes. On the other hand, this book does not cover the entire years of terrorism, it covers principally the beginning and the reason of his growing. I liked the prose of the author.
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December 4, 2023I'm not giving this a star rating as I'm definitely not the intended demographic for this book. I've been to Peru a few times and the Shining Path has come up multiple times, but people don't want to talk about it, just say it was a really bad time to be in Peru. I found this book and started reading.
It is the English translation from the original Spanish and feels to be written for Peruvians that were living through the era. For me, it was stuck in the weeds for most of the book. Narrative would fall off into the morass of office politics in the multiple police branches and the national politics of a country attempting to return to democracy after years of a military regime. The office politics was mostly lots of names of who hated who. The national politics should have been fascinating, but felt flat to me. We would have a few pages of advancing through time and then it would fall off again deep into Guzman's lengthy scholarship and organization around Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. I didn't get much education on the finer points of international Communism growing up (welcome to the US), so much of that was waaaay over my head.
And then it just ends. No review, no conclusion, just ends. It doesn't even end at the end of the war, it ends just as the military is getting involved. I don't think I've ever seen a nonfiction book end on as much of a cliffhanger as this one. This book was intended as the first volume of the three book set that was never finished.
This book covered the WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE, but the WHY and HOW were left lacking in my eyes. How did the get so much support from peasants and students? I know fear of violence was a big part, but where did they find recruits? How this organization that was a political party that seemed to come out of the university setting could have evolved into a brutal organization could have been explored better. It's in the book, but it's just all flat. I think flat is the best way I can think of it, like it's an information dump where everything has about the same importance assigned. What were the regular people doing and reacting to all this? This book only talked about the people in power.
The little bit about the author and his life was fascinating. He has been through the wringer as an investigative journalist. Would love to learn more about him. He did insert himself into two sections of the book; visiting the prison colony off the coast and visiting a couple farmers that were being attacked by Shining Path militants and those sections were infinitely more readable than the rest of it.
Gotta go research how it all ended since the book left me hanging.
It is the English translation from the original Spanish and feels to be written for Peruvians that were living through the era. For me, it was stuck in the weeds for most of the book. Narrative would fall off into the morass of office politics in the multiple police branches and the national politics of a country attempting to return to democracy after years of a military regime. The office politics was mostly lots of names of who hated who. The national politics should have been fascinating, but felt flat to me. We would have a few pages of advancing through time and then it would fall off again deep into Guzman's lengthy scholarship and organization around Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. I didn't get much education on the finer points of international Communism growing up (welcome to the US), so much of that was waaaay over my head.
And then it just ends. No review, no conclusion, just ends. It doesn't even end at the end of the war, it ends just as the military is getting involved. I don't think I've ever seen a nonfiction book end on as much of a cliffhanger as this one. This book was intended as the first volume of the three book set that was never finished.
This book covered the WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE, but the WHY and HOW were left lacking in my eyes. How did the get so much support from peasants and students? I know fear of violence was a big part, but where did they find recruits? How this organization that was a political party that seemed to come out of the university setting could have evolved into a brutal organization could have been explored better. It's in the book, but it's just all flat. I think flat is the best way I can think of it, like it's an information dump where everything has about the same importance assigned. What were the regular people doing and reacting to all this? This book only talked about the people in power.
The little bit about the author and his life was fascinating. He has been through the wringer as an investigative journalist. Would love to learn more about him. He did insert himself into two sections of the book; visiting the prison colony off the coast and visiting a couple farmers that were being attacked by Shining Path militants and those sections were infinitely more readable than the rest of it.
Gotta go research how it all ended since the book left me hanging.
April 23, 2018
In contrast to Simon Strong's account; Gorriti only covers the period of 1980-1982; more to the point, he's blind the actual social base of the Shining Path. He spends paragraphs and chapters immersed in the petty details of splits and divisions in the ruing class and the military and intelligence forces, and is blindly dismissive of the factors that motivated a generation of peasants to take up arms. A clearly talented writer, completely blinded by petit bourgeois prejudice, who loves to repeat the tired claims about a population caught in the middle, never thinking about who the people who are motivated to give up their lives for the dreams of a better world are, or why they might have been inspired to do that.
August 30, 2019
El libro explica los primeros años de la insurrección de Sendero hasta la entrada a las fuerzas armadas en 1983. Tiene un lenguaje muy técnico así que no creo que sea apto para todo el mundo, pero si se quiere comprender mejor el por qué del derramamiento de sangre de esos años, este es un material perfecto para entender a Sendero a un nivel más ideológico. No te explica lo que pasó antes del anuncio del ILA en 1980, pero igual me parece razonable comenzar por aquí para entender el conflicto de los años 80s en el Perú.
Muy recomendado
Muy recomendado
July 16, 2018
Este libro es el resultado de una investigación profunda y que le tomo a Gustavo Gorriti muchos años. Es increíble lo detallado de su investigación, si te interesa este tema quizás esté libro sea la fuente más completa.
May 31, 2021
Even though I knew from the introduction that this was only supposed to be volume one in a series that was never continued, the abrupt full stop only a few years in was still jarring. Onward to other books to fill in the rest.
July 11, 2021
A complete description of the origins of the Shining Path
Written with the rigours of an academic research. It describes in great detail how the Shining Path movement was born, what were the main drivers, and the context in which it took place.
Written with the rigours of an academic research. It describes in great detail how the Shining Path movement was born, what were the main drivers, and the context in which it took place.
November 19, 2021
Pedazo de libro
La manera de escribir de Gorriti, el cómo te transporta a esa época triste que le tocó vivir a nuestro país, hacen de este libro una joya imprescindible de leer para conocer más la realidad de nuestro país.
La manera de escribir de Gorriti, el cómo te transporta a esa época triste que le tocó vivir a nuestro país, hacen de este libro una joya imprescindible de leer para conocer más la realidad de nuestro país.
February 19, 2022
Explica los inicios de Sendero Luminoso hasta finales de1982; tiempo en el que el presidente Belaunde se resistía otorgar facultades a las Fuerzas Armadas. Excelente, me encantó porque me hizo entender los tropiezos de la clase política peruana para que Sendero progrese a gran escala.
August 15, 2022
I'm only rating this lower because the level of detail relating to 80s Peruvian politics is so intense, that as an outsider with no knowledge of this period, it was fairly overwhelming and hard to follow. That said, this is clearly the definitive history of the beginnings of the Shining Path.
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July 17, 2024Abandono
April 18, 2016
Este primer tomo (de una Historia de la guerra milenaria que nunca fue continuada) cubre los dos primeros años de la lucha armada de Sendero; Gorriti se centra en las distintas jugadas políticas de tanto dirigentes estatales (minitros, jefes policiales, izquierdistas en el Congreso etc) como dirigentes senderistas, basándose en testimonios y entrevistas de tanto dirigentes como "bases". Para cualquier persona interesada en este periodo del país, el libro realmente la sitúa a una en lo que sucedía, en parte gracias al excelente estilo de Gorriti .
Entre las tesis más interesantes que sostiene el libro está una también compartida por Carlos Tapia: fue crucial el deseo de los dirigentes militares de no involucrarse en una lucha contra SL (de acuerdo a Gorriti por paranoia de ser acusados de querer volver al poder inventándose enemigos, como efectivamente lo fueron) para que a) la policía fracase en enfrentar a SL entre el 80 y el '82 y, por lo tanto, b) el Sendero que las FFAA enfrenten a partir de finales del 82 sea tanto más grande y poderoso que el del 79.
Entre las tesis más interesantes que sostiene el libro está una también compartida por Carlos Tapia: fue crucial el deseo de los dirigentes militares de no involucrarse en una lucha contra SL (de acuerdo a Gorriti por paranoia de ser acusados de querer volver al poder inventándose enemigos, como efectivamente lo fueron) para que a) la policía fracase en enfrentar a SL entre el 80 y el '82 y, por lo tanto, b) el Sendero que las FFAA enfrenten a partir de finales del 82 sea tanto más grande y poderoso que el del 79.
June 23, 2016
Gorriti's account of the beginning of the Shining Path insurrection is valuable mainly for his intimate knowledge of the bureaucratic ongoings of the period and first hand experiences. His actual analysis is inevitably marred by his petit-bourgeois, inner city upbringing and lifestyle. He's clearly a staunch anti-Communist and was even before the Shining Path showed up, and this influences every word that he writes. At the same time, he offers a nuanced view of the bureaucratic and interdepartmental rivalries that marred the government's early response. Even still, his insight is clearly marred by old-fashioned, conservative thinking, as evidenced by his glowing praise for pretty much any official who operated with a by-the-book, 'honourable' approach.
A book worth reading, but only if you intend to study the internal conflict much more deeply and are looking for a breadth of viewpoints. If you're just looking for a who-what-when-why, there are far better options.
A book worth reading, but only if you intend to study the internal conflict much more deeply and are looking for a breadth of viewpoints. If you're just looking for a who-what-when-why, there are far better options.
February 10, 2013
Mas que un libro es un documento, debería ser lectura obligatoria en quinto año de secundaria para empezar a tomar conciencia de como somos los peruanos y de lo que no debería volver.
July 24, 2021
Muy buen libro sobre los primeros años de la lucha contra Sendero. A mi criterio, parece que está incompleto, como si faltara un volumen 2 incluyendo los siguientes años del terrorismo.
January 31, 2017
Very good book about "Sendero Luminoso" or Shining path, about the communist uprising in Peru. It is told by a reporter who lived through the rise of the terrorist group, and shows a very good perspective of how these events turned into some of the bloodiests years for the country.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews