Viva

Latin America has seen revolutionary governments, authoritarian dictatorships and reformist military administrations. The region has also seen powerful grassroots movements demanding social and political change. Through their active involvement women are seen for the first time as integral to the process of democratization. Yet these women are not a simple unity with shared aims. Class and ethnicity create division. "Viva" explores the growing role of women in the formal and informal politics of the countries of Latin America. The authors focus in particular on the construction of gender through political activism and the centrality of gender, class and ethnicity to the ideological construct of "the nation".