Customer Reviews

From Grandmother to Granddaughter: Salvadoran Women's Stories

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I could not put this book down. I thought that the title sounded a little "sappy" and almost didn't buy it. The title does not express the volume of information about hardships in life, values, family, and most importantly breaking through the history of being women held down by culture and poverty. It explains through very personal eyes the lives of three generations of women, upper, middle and lower class. The most interesting parts to me were how they viewed and sometimes participated in the Civil War and the changes they have seen. This book gave me great hope that as El Salvador recovers from their war, we are going to see some very strong and good women from there change the world for the better. I am not from El Salvador. I visited this beautiful country before the war started and look forward to visiting it again someday.

I am an American who has been living and working in EL Salvador for the past 9 years. Micheal Gorkin's book is an insightful, reflective piece of reality- it weaves the tale of daily life, civil war survival, family challenges, and gender roles in today's El Salvador woven with the strong and ubiquitous issue of SOCIAL CLASS as its varying thread. As he states early on in the work- only about 10% of Salvadorans fall into the Upper Socio-Economic class, and 60-70% are stuck in the Lower class with the rising middle class claiming only around 20-30% of inhabitants. This stark contrast to America's wealth distribution colors much of one's experience here. He and his co-interviewers did a magical job of telling tales from different generations all across the varied social spectrum. It is a pioneer in the field of opening up, and letting ALL SIDES tell their tales- and gives its reader the gift of social and poilitical insight and empathy as a treat along the way.

I bought this to learn more about the country before a trip. Good premise and well carried out - I felt I knew quite a bit the country and its politics as well as about each woman. And a lot about women's lives before birth control!