Uneven Battles: Central American Cold War Literature

Abstract

This chapter discusses Central American Cold War literature by focusing on its main forms (poetry, testimonio, prose fiction) and its main concerns (US involvement, dictatorship, guerrilla warfare, militancy, ideology and trauma). The main argument is that Central American literature presents the Cold War as a series of uneven battles. These include battles between small Central American countries and the military, political and economic might of the US, between a small guerrilla troop and a far better equipped regular army, between humans and nature, between genders, between doctrine and dissent and between literature and politics. I conclude with a reflection on post-conflict literature and with the claim that Central American Cold War literature is still being written to this day.