Challenging Reagan: Central American Agency in the Creation of the U.S.-Central American Peace & Solidarity Movement

The Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies &
The Cesar E. Chvez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction

Cordially invites you to a talk presented by:

Hector Perla, Jr.
Assistant Professor, Ohio University
Ph.D. Political Science, UCLA


Challenging Reagan: Central American Agency in the Creation of the U.S.-Central American Peace & Solidarity Movement


ABSTRACT
Throughout the 1980s one of the Reagan Administrations most contested foreign policy initiatives was that towards Central America, where it attempted to defeat the Salvadoran guerrillas and overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Reagans policy was challenged domestically by civil society organizations, whose efforts to undermine support for Reagans policy came to be known as the Central American Peace & Solidarity Movement (CAPM). What were the origins of this movement? I argue that previous explorations of the CAPMs emergence are inadequate because they neglect the role played by Central Americans as purposive actors in the movements rise and development. This talk documents the ways in which Nicaraguans and Salvadorans, both in Central America and the U.S., played crucial roles in this transnational movements creation and growth.


Monday, February 12, 2007
2:00-3:30pm
7386 Bunche Hall