In January of 1932, the peasant insurrection of La Matanza began with the occupation of a military garrison, government buildings, and private homes in western El Salvador. The government response left tens of thousands dead, including the El Salvadoran revolutionary ledar Agustín Farabundo Martí. Lindo-Fuentes (history, Fordham U.), Ching (history, Furman U.), and Lara-Martínez (foreign languages, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) explore issues of historical memory raised by the massacre through the lens of communist activist Roque Dalton's biography of Miguel Mármol, who was a participant and survivor of La Matanza. They are particularly concerned with how memories of La Matanza are shaped by one's political position, as illustrated by communist activists tending to inflate the role of their ideological forebears in sparking the uprising and right-wing politicians tending to inflate the initial death toll attributable to the insurrectionists. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)