This issue presents two phenomena that would appear to
be completely divergent. One is the world of the Marxist-inspired
revolutionary movements that swept Latin America from the
1960s through the 80s. The other is a modern, “deep
ecology” movement that eschews violence and seeks
a return to earth-centered spirituality and practice. Many
of those who believe in Marxist revolution consider all
focus on spirituality or nature to be reactionary. Many
of those active in the sustainability or deep ecology movement
believe that direct, violent confrontation with a violent,
repressive system can never achieve sustainable radical
change, that people must be trained and prepared to simply
abandon the system as it collapses of its own weight and
replace it with another way of life.
The thoughtful, vibrant and often humorous reminiscences
of former guerrillas outline both the strengths and weaknesses
of their armed revolutionary movements. So does history:
not one of the movements described succeeded in taking power,
or in reversing power relations in their societies—however,
those relations were altered in some enduring way by revolutionary
struggle, and the significance of those changes continues
to be felt. On the other hand, the efforts of the earth-centered
movement offer best-case scenarios for a possible new world,
but its visionaries don’t really have a blueprint
yet for getting today’s poor majority there. A “sustainable”
lifestyle, in Latin America as elsewhere, still has to count
on getting capital investment from the current system in
order to develop.
But the interesting, and hopeful thing about Latin America
is that it is a place where binary oppositions tend to break
down. Marxist revolution had a distinctly spiritual character
in much of Latin America. The deep ecology movement there
is made up of many people whose analysis of the world’s
inequities is resoundingly Marxian, though their praxis
is not. “They each may have half the answer,”
mused a Mexican poet I know, who had fought in one of the
Central American guerrilla armies, as he lit a candle in
a shrine he keeps in his home. It was surrounded by flowers,
corn and tequila, gifts for the earth that gives us life.
