ABSTRACT
Central America sprang into the consciousness of the U.S. public in the late 1970s, propelled by the Nicaraguan revolution and the brutal civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador. The continuing debates over the nature of the conflicts and the role of U.S. policy have too seldom acknowledged the historical depths of the crises’ roots, and the size of the Central American nations has often led U.S. participants in the debate to underestimate the dynamism, complexity, and heterogeneity of the social structures that underlie the political struggles.
