| Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From The Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado |  | Author: Medea Benjamin
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 58,854
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1ST Printing
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 006097205X
Dewey Decimal Number: 307.72097283
EAN: 9780060972059
ASIN: 006097205X
Publication Date: July 19, 1989
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| | ISBN13: 9780060972059 | | | Condition: NEW | | | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
"Elvia Alvarado tells the story of her life and the life of the people of Honduras. Read it and understand the struggle against tyranny of the poor. Read it and act."--Alice Walker
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 powerful, fast read February 15, 2002
Sarah (WI United States)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
I went to Honduras on a short term mission trip last year and I've seen poverty first hand. This book has opened my eyes even further of the rural poor of Honduras. This is the story of a courageous woman who is helping her people overcome their unimaginable poverty by discovering the roots of it.
In a subtle sense she denounces short term mission projects....that we come in to countries like hers and try to put a band-aid on a skull fracture. Americans, like myself, come into these third-world countries thinking we are fixing a country's problems in a couple weeks by donating old Gap t-shirts and building a few houses and then leaving. She urges the fact that if we are to really help the poor, we need to make a long-term commitment to get at the root of the problems. Shes not asking for sympathy, but for us to join us in her struggle. Get this book if you are ready to make a difference.
INSPIRING! November 10, 1999
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
A truly great read. Luckily, this book was assigned in my sociology class or else I probably would have never read it. It gives you an accurate portrait of peasant life in Honduras. If you want to be inspired read this book. After reading this book I feel like going down there to help them in some way. Her book is put in very simple terms and it is easy to see the injustices going on in her land. If you don't read it tell someone about the book. THANK YOU ELVIA!
One of the best looks at human rights and our own injustice. April 3, 1998
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I had the pleasure of meeting Elvia Alvarado when she visited Butler University in the Spring of 1997. Her book opens ones eyes to the oppressed life in Honduras - both the corrupt government there and our own government's envolvment. After reading this book, one wants to go out and right all the wrongs that have befallen the Honduran people. You do not need to know much about Honduras to find value in this book, it is well worth the read.
Strange Title November 16, 2008
J. head (littlteton, nh USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A strange title for a book that sums up one of the problems of USA's intervention in Central America. Central American governments often apply their U.S. military aid to curtail any progressive social change and to reinforce their repressive government. Elvia Alvarado, a courageous Honduran woman that many would dismiss as simply a rabble-rouser is actually solving what many consider the main problem of the former banana republic countries. The small wealthy class owns most of the land to the extent that there is a large landless peasant "campesino" class. An agrarian reform law was passed in Honduras to lawfully award small sections of large unproductive estates to the campesinos to overcome this injustice in land ownership. The average campesino is ignorant of this law or their country's legal system. The situation really seems hopeless, but Elvia and selected leaders received training sponsored by the Catholic Church. The course trains them to organize the campesinos to demand their rights. The Campesino struggle is similar to the civil rights marches in the American South. They might be legally correct through a slow acting legal system, but they often meet the spontaneous violence of the local authorities before they gain legal access..
Other interesting points brought out by this book is the oppressive condition of women in campesino society. If a solid family structure is the building block of a healthy society then this is a failed society. Elvia's own story and others she alludes to demonstrates the disruption of family and the displacement of children brought about by beatings and live-in conditions offered women when no other alternative is available. I do not have any first hand knowledge of poverty to this degree, but I believe this is a good book (explanation) to try and understand why poverty still exists in some countries even though they have been the beneficiaries of large amounts of international aid. There was not too much of the text that dealt with "the Gringo" except to say that as the U.S. brought pressure to bear upon Nicaragua, repression by Honduran troops also ratcheted up. Other than that it is really an interesting account of a brave woman standing up for her rights. Well worth the read.
 Good Culture Reference December 2, 2004
A Reader
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book in order to learn something about the people
of Honduras and how they live. I found it to be a good source
for learning about the lives of "campasinos"...peasants.. and
their struggle to live and raise their families in general.
It was not such a good source for learning about this country's
small middle class and since the author's struggle is with the rich,
all references to them were in a negative light... so it was not necessarily an unbiased resource for learning about them.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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