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The University Vanguard

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The Emergence of Insurgency in El Salvador

Part of the book series: International Political Economy Series ((IPES))

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Abstract

Latin American universities have been highly politicised throughout their history, and their political activism has often had a significant impact on the polity as a whole. For instance most if not all the guerrilla movements of the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America were born in universities (As mentioned earlier, Gabriel Zaid coined the term ‘university guerrillas’). Nevertheless, relatively little has been written on the subject since the 1960s.1

One must take into account that the Salvadoran student movement of that time was moved by what happened in France in May 1968, by the events in Mexico... It was in this context that the thesis of the university reform movement from Córdova, Argentina, was reintroduced. All kinds of tendencies coexisted, from Marxism to existentialism. There was a group called the ‘mathematics students’, and another called the ‘metaphysicists’. They were dissidents from the Christian Democratic Party, the Communist Party... [T]he university served as the crossroads where all these people converged and united. (‘Salvador’, an FPL leader interviewed in Harnecker, 1993)

For a certain period of time, students must be the force that leads the popular movement. (Carlos Fonseca, founder of the FSLN, Nicaragua)

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Notes and References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Yvon Grenier (Associate Professor of Political Science)

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  1. Yvon Grenier
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© 1999 Yvon Grenier

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Grenier, Y. (1999). The University Vanguard. In: The Emergence of Insurgency in El Salvador. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14833-2_5

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