Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru 1980-1995.

• Author: Allieri, Christopher
• Position: Review

Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru 1980-1995 Steve J. Stern, Editor (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998) 534 pp.

From 1970 to the present, Latin America has witnessed the birth and rebirth of revolutionary movements, the rise and subsequent fall of both populist and military regimes, and impressive "economic miracles" and democratic transitions juxtaposed against cries of inequality from those left out. While some countries and sectors in this region witnessed peaceful transitions and impressive economic growth during this time period, Peru saw the contrast between the rich and poor, powerful and powerless grow larger. The Maoist Sendero Luminosa ("Shining Path") movement emerged from Peru's central highlands and shocked the nation and the world with its grisly terrorism. In an attempt to reconcile justice, its devotees, called senderistas, offered a "shining path to the future," promising land, representation, and social equality for the indigenous rural poor. This movement, a hybrid of left-leaning intellectuals and politicized peasants, claimed the lives of thousands, greatly polarized the rural highlands and deeply scarred the Peruvian societal landscape. Steve Stern's recently published volume of short essays by an array of scholars, Shining and Other Paths, ambitiously attempts to unearth the unique origins of this movement as well as their well-calculated victories and subsequent defeat.

Along with established senderista experts such as Nelson Manrique and Carlos Ivan Degregori, Stern introduces fresh new visions from activists and nascent scholars such as Hinojosa, Coral and Munoz. The work begins with the history of revolutionary quests for justice, the failed attempts to conquer additional groups, the sendero's destruction of alternate paths to justice, the experiences of women within the war and lastly and the consequences of war on society and concepts of justice.

In part one, Marisol de la Cadena, Ivan Hinojosa and Florencia Mallon provide a historical framework beginning in this century, attesting that the Shining Path emerged as a phenomenon deep-rooted in Peruvian history Their accounts build on theories which suggest that the Shining Path emerged as a result of the great history of colonialist and neo-colonialist aggression beginning with Columbus' landing. Thus, to understand this movement, it is necessary to understand the past centuries of oppression and underrepresentation witnessed by the rural...