Talk description
In his famous "Message to the Tricontinental” (1967) Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara vowed to fight imperialism at a global level by creating "two, three, many Vietnams." After his death, Guevara's call was emulated by leftist youth across the continent and beyond who took decolonization and the fight against dictatorial regimes into radical and violent paths. During Latin America’s “Global Sixties,” visions of a global war of liberation were not, however, the monopoly of the Left: right-wing youth also mobilized a radical culture of militancy rooted in intransigent Catholic nationalisms and an emerging sense that communism could only be fought through a total global revolutionary war waged by dedicated, masculine, and devout patriots.
This presentation explores some aspects of these radical cultures of right-wing militancy as articulated by Mexican and Cuban exile youth throughout the 1960s. The experiences of these militants show how processes of right-wing radicalization hinged on the glorification of violence, the malleability of nationalisms, and on religious discourses of duty, sacrifice, and salvation that cut across ideological divides. These right-wing projects were often framed by supranational identities (Latin American, Iberoamerican, or even Third Worldist), and a belligerent anticommunist internationalist ideology that promoted the radicalization, paramilitarization, and transnational solidarity of Latin America’s young revolutionaries of the Right.
About the speaker
Luis Herrán Ávila is Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico. His research focuses on the history of the Latin American Right throughout the twentieth century, and his forthcoming monograph examines the national and transnational dimensions of anticommunist activism in Cold War Mexico. His other publications delve into the history of right-wing youth, the Catholic Right in Mexico and Argentina, and the Cold War in Colombia. At UNM, he teaches courses on Mexican and Latin American history, including the history of revolutions, the Cold War, and violence in Latin America.
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