Ben Dangl to discuss Dancing with Dynamite

Media Advisory: February 26, 2011

Contact: Sacramento Action for Latin America (SALA), 916-457-5018 or caac2 [at] copper.net


Ben Dangl to discuss Dancing with Dynamite, a new book about Latin American social movements

Award-winning journalist Ben Dangl discusses his new book, Dancing with Dynamite, on the dynamics between social movements and progressive governments in Latin America at the Southside Park Co-housing Common House, 434 T St. Sacramento, on Monday, March 7 at 7 pm. Eric Vega, Chicano community activist, will introduce the speaker.

In the past decade, grassroots social movements played major roles in electing left-leaning governments throughout Latin America, but subsequent relations between the streets and the states remain uneasy. In Dancing with Dynamite, award-winning journalist Benjamin Dangl explores the complex ways these movements have worked with, against, and independently of national governments. From dynamite-wielding miners in Bolivia to the struggles of landless farmers in Brazil and Paraguay, Dangl discusses the dance between movements and states in seven different Latin American countries. Using original research, lively prose, and extensive interviews with workers, farmers, and politicians, he suggests how Latin American social movement strategies could be applied internationally to build a better world now.

Benjamin Dangl has worked as a journalist throughout Latin America for the Guardian Unlimited, The Nation, and the NACLA Report on the Americas. He is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia, the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events and UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America. He teaches South American history and globalization at Burlington College. Email: Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com.

The event is sponsored by the Sacramento Action for Latin America (SALA), formerly the Central America Action Committee (CAAC). For more information, contact: 916-457-5018 or caac2 [at] copper.net

“Ben Dangl breaks the sound barrier, exploding many myths about Latin America that are all-too-often amplified by the corporate media in the United States. Read this much-needed book.”—Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!

“Dancing with Dynamite dares to navigate the cloudy waters of Latin American social movements in the wake of the neoliberal wave, something which increasingly fewer thinkers and activists dare to do, but which turns out to be urgent.”—Raúl Zibechi, Uruguayan journalist and author of Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces

“Dangl brings complicated politics to life by infusing them with the magic, mystery and unbridled joy that invigorate social movements and permeate Latin American life in general.”—Kari Lydersen, author of Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover and What it Says About the Economic Crisis.