A Revolutionary Identity

Abstract

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Blood on Border: A Memoir of Contra Years (Boston: South End Press, 2005), 304 pages, paperback, $18.00. Few U.S. revolutionaries of her generation have lived to tell tale like Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, to borrow title of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's memoirs. Blood on Border: A Memoir of Contra Years is last volume of a trilogy including Red Dirt: Growing up Okie (University of Oklahoma Press, 1992) and Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of War Years (City Lights, 2001). Although influenced by oral traditions in his Colombian Caribbean, Garcia Marquez has little to say about his own political commitments, or Colombian politics more generally. In contrast, influenced by traditions of storytelling native to rural Oklahoma and Native American communities throughout U.S. West, Dunbar-Ortiz's latest memoir puts flesh on bones of slogan the personal is political. The phrase, she notes, was coined within Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and carried into women's liberation and antiwar movements. This article can also be found at Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at Monthly Review website.