My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary Reflections of a Former Guerrillera. translated by Lorena Terando. Introduction by Arthur Schmidt

"My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary is a fascinating autobiography.
Vásquez Perdomo provides an extraordinary insider's account of Latin American
youth culture, radical student politics of the 1960s and early 1970s, and the formation
of the M-19 guerrilla movement. This is a lively, self-reflective, engaging and humane
account of what it meant to be a woman revolutionary in those years. It is a unique,
moving document."
-Catherine LeGrand, Department of History, McGill University

In My Life as a Colombian Revolutionary, María Eugenia Vásquez Perdomo
presents a gripping account of her experiences as a member of M-19, one of the most
successful guerrilla movements in Colombia's tumultuous modern history. Vásquez's
remarkable story opens with her happy childhood in a middle-class provincial
household in which she was encouraged to be adventurous and inquisitive. As an eighteen-
year-old university student in Bogotá, María Eugenia embraced radical politics and
committed herself to militant action to rid her country of an abusive government.
Dedicated and daring, Vásquez took part in some of the M-19's boldest
operations in the 1970s and 1980s and became one of its leaders. She was able to avoid
detection for nearly twenty years in the movement because she was both clever and
considered too attractive to be a guerrillera. Her vivid narrative brings to life the
men and women who were her comrades and conveys their anxiety and exhilaration as they
carried out their actions. When she tells of her love affairs with some of M-19's top
leaders, she cannot separate romance from camaraderie or escape a sense of impending
tragedy.
If Vásquez gave us only a rare insider's account of youth culture and a
guerrilla movement in a Latin American country, this would be a book well worth
reading. But she also gives us an unsparing analysis of what it meant to be a woman in
the movement and how much her commitment to radical politics cost her.
Vásquez Perdomo recounts how a young, middle-class woman became a leader of the
M-19, one of the most creative and successful of the Colombian guerrilla
movements. She was personally involved in some of the M-19's most audacious actions,
including the stealing of Bolivar's sword and the kidnapping of a score of ambassadors
to Colombia. I cannot say enough about how successful Vásquez Perdomo is in illuminating
the frightfully complex personal and political issues she struggles with."
-Charles Bergquist, University of Washington, Seattle

"With sweeping narration, the rebel leader recounts her near-death
experiences and exhilarating love affairs as she participated in covert operations against
the government, providing a fascinating look at what it was like to be a young
feminist within a guerrilla movement."
-Latina

Acknowledgments
Introduction - Arthur Schmidt
Prologue: Memory, the Thread That Weaves Life
1. Family Portrait
2. Turmoil at the Nacional
3. A Criolla Guerrilla
4. The Alliance with ANAPO
5. The Face Behind the Mask
6. Operation Colombia: Weapons for the War
7. We Risked It All
Photograph gallery
8. An Army in Deep
9. Bars on My Soul
10.. Singing to the Sun Like a Cricket
11.. Mortal Wounds
12.. Reinventing Life
Epilogue
Chronology of Major M-19 Actions
Index