Augusto "Cesar" Sandino: Messiah of Light and Truth (Religion and Politics)

Rating:
Summary: Who knew?
Review: This is an accessible biography of the Nicaraguan revolutionary guerrilla leader, Augusto Sandino, from whom the Sandinistas took their name. Sandino was a profoundly religious man. To be sure, some have called Sandino's religion to our attention before, but this book places Sandino under the light of his peculiar millenarian beliefs, and challenges the polarity of viewing Sandino as a patriotic national liberator or as a crazed murdering bandit. Mainly guided by the evidence, Navarro-Genie, who is himself born in Nicaragua but teaches in Canada, ably walks through the minefields of a few controversies, tracing the unfolding of Sandino's changing religious disposition with significant care and empathy. I thought the chapter on Sandino's trip to Mexico could have been tighter. In all, it is a long-overdue and novel interpretation of a very influential Latin American life. It will be interesting to see how Sandino's admirers and detractors will react to this revealing book.