Guardianas

Praise

“Guardianas documents the efforts and struggles that midwives in El Salvador have been making to help women to be in control of birth-giving and refuse hospitalization. Built through the memories of women who lived and worked through the ‘counterinsurgency’ war, Guardianas is a powerful, inspiring testimony of communal solidarity and resistance. It is a book we need to read, as across the world we face a relentless war against the main conditions of our reproduction.”
—Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch and Wages Against Housework

“With no running water, in the rain, in the dark, under gunfire, by a mango tree, next to a wood fire . . . the midwives or parteras of El Salvador have persisted since before the brutal civil war, safely assisting birthing mothers. Yet since then, despite doctors and hospitals being unable to replace the parteras’ compassionate community service, partería has been pushed aside by the healthcare system. This passionate project is the tribute the parteras deserve and a call to reforms that will far better serve both midwives and mothers.”
—Deirdre English, coauthor of Witches, Midwives, & Nurses: A History of Women Healers

“Through deeply personal testimonies, Guardianas tells the remarkable story of the midwives of APRA, who provided vital care during El Salvador’s Civil War and continue to champion holistic health and transcendental solidarity today. This book powerfully celebrates their resilience, sacrifices, and enduring commitment to preserving ancestral practices in the face of violent repression. Guardianas stands as an inspiring testament to the indispensable role of midwives in safeguarding life, culture, and community even against formidable odds.”
—Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body

“Guardianas offers us back the listening that has been stolen from us by medicalized birth systems and alienated healthcare. In this book we get to listen to elders, warriors, guides whose love, care and support for the autonomy of people giving birth models the world we deserve.”
—Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde and M Archive: After the End of the World

“Guardianas is a beautiful homage to the pivotal role parteras have played throughout Central American history. Midwives are the engines of communities, engines that run on love and trust. No government or medical school should ever think that midwives are the cause of child mortality. I hope those opposed to parteras read this book, I know they will forever change their perspectives. I needed this book to exist, I’m a different person after reading these important testimonies rooted in Indigenous wisdom.”
—Javier Zamora, New York Times bestselling author of SOLITO

“For survivors and descendants of colonial violence, what is more miraculous than the birth of a child, whose first breath holds the possibility of a future that is free? This powerful, poignant collection of testimonies by El Salvador’s midwives, who have lived through the grave horror of war, document their courageous work of ushering in new life, in a land where the people have known mass death. Their words defy the patramyths of power built on the erasure of Indigenous people. Their truth, their knowledge, and their immense love for their people comes alive in Guardianas.”
—Tanaïs, author of the Kirkus Prize-winning In Sensorium: Notes for My People

“This is a book about cultural preservation and feminist labor, about safety and access, about whose histories get celebrated and whose get suppressed. These testimonies show the Salvadoran Civil War from an angle that is not often discussed. It is an homage to the women who have stepped up to serve their communities when nobody else would.”
—Christopher Soto, author of Diaries of a Terrorist and editor of Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color

“Guardianas is a riveting, gritty, and extraordinary collection of testimonies to read. It’s both an understanding of the great perils faced not just in El Salvador, but in the Global South, under the shadow of the dark machinations of colonization—as well as the powerful depiction of the internal strength of womanhood. This book is about the resilience of mothers and caretakers, like the great Salvadoran laborers and farmers who toil the land, these brave women protect and herald in new life. The cycle of death is so present in these pages, but the violence of the world around them doesn’t shift the priority of the work, they are steadfast, moving with grace, sharing the bloody realities of birth, life and death. Guardianas is a prayer, it is a powerful and necessary book.”
—Fariha Róisín, author of Who Is Wellness For? and Survival Takes a Wild Imagination