Carmen Aguirre

I think my favorite thing about this book is that Aguirre doesn't pull any punches. She describes the different fears that were a part of her life, the way people looked after beatings, and her belief in what she was doing. She relates what happened around her and what she did and that she wasn't just sitting on the sidelines and hoping that things would get better.

I appreciate that she just gives her opinion without trying to convince the reader of right and wrong. It isn't a plea or an show more argument and she doesn't justify what she was doing to the reader. She just tells you what it was and what she did on account of it. She also doesn't pretend to be perfect or brave all the time. Showing how hard something, especially something like revolution, is hard and it does everyone a disservice when we pretend it can happen in a day or night.

I listened to audiobook, and I loved both her writing style and that she narrated the book for herself. I loved the inclusion of the epilogue and that she relates what was happening in those countries during the publishing back to the resistance because progress doesn't happen in a vacuum. It was an interesting look into what was happening in South America in the late part of the twentieth century. It's definitely not one that we get in the US often.

I had originally found this book as part of the Diverse Books Tag that I did about memoirs (click here for mine). It was my book for "set in South America. Coincidentally, it's also my first review during Hispanic Heritage month! show less

This novel was the winner of Canada Reads 2012, and the subtitle, “Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter”, sums up the book well. This is the incredible and extremely readable tale of the author’s growth from childhood to adulthood within the Chilean underground resistance movement against dictator Augusto Pinochet. Most of the book is set in the 1980’s, and covers the author’s movements in Canada, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

What makes this book stand out is the perspective. show more We see everything through the eyes of a girl who is immersed in danger, intrigue, lies and violence but who is also struggling with the everyday concerns of a typical teenager. The contrast of life-threatening situations with ludicrously trivial concerns makes for some very funny reading at times.

If you’re looking to learn more about the political history of South America during those turbulent years, you will be disappointed. I had difficulty at times with the lack of context, but I don’t think it was the author’s intention to give an overview of those times. This memoir is primarily the story of a personal journey and the author’s own interpretation of the chaotic events unfolding around her. It’s a fascinating story and well worth reading. show less

Something Fierce is Ms. Aguirre's coming of age story in the Latin American Resistance during the late seventies and eighties. I had a very scant knowledge of the upheavals to the South during this period (though I knew about the U.S.'s penchant of setting up puppet governments), so her book served to school me as well as entertain me.

Entertain. That seems like such a trite word when I think of Ms. Aguirre's experience. Her parents were supporters of Allende and when he was ousted by show more Pinochet in a violent coup, six-year old Carmen and her family found themselves exiled in Vancouver. Five years later, her mother answered the call from the Chilean resistance for their supporters to return to Chile and help in the struggle against Pinochet. Carmen's mother brought her children with her, an unusual move; most of the returned exiles would leave their children with relatives.

They set up a safe house for resistance fighters in La Paz, Bolivia, where Carmen and her sister Ale spent the next few years. They also lived in Argentina, saw the troubles in Peru. Because their mother and her new husband Bob were blacklisted from Chile, the forays into their homeland were few.

She grew up with the constant fear of discovery, of torture, of the horror of armed insurrection. She also had to figure out how to balance her desire for a normal life with her political beliefs. As an older teenager, she decided of her own free will to join the resistance, taking the oath and continuing her double life.

If you haven't read it, you should. It is a riveting, eye-opening revelation of a read. Darkly funny and deeply moving, Carmen Aguirre's story was well worth re-telling. show less

3.5 stars

Carmen was raised in Canada, where her parents had arrived as refugees after being exiled from their native Chile because they were revolutionaries. When Carmen was 11, she, her mother, her stepfather, and her sister all moved to Bolivia (beside Chile) so they could help with the revolution from there. The book follows Carmen’s life as she grows up to help in the revolution herself, until it comes to an end in 1989 when she’s in her early 20s.

It was shorter and there wasn’t show more as much politics in it as I was expecting (which, for me, was a good thing!). There was still some; of course, more when Carmen was older. I was surprised that her parents brought Carmen and her sister with them, as it was very dangerous, though Carmen seemed quite happy to be there, so close to her grandparents, as she and her sister were able to travel across the border to visit (though her mother and stepfather were unable to). Certainly, when Carmen was younger, there is not as much mention of the danger, as Carmen herself was not thinking about it at the time. show less