Christin R. (raksha38) reviewed Arm the Spirit: A Story from Underground and Back on + 203 more book reviews
Block's memoire starts with the day in 1985 when she, her partner, their 2-week old son and four of their friends went into hiding in the face of impending arrest by the FBI for militant activities related to the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. The book then jumps back and covers her life (focusing mostly on her political activity) and how that led her to that point, then goes on to describe what life as a fugitive is like (her kids didn't even know her real name!) and how they all eventually managed to negotiate with the government to come out of hiding.
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. While I don't agree with some of her methods, I'm in awe of Block's dedication to social justice all over the world and her seemingly endless energy to work toward that. Even when they were in hiding and her partner Claude and one of their friends were on the FBI's most wanted list, they still found a way to do political and community work. As someone who came of age and got into social justice work in the late '90s/early '00s, I'm mostly just jealous of her idealism and conviction that change is possible. I think for a lot of people in my generation (certainly in the groups I've worked with) there was this kind of unspoken belief that we've already lost and large scale change really isn't possible, but we have to try anyway because doing something is better than not doing something. Besides, it can always get worse.
For most of the last half of the book, I also kept thinking how freaking weird it must have been for her kids. Her son was 9 and her daughter was 3 when they finally told them the truth and negotiated to come out of hiding in exchange for some jail time for their father and the woman they thought was their aunt. I don't know if I'd have dealt with that as well as those kids seem to have, had I been in their place.
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. While I don't agree with some of her methods, I'm in awe of Block's dedication to social justice all over the world and her seemingly endless energy to work toward that. Even when they were in hiding and her partner Claude and one of their friends were on the FBI's most wanted list, they still found a way to do political and community work. As someone who came of age and got into social justice work in the late '90s/early '00s, I'm mostly just jealous of her idealism and conviction that change is possible. I think for a lot of people in my generation (certainly in the groups I've worked with) there was this kind of unspoken belief that we've already lost and large scale change really isn't possible, but we have to try anyway because doing something is better than not doing something. Besides, it can always get worse.
For most of the last half of the book, I also kept thinking how freaking weird it must have been for her kids. Her son was 9 and her daughter was 3 when they finally told them the truth and negotiated to come out of hiding in exchange for some jail time for their father and the woman they thought was their aunt. I don't know if I'd have dealt with that as well as those kids seem to have, had I been in their place.
