This book presents cases of social experiments in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Uruguay. In these spaces, where horizontal and multi-class communication flourished, Jay Winter's concept of minor utopias is suitable. This essay is inspired by Winter's important work, tracing what he calls the "visions of partial transformation," which coexisted temporarily with the great narratives of social transformation, but then lost their proper place in the historical record. Agricultural workers in Chinandega, small-holders in Morazán, and factory workers in Montevideo, in the context of serious social-economic and political crises, conquered spaces to defend themselves, as well as to create new social relations and an experience of collective and liberating work.

Jeffrey Gould is distinguished professor and James H. Rudy Professor of History at Indiana University. From 1995 to 2008 he was director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He is co-founder of
of the Center for Documentary Research and Practice. He obtained his Doctorate in History from Yale University and was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. He has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton), Harvard University and CALAS (Universidad de Guadalajara). He was co-director and co-producer, along with Carlos Henríquez Consalvi, of the documentaries Scars of Memory (2003), La palabra en el bosque (2011) y Puerto El Triunfo (2018).