Affect, Ecofeminism, and Intersectional Struggles in Latin America. A Tribute to Berta Cáceres by Irune del Rio Gabiola (review)

Abstract

R A!ect, Ecofeminism, and Intersectional Struggles: A Tribute to Berta Cáceres by Irune del Rio Gabiola is allowing yourself to be guided by emotions, to feel out the pages and the author’s voice. Del Rio Gabiola describes her book as an active act of mourning Berta Cáceres and other environmentalists in Honduras, which is one of the most dangerous countries for environmental activists. Del Rio Gabiola takes the readers on an a'ective journey through the work of Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH) and its founder, Berta Cáceres, one of the world’s most celebrated environmental activists, who was murdered in her home in La Esperanza, Honduras, in March 2016. By analyzing the role of feelings and emotions, from outrage to care and solidarity, in Cáceres’s and COPINH’s struggle against the Chinese-Honduran hydropower dam on the Gualcarque River, the book’s theoretical contribution provides a framework for understanding decolonization and Indigenous struggles for sovereignty through a'ect: paving the way toward environmental justice by “moving and touching as many individuals as possible” (p. 18). Del Rio Gabiola’s book is both a helpful guide to affect theory, ecofeminism, and psychoanalysis, and a captivating reconstruction of Cáceres’s activism through her work at COPINH, the events and circumstances in the lead-up to her assassination, as well as the wave of international outrage that followed. Building upon the work of a multitude of scholars who have engaged with various aspects of the a'ective turn (see, for example, Clough, 2008), the author argues that a'ect theory has been based upon the Western understandings of emotions, which so far have failed to incorporate Indigenous and other non-Western, non-binary perspectives; in Western thought, femininity is o-en associated with negativity and with emotions that are perceived as dangerous to “the projects of civilization” (p. 12). In the book, del Rio Gabiola demonstrates “how Berta and COPINH’s affective journey has embraced an intersectional analysis of struggles that integrate di'erence to achieve social justice” (p. 13). While focusing primarily on the environmental activism of COPINH, del Rio Gabiola also highlights that the organization seeks broader goals: Irune del Rio Gabiola A!ect, Ecofeminism, and Intersectional Struggles in Latin America. A Tribute to Berta Cáceres. New York: Peter Lang, 2020. xiv + 184 pp. 8 color illustrations, endnotes. $98.95 hardcover (ISBN: 978-1-433-15909-1); $94.45 eBook (ISBN: 978-1-433-16555-9).