- Intimate Activism: The Struggle for Sexual Rights in Postrevolutionary Nicaragua, by Cymene Howe. Duke University Press, 2013.

The last three decades have seen dramatic transformations in the politics of sexuality in Nicaragua. Based on ethnographic field research, Intimate Activisms offers an analysis of the role of sexual rights advocates as mediators in these transformations, by exploring their 'thick experience' as activists, the multiple discourses that inform their praxis, the way they negotiate their goals and strategies, and the configuration of sexual subjectivities in the intersection of global and local influences. After a historical overview of how the politics of sexuality in Nicaragua have been influenced by the legacy of US interventions, the Sandinista revolution, and the development of the feminist movement, the book focuses its attention on three key sites of activists' interventions: lesbian discussion groups, public events and mass-media interventions.

The author shows how activists engaged in the construction of particular forms of sexual subjectivity, for instance, through the presentation of lesbian and gay characters in the TV series 'Sexto Sentido' and through the 'intimate pedagogy' (p. 62) of the discussion groups that tried to create a space where participants could discover their identity as lesbians. In their interest to normalize and claim equal rights for same-sex sexualities, these interventions tended to favour 'egalitarian' lesbian and gay identities and relationships, which implied a gender-conforming self-presentation and homoerotic relationships without a gendered distinction between a masculine and a feminine partner. This contrasted with other forms of sexual subjectivities, like those of the cochonas del campo [country dykes] that the author met in a rural discussion group, women who understood themselves as masculine and active, and who established relationships with women they saw as feminine and passive. Activists' preference for 'egalitarian' forms of identity, however, responds to a 'very particular understanding of equality in terms consonant with liberal values' (p. 85) and to a narrative of progress that portrays those 'egalitarian identities' as global, modern and emancipated, while rendering invisible other forms of subjectivity and relationship, or condemning them as self-delusional, backward, prejudiced and machista. Howe's sophisticated analysis raises important questions on the politics of identities in sexual rights activism, especially regarding the way these dynamics are experienced by those who do not conform to the liberal and middle-class ideals of 'egalitarian' relationships, such as the 'cochonas del campo'.

The book also examines different approaches to sexual rights activism, and how these differences are related to both national and transnational political influences. The organisers of the Sexuality Free From Prejudice events, on the one hand, framed 'sexual diversity and equality as broad social concerns' (p. 99), aiming to promote a cultural transformation in the larger Nicaraguan population, rather than focusing on a particular marginalized group. The Lesbian and Gay Pride events, on the other hand, addressed lesbian and gay rights more specifically, and posed a more open challenge to the anti-sodomy law and other forms of homophobia in Nicaragua. Through an exploration of the complex dynamics between and within these distinct approaches, the author illustrates how sexual rights advocacy in Nicaragua can be better understood as a struggle, as a 'a polymorphous set of practices' (p. 124), rather than as a movement, and shows how these different approaches 'are hybrid ways to articulate trans-local political values, placing them in conversation with local political logics' (p. 110). These multiple values and logics emerge from diverse intellectual forces that have influenced Nicaragua's shifting political landscape, from the liberal discourse on choice, identity, democracy and rights, to the Marxian legacy of the Sandinista revolution and its communitarian ethos.

Considerable attention is paid in the book to Nicaragua's anti-sodomy law, which was made more severe in 1992 (although it existed prior to that) and was overturned in 2007, paradoxically, during the same legislative process that imposed a complete ban on abortion. The role of the anti-sodomy law both as a catalyst and an obstacle for sexual rights activism is examined, as well as the multiplicity of factors that might have been involved in its repeal. Although this legislative change cannot be solely understood as a result of the work of sexual rights activists, the book offers evidence of how they 'were instrumental in helping to create the conditions that would lead to the overturning of the country's anti-sodomy law' (p. 162).

Sexual rights advocates have contributed to create the conditions for policy and cultural change, the book argues, by playing a key role as mediators between global and local politics of sexuality, articulating transnational discourses on human rights and lesbian and gay identities, with the national political history and sexual culture, in 'a circular exchange between public cultures and political spaces in both South and North' (p. 156). Important challenges still remain, as discussed in the conclusions, and both the old and the new generation of sexual rights activists still struggle to transform la vida cotidiana (daily life) in Nicaragua. Intimate Activisms will be an interesting read for researchers and graduate and undergraduate students working on same-sex sexualities, so- cial movements and gender and sexual politics in Latin America, and its emphasis on lesbian identities and organizing is particularly welcome, since it is still a little explored area in those fields of study.