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ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book evolved from over two decades of involvement in health rights issues in El Salvador, so the paltry list of mentors, supporters, friends, and coconspirators here will surely fail to do justice to the many obligations I incurred. Generous financial support from a Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Writing Fellowship, awarded by the Wenner Gren Foundation, made revision of the manuscript possible. The quality of my research during the postwar period was enhanced by a research grant from the Inter-American Foundation, and travel grants from the Tinker and Mellon Foundations, awarded by the Duke University—University of North Carolina Latin American Studies Program. I am very grateful to Susan Greenblatt for excellent research assistance with interviews in San Salvador on the antiprivatization movement in 2000, 2002– 2003, and 2007. I benefited greatly from Leigh Binford's reading and gentle editing of the entire manuscript, and from the skillful guidance of my editor, Adi Hovav, and the Studies in Medical Anthropology series editor Mac Marshall. I owe a special debt to Catherine Lutz, Orin Starn, and Donald Nonini, who believed in me before I believed in myself, offering encouraging feedback on early drafts, and helping to keep my small boat afloat through the shoals of the culture wars. Other colleagues who encouraged this endeavor through shared insights or feedback on writings include Bernard Bloom, Jeff Boyer, Leo Chavez, Carole Crumley, Marisol de la Cadena, Arturo Escobar, Paul Farmer, John Gershman, Kris Heggenhougan, Dorothy Holland, Alex Irwin, Jim Yong Kim, Richard Lee, Bill Maurer, Tom May, Joyce Millen, Tommie Sue Montgomery, Carolyn Nordstrom, Jim Peacock, Jim Quesada, Peter Redfield, Michelle Rivkin-Fish, and the graduate students of the UNC Moral Economies of Medicine seminar. Since my first visit to El Salvador on a small National Central America Health Rights task force in 1985, I benefited from the generosity of hundreds of Salvadorans who took time out of their busy lives to help me understand the complicated politics of their struggles over community health and basic human rights. I am grateful especially to Eduardo Espinoza, Violeta Menjivar, Margarita Posada, Ernesto Selva-Sutter, Hector Silva, and Miguel Saenz Varela. For reasons of privacy I cannot fully acknowledge all those whose patience and hospitality made my fieldwork enjoyable and productive, but I throw besos especiales to Delmy, Francisco, Victoria, Tina, Rene, Teófilo, Dagoberto, and Cece. Special thanks to David Bedell and Bob Bristow for all those rides to Chalate and to the wonderful promotores de salud popular in rural Chalatenango who have worked so professionally for long years with little recognition. During the tumultuous years of 1987–1989 my life in San Salvador was enriched by shared experiences with many intrepid colleagues engaged in human rights work and journalism, including Leslie Toser, Robyn Braverman, Tom Long, Kathleen Lynch, and Corinne Dufka—all of whom also pitched in with childcare for my son, Roque, when his irresponsible mother was on deadline . I'm especially grateful to Davida Coady and the San Carlos Foundation for funding my investigative reporting on violations of medical neutrality, and to Flora Skelly, my editor at American Medical News, who continued to publish the reports despite their controversial reception by conservative readers. During my 1989 stint as a stringer for the New York Times I was grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me by San Salvador Bureau Chief Lindsey Gruson. The humor of Jeremy Bigwood helped keep us all sane, and I again thank Doug Mine, who intervened to spring me and a colleague from the Fourth Brigade headquarters after the incident described in the Prologue. El Salvador's civil war had a way of minting extraordinary people whose courage and service under horrific circumstances became a beacon for the rest of us. I had the privilege of knowing several genuine heroes, including Lutheran bishop Medardo Gomez, Charles Clements, the late Sister Ann Manganaro, and Brenda Hubbard and Lanny Smith, of Doctors for Global Health. Many who I cannot name (because of lost records or protected identities) delivered health services behind the lines at enormous risk during the war, some losing their lives. Hundreds continued to volunteer throughout the long postwar period of neoliberal austerity. May this book serve to pay homage to your sacrifice. Finally, nothing would have been possible without Roque, the amazing son I brought home from El Salvador, and my husband, Don, whose love and passion for justice is the wellspring of my energy. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...

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