In 1960s Guatemala, a nun and her students joined forces with communities in one of the country's most remote areas, striving together to bring justice and revolution to the Indigenous highlands. Betsy Konefal weaves together archival sources, personal letters, and more than one hundred interviews to tell this compelling story, illustrating how ideas about rights and revolution took on meaning and urgency as students from the city came face-to-face with injustice in the countryside. Konefal unearths the rich evolution of a transformative Catholicism that began years before Liberation Theology had a name, exploring a time of hope and determination shared by young people in Guatemala and across Latin America. Her examination of 1960s Catholic activism from the ground up reveals the consequential roles of nuns, parish priests, students, and community members, as powerful ideas about revolution fueled a veritable eruption in Guatemala's highlands.

‘The Nun and the Volcano is a remarkable achievement. The book is spellbinding both due to Betsy Konefal’s superb writing but also to its revelatory pace. Her subjects reflect the historical development of key sectors of Guatemalan society and polity.’

Jeffrey L. Gould - author of Solidarity under Siege: The Salvadorian Labor Movement, 1970–1990

‘This is an exceptional book about a revolution in ethical principles. It illuminates how ideals of justice and love can generate practical means to radical social change.’

Deborah Levenson-Estrada - author of Adios Nino: The Gangs of Guatemala City and the Politics of Death

‘This book recounts the events of the most momentous years of my life! I read it with great admiration for the author’s intensive research. When I attended our 50-year reunion of Crater members in Guatemala, I was thrilled to see their continuing involvement in realizing the ideals we received in the Cursillos. Thank you, Professor Konefal, for such a thorough recounting of what our shared inspiration made possible!’

Marjorie B. Melville - former Maryknoll Sister, member of the Catonsville Nine, and Professor of Anthropology

‘An astonishing reconstruction of how a generation of young Catholics set about trying to build a new world. It vividly brings to life a history at once agonizing and inspiring, one fueled by a revolutionary hope for social transformation that the extraordinary violence leveled against it never quite managed to extinguish.’

Kirsten A. Weld - author of Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala