We should celebrate the appearance of this book for two reasons: first, the long-term historical vision that it offers of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast, and, second, the quality of the authors who have been chosen for the sake of multidisciplinarity. There is also a third reason: the need to include the Atlantic Coast in the analysis of Nicaragua. It is incredible that the historiography and political analysis of Nicaragua have tended to ignore the Atlantic Coast, despite the fact that it makes up 56 per cent of the country's territory and 13 per cent of its total population, and constitutes the republic's main reserve of forest and water resources.

Furthermore, this region is particularly interesting since it is home to populations with different cultures, ethnicities and identities: according to the UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report on Nicaragua, Las regiones autónomas de la Costa Caribe: ¿Nicaragua assume su diversidad?, 76 per cent are mestizos, 17 per cent Miskitos, 4 per cent creoles or blacks, 2.6 per cent Sumos-Mayagnas, and 0.2 per cent Ramas. This phenomenon has made the Atlantic Coast an enriching multicultural and multi-ethnic space, where populations with different histories, languages, customs and even world views live together. However, this condition has also given rise to several episodes of misunderstanding and conflict among those who live on the Atlantic Coast as well as with the Nicaraguans of the Pacific Coast, whom the former refer to as ‘Spaniards’. To a large extent this lack of understanding is one of the elements that runs through the work reviewed here.

Precisely for that reason, this book edited by Luciano Baracco is highly relevant, its virtue lying in considering the reality of the Atlantic Coast from three main perspectives. The first is historical and occupies the first three chapters. In this way, the start of the work highlights the region's unique position as a British protectorate with ‘The Kingdom of the Mosquitia’ (chapter 1). It goes on to present the marginal and conflictive nature of the region during its insertion into the republic throughout the first half of the twentieth century (chapter 2) and finally offers a reflection on the legacy and interpretation of the struggle of Augusto César Sandino and his rebel army in the mountains (chapter 3).

The second perspective is political in nature and occupies chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 describes the conflict that emerged on the Atlantic Coast during the decade of the Sandinista revolution. It was then that the region gained national and international visibility for the first time. At that time, with the FSLN's rise to power, the Atlantic Coast became one of the most conflictive zones in the country as a result of the emergence of a guerrilla force linked to the Contras. This conflict gave rise to the historical, social and political particularities within the national debate. It was as a result of this dynamic, and with the aim of calming the ‘rebels’ of the coast, that the country's multicultural and multi-ethnic nature was acknowledged in the Constitution of 1987. By the same logic, and not long afterward, the National Assembly would also approve two Autonomy Statutes for the two regions that would be created on the Atlantic Coast: the Región Autónoma del Atlántico Norte (Autonomous Region of the North Atlantic, RAAN) and the Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur (Autonomous Region of the South Atlantic, RAAS). With these two statutes an institutional dynamic was established in Nicaragua that had no precedent in Latin America: an asymmetrically composed state with two autonomous regions that were multi-ethnic in nature with democratically elected representative chambers and governments responsible for them. Next, in chapter 5, the political development of the institutions in both autonomous regions is described with an excellent empirical basis. The focus is on the next two decades, with their different political circumstances and party dynamics.

The third and final perspective assumed by the book considers everyday, micro issues that are nevertheless highly relevant for citizens living on the Atlantic Coast. These issues refer to cultural change, the transformation of gender roles, the debate over linguistic customs and rights, the demarcation of territory and the ownership of natural resources. This section comprises five chapters (6 to 10) which are in themselves ‘case studies’ and describe in great detail current tensions in the coast's daily life. They also reflect the emergence of new conflicts between different actors present in the territory, such as groups of women, indigenous communities, municipalities, the regional and national government, and national and international private companies.

As a result of all this, and with a thorough reading of Baracco's edited volume, one may conclude that studies on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast are still interesting and of a high quality, even though academic interest in the past decade has decreased. It would be a good sign if this work were the start of increasing interest in the Central American Caribbean, since it is an area in which multiple conflicts have broken out in recent decades. It is a very sensitive region because of phenomena such as ethnic tensions, an interest in natural resources on the part of transnational companies, incapacity on the part of state institutions to maintain the monopoly of force, and the emergence of mafias linked to drug trafficking. This is what this book highlights.