Sophie Esch’s book, Letra y metralla: cultura y política durante los periodos de conflictos armados en México y Centroamérica (1910-2020) (Bonilla Artiga Editores, 2022, translation by Lorena Murillo Saldaña), has won the 2023 Premio Iberoamericano of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), LASA's highest honors for a book published in Spanish. Additional information on this award can be found on their website.
The book is a translation of Esch's 2018 book, Modernity at Gunpoint. Firearms, Politics, and Culture in Mexico and Central America (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), which at that time won the prize for 2019 best book in the humanities by the Mexico section of LASA.
Sophie Esch is thankful for Rice's Creative Ventures, her fabulous translator Lorena Murillo Saldaña, the incredible editorial work by Bonilla Artiga Editores in Mexico, and research leaves at Rice all made the translation of this book into Spanish and its publication in Latin America possible. Letra y metralla is dedicated to the people of Nicaragua.