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This article analyzes the political emergence of El Salvador's “post‐postwar generation” through a consideration of activists’ relationships to a political and revolutionary “party line,” la línea. This generation comprises people born at the end of, or after, the 1980–92 civil war. They have little or no memory of the war but have grown up in intense violence. The authors worked with members of this generation in distinct sites: in Segundo Montes Community, in a corner of the country once guerrilla territory, and in San Salvador, among middle‐class activists. Their self‐recognition as politically consequential, echoing youth around the globe, first developed through moments of hope—in memory of struggle and in the electoral victory of the party of former revolutionaries—and then through frustration, as those in power, including ex‐guerrilla leaders, resisted opening to new generations and proved themselves as corrupt as their predecessors.

In this article I consider the desires of participants in a particular sister-community relationship. I suggest that experiences of Illinois parishioners who have been visiting, and assisting, rural Salvadorans over the past 20 years may help us to understand both the possibilities and the limits of such encounters. I probe the limits by examining an incident that took place in July 2010. In thinking through my discomfort with a request for money, in the context of a larger history of global relationships and the ethics of such missions, I have come to believe that the disparities between the visitors and visited-economic, geographic, cultural, political-is not something to overcome. Rather, these differences are necessary for sister-community relationships.

This article reviews the recent and emerging post-Cold War sociocultural anthropology research on Central America, defined as the five countries that share a common colonial and postcolonial history: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Following a consideration of the foundational literature widely engaged by scholars to theorize regional processes, three sections reflect major themes of investigation in the area: political economy, including environmental concerns and migration; political, ethnic, and religious subjectivities; and violence, democracy, and in/security, including gangs. We conclude that the well-developed anthropology of Central America has made key contributions to disciplinary analyses and debates, especially in the fields of political and economic anthropology and in terms of furthering studies of violence, migration, neoliberalism, and postconflict democracy. Anthropologists working in the region have been at the forefront of public and "engaged" anthropology, recognizing the political contexts and power relations in which knowledge is produced.

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R e s u m e n El artículo sostiene que las audiencias de la televisió n sensacionalista pueden actuar políticamente vinculándose a través de la circulació n del afecto pú blico. Este argumento se basa en conversaciones mantenidas en un barrio urbano salvadoreño bajo una coyuntura histó rica particular, justo después que los intentos por privatizar el sistema de salud pú blico (en los años 2002 y 2003) provocaran la más grande movilizació n social desde la guerra. El que la contemplació n de cuerpos destrozados pueda implicar más que un acto pasivo de consumo privado, contraviene las críticas liberales y de izquierda. El ''lamento liberal'' insiste en que las imágenes sensacionalistas só lo despolitizan el dolor y el sufrimiento. De esta forma, esta postura no puede dar cuenta del valor de los actos pú blicos que expresan un entendimiento compartido, negando la posibilidad de que los pobres y la clase obrera puedan formar parte de las discusiones sobre la nació n y el estado. Este artículo demuestra que los espectadores de noticias melodramáticas frecuentemente conocen muy bien el contexto político en el que el sufrimiento ocurre. En determinados momentos, tal conciencia puede convertirse en actoría pú blica capaz de oponerse a la postergació n indefinida de las soluciones requeridas para detener el dolor en el presente. This article argues that sensationalist television publics, linked through the circulation of public affect, can act politically. It draws on conversations in an urban Salvadoran neighborhood at a particular historical conjuncture, just after attempts to privatize the public health care system (in 2002-3) led to the largest mass mobilizations since the war. This argument, that gazing at wretched bodies can be more than a passive act of private consumption, counters liberal and leftist critiques. The ''liberal lament'' insists that sensationalist images only depoliticize pain and suffering. It fails to see the value of public acts of shared understanding. It thus rejects many poor and working-class people's capacity to take part in discussions about the nation and the state. This article shows that viewers of melodramatic news often know full well the political context in which the suffering of impoverished bodies occurs. At certain moments such awareness can contribute to a public agency refusing deferral to an indefinite future solutions to immediate pain in the present. PALABRAS CLAVES: afecto, activismo, sensacionalismo, privatizació n, asistencia médica.

In this introduction we consider generation and change in Central America as part of the celebration of the twenty‐fifth anniversary of this journal. We reflect on meanings of generation, starting with Salvador Allende's 1972 declaration: “To be young and not revolutionary may even be a biological contradiction.” Karl Mannheim's theorization of generation as a cohort sharing formative experiences in particular historical moments, often requiring “wholly new minds,” becomes crucial in our understanding of the concept. To follow Mannheim's claim, we trace histories of Central American political generations in the past half‐century. While our collection uncovers many moments of generational difference and tension—particularly in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador—we also find that conflicts can be opportunities for dialogue, for forms of mutual engagement, as cases in Costa Rica and Guatemala demonstrate.