Carolyn Forche was a young poet in 1978 when she received a mysterious invitation from Leonel Gomez Vides, a man who would change her life. Gomez, who had connections to the Salvadoran resistance, wanted to educate her about his country on the verge of civil war. Over the next two years, Forche traveled repeatedly to El Salvador, witnessing the murders of priests and farmworkers, the brutality of death squads, and the courage of those who resisted. This memoir reconstructs that experience with both documentary precision and poetic intensity. Forche, who would later become known for poetry of witness, learned in El Salvador what it means to see clearly in dangerous times. Her friendship with Gomez anchors the narrative, a relationship that combined political education with genuine affection. The book captures a particular moment in Cold War history when the United States backed regimes that slaughtered their own people, and when young Americans had to decide where they stood. Forche writes with the authority of someone who was there and the craft of a poet who has spent decades considering what she witnessed.