I began my ethnographic field research in my home country of El Salvador in 2010. My research found a dynamic process of “grassroots peacemaking” led by former civil war veterans. These veterans invited me to document their intergenerational, grassroots peacemaking efforts with their male relatives associated with gangs. I assumed that itwould be possible to build ties with these communities based on my experience conducting activist research in El Salvador. In this presentation, I explore how in the process of implementing my research I, as a mestiza, woman, activist scholar, confronted challenges that stem from systemic racism and patriarchy. I argue that producing accountable research relationships by engaging these complexities and power relations between researchers and interlocutors is critical to decolonizing anthropology.
