Bitter Grounds

I have finished this month's book, Bitter Grounds on the flight back from Ann Arbor and my mind keeps wandering back to it. The book is about three generations of women in El Salvador, some are members of the rich oligarchy and the others of the poor peasants/working class. It's a great book and gives good insight into what El Salvador has been through during a big portion of last century. But it's also sad to read and think of how many lives have been wasted there - and in so many other places around the world. The great thing about the book is that it makes you empathize with members of both sides of the class divide - even though some do atrocious things.

One thing the book made me realize is that I don't really know what the difference is between "Marxism-Leninism" and "Maoism". The book mentions the radicalization in the '70s and about different left-wing rebel groups (all of which went by a plethora of three letter acronyms), and some of which were Maoists (it doesn't really talk all that much about politics, though). I tried googling for a good definition, but most were either long treatises (God I'm glad I never took political science in college) or just propaganda pages. From what I can tell, Marxism-Leninism sees the workers rise up against the capitalists while in Maoism it's the peasants who rebel against their oppressors. That would explain why leftists in agrarian countries - such as the coffee producing El Salvador - would be Maoists, I guess. Is there anything else that's different between the two movements?