Latin America is in many respects the birthplace of neoliberalism, so it’s fitting that it fought back first and hardest. After a decade of false promises, anger over rising joblessness, poverty, and insecurity in the 1990s coalesced into powerful social movements that demanded something better.

By the turn of the century it was clear something was happening in the region. Bolivians went to war over water, Argentines took to the streets and took over their workplaces, and Hugo Chávez beat back a coup in Venezuela. Observers from the North didn’t know what to make of this wave of rebellion. They began talking about a “Pink Tide” washing over Latin America.

“Pink Tide” is a somewhat peculiar term that referred to the fact that the progressive governments popping up in one country after another weren’t necessarily socialist — at least not in any traditional sense — yet they spoke loudly and directly about the problems of capitalism. Latin American leaders talked about a new kind of radicalism — one built on improving people’s lives in the everyday without worrying about a long-term vision of overthrowing capitalism.