Eduardo Galeano Contemplates History's Paradoxes (Open Veins of Latin America)

[Judi Lynn]

Eduardo Galeano Contemplates History's Paradoxes
by Susan Stamberg

August 24, 2009
At a Summit of the Americas last spring, Hugo Chavez, the frequently anti-American president of Venezuela, gave President Obama a copy of Open Veins of Latin America.

First published in 1971, the book presents author Eduardo Galeano's version of the history of "five centuries of the pillage of a continent."

Galeano's name may be unfamiliar to most Americans, but in South America, he's a legend — revered in some circles, reviled in others.

Now 68, the Uruguayan author spends most days at his favorite cafe in Montevideo, Uruguay, where fans phone to ask if he is there or when he's expected. Sometimes they leave letters and books for him to sign. Galeano says he was formed in this cafe and others like it:

"These were my universities. Here in cafes is where I learned the art of storytelling — great anonymous storytellers that taught me how to do it," he says. "I love these places where we may have time to lose time. It is a luxury in this world."

A left-wing intellectual, Galeano was arrested and forced out of Uruguay after the 1973 military coup. He spent 12 years in exile and was put on the Argentine military government's death list.

Now back in his homeland, Galeano has the luxury of time. He writes in his hometown cafe about themes that have preoccupied him for a lifetime.

"Always in all my books I'm trying to reveal or help to reveal the hidden greatness of the small, of the little, of the unknown — and the pettiness of the big," he says.

More:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112064007

http://vivirlatino.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/eduardo-galeano-300x295.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_czlqIyZ5oHo/SewOoOi8NcI/AAAAAAAAAOE/wPPoRhin6EE/s400/Open+Veins+of+Latin+America+by+Eduardo+Galeano+20+apr+2009.JPG

[willing dwarf]

1. An excellent history that is seldom taught in North America

I read his book about 6 years ago and it opened my eyes to so much that I had never understood not just about Latin America, but about European history. One of the things I learned from reading it was how the British and Dutch empires were built upon the influx of capital it received by financing the S
The Spaniards dragged so much wealth out of Latin America, at a staggering cost of life and the establishment of African Slavery, but they kept very little of that wealth. Instead, most of it went to England and ultimate became used to build the railways and mills which were the basis of the industrial revolution, and then the colonization of the India, China, Africa and Australia.

Great book, and interesting reading. I think of it as a complement to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

[Peace Patriot]

2. I generally avoid NPR. Can't stand their kultchud pretentiousness and

their corpo/fascist politics. But as a sort of weather balloon this piece is interesting. Torture and death out; leftist cafes in. And when the winds blow again, and the torture-mongers and death-mongers are again purging public agencies like NPR of even the thinnest of progressive gruel, and they all bow down and worship Satan again, what will they say of Galeano's multilated corpse (if the fascists finally get him)? Nothing, that's what.

Even now, NPR's corporate sponsors are plotting just that. Dropping leftists out of airplanes. Chainsawing leftists while alive and dumping their body parts into mass graves. They are plotting the overthrow of democracies like Uruguay, and all the democracies in Latin America, and they are plotting war to get Venezuela's and Ecuador's oil.

This piece is nearly devoid of content. It is a lazy-minded, cleansed, self-indulgent little bottle of very expensive perfume, meant to distract people from Galeano's tale of mostly U.S.-inflicted horror on Latin America, not to interest people in the truth. It is "kultchud" not informative. It is a sophisticated form of corpo/fascist disinformation. I take it back. It's not that they will say nothing when leftists like Galeano start being killed again, in the interest of global corporate predators; they will kick him when he's down; they will inflict the final blow with their stiletto heels.

Well, now I've become self-indulgent. I used to be "kultchud" myself--which explains my loathing for NPR-under-the-Bush-Junta, and their little forays into chic leftism now. How we hate to be lied to!