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Eduardo
Galeano
(1940-2015)  Uruguayan leftist
journalist, novelist and writer. In his youth he worked in
various humble jobs before working as a journalist in the
1960s. After the 1973 right-wing coup Galeano was imprisoned
and forced to leave the country. He then settled in
Argentina, where he continued his journalistic and cultural
work. In 1976 a right-wing coup took place in Argentina and
Galeano's name was on the lists of fascist death squads,
leading him to flee the country for Spain. Galeano was able
to return to his native country in 1985, where he continued
to live until his death. A life-long passionate opponent of
the right-wing fascist governments in Latin America, he also
was a committed and principled anti-imperialist.
Open
Veins of Latin America (1971): 318 pages. Banned by many
right-wing dictatorships in Latin America, it is the most
well-known and popular of Galeano's works. Galeano makes the
case, true in other parts of the world as well, that Latin
America is impoverished and underdeveloped because
of it's natural wealth. In other words the desire of the
colonial and imperialist countries to plunder the resources of
Latin America for itself has understandably led to the
resources not being available for use in Latin America, as
well as focusing the economy on extraction of these resources
and not industrial/technological development. Further, this
leads to a massive economic interest of said countries to
crush any political attempts to stop the looting. An
intelligent, comprehensive history of the plundering of Latin
America from the beginning of Spanish colonialism until the
1970s. Galeano also focuses his attention on the many attempts
throughout Latin American history to "nationalize" the wealth
of the land and generally to oppose imperialist plunder, and
the repression, invasions, and wars the imperialist powers
used to crush such attempts. A call to resist imperialism, it
also shows clearly the materialist, economic factors behind
much of Latin America's history.
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