Uruguayan writer and journalist (1940?2015)
In this
Spanish name
, the first or paternal
surname
is
Hughes
and the second or maternal family name is
Galeano
.
Eduardo Galeano
|
---|
Eduardo Galeano in 2012
|
Born
| Eduardo German Maria Hughes Galeano
(
1940-09-03
)
3 September 1940
Montevideo
, Uruguay
|
---|
Died
| 13 April 2015
(2015-04-13)
(aged 74)
Montevideo, Uruguay
|
---|
Occupation
| Writer, journalist
|
---|
Spouse
| Helena Villagra
|
---|
Eduardo Hughes Galeano
(
Spanish pronunciation:
[e?ðwa?ðo
?ale?ano]
; 3 September 1940 ? 13 April 2015) was a
Uruguayan
journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "a literary giant of the Latin American left" and "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters".
[1]
Galeano's best-known works are
Las venas abiertas de America Latina
(
Open Veins of Latin America
, 1971) and
Memoria del fuego
(
Memory of Fire Trilogy
[
es
]
, 1982?6). "I'm a writer," the author once said of himself, "obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of
Latin America
, intimate land condemned to
amnesia
."
[2]
Author
Isabel Allende
, who said her copy of Galeano's book was one of the few items with which she fled Chile in 1973 after the military coup of
Augusto Pinochet
, called
Open Veins of Latin America
"a mixture of meticulous detail, political conviction, poetic flair, and good storytelling."
[3]
Life
[
edit
]
Eduardo German Maria Hughes Galeano was born in
Montevideo
, Uruguay,
[3]
on 3 September 1940.
[4]
His two family names were inherited from Welsh and
Italian
(from Genoa) great-grandfathers; the other two were from Germany and Spain.
[5]
Galeano wrote under his maternal family name; as a young man, he briefly wrote for a Uruguayan socialist publication,
El Sol
, signing articles as "Gius," "a pseudonym approximating the pronunciation in Spanish of his paternal surname Hughes."
[6]
Galeano's family belonged to the fallen Uruguayan aristocracy.
After completing two years of secondary school, Galeano went to work at age fourteen
[5]
in various jobs, including messenger and fare collector. He eventually landed at
El Sol
. The Uruguayan socialist weekly first published the teenager's comics prior to his writing. Galeano's passion for drawing continued throughout his life; his vignettes can be seen in many of his later books while his signature was often accompanied by a small hand-drawn pig.
[7]
As a journalist throughout the 1960s Galeano rose in prominence among leftist publications, and became editor of
Marcha
, an influential weekly with contributors such as
Mario Vargas Llosa
,
Mario Benedetti
, Manuel Maldonado Denis and
Roberto Fernandez Retamar
. For two years he edited the daily
Epoca
and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1959 he married his first wife, Silvia Brando, and in 1962, having divorced, he remarried to Graciela Berro.
[8]
In 1973, a
military coup
took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee, going into exile in Argentina where he founded the magazine
Crisis
.
[9]
His 1971 book
Open Veins of Latin America
was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina.
[10]
In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra; however, in the same year, the
Videla
regime took power in Argentina in a
bloody military coup
and his name was added to the list of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain,
[
citation needed
]
[7]
where he wrote his famous trilogy,
Memoria del fuego
(
Memory of Fire
), described as "the most powerful literary indictment of colonialism in the Americas."
[11]
At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo when democratization occurred. Following the victory of
Tabare Vazquez
and the
Broad Front
alliance in the
2004 Uruguayan elections
marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history Galeano wrote a piece for
The Progressive
titled "Where the People Voted Against Fear" in which Galeano showed support for the new government and concluded that the Uruguayan populace used "common sense" and were "tired of being cheated" by the traditional
Colorado
and
Blanco
parties.
[12]
Following the creation of
TeleSUR
, a Latin American television station based in
Caracas
,
Venezuela
, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as
Tariq Ali
and
Adolfo Perez Esquivel
joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.
[13]
On 10 February 2007, Galeano underwent a successful operation to treat
lung cancer
.
[14]
During an interview with journalist
Amy Goodman
following
Barack Obama
's election as President of the United States in November 2008, Galeano said: "The
White House
will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I'd like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this."
[15]
At the 17 April 2009 opening session of the
5th Summit of the Americas
held in
Port of Spain
,
Trinidad and Tobago
,
Venezuelan
President
Hugo Chavez
gave a Spanish-language copy of Galeano's
Open Veins of Latin America
to U.S. President
Barack Obama
, who was making his first diplomatic visit to the region.
[16]
In a May 2009 interview he spoke about his past and recent works, some of which deal with the relationships between freedom and slavery, and democracies and dictatorships: "not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy". He also talked about how and why he has changed his writing style, and his recent rise in popularity.
[17]
In April 2014 Galeano gave an interview at the
II Bienal Brasil do Livro e da Leitura
in which he regretted some aspects of the writing style in
Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina
, saying
"Time has passed, I've begun to try other things, to bring myself closer to human reality in general and to political economy specifically. 'The Open Veins' tried to be a political economy book, but I simply didn't have the necessary education. I do not regret writing it, but it is a stage that I have since passed."
[18]
This interview was picked up by many critics of Galeano's work in which they used the statement to reinforce their own criticisms. However, in an interview with
Jorge Majfud
he said,
"The book, written ages ago, is still alive and kicking. I am simply honest enough to admit that at this point in my life the old writing style seems rather stodgy, and that it's hard for me to recognize myself in it since I now prefer to be increasingly brief and untrammeled. [The] voices that have been raised against me and against
The Open Veins of Latin America
are seriously ill with bad faith."
[19]
Works
[
edit
]
"Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them ? will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don’t speak languages, but dialects. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. Who don’t create art, but handicrafts. Who don’t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them."
?
Eduardo Galeano, Nobodies/1, The Book of Embraces
Las venas abiertas de America Latina
(
Open Veins of Latin America
), a history of the region from the
time
of
Columbus
from the perspective of the subjugated people, is considered one of Galeano's best-known works. An
English-language
translation by
Cedric Belfrage
gained some popularity in the
English-speaking world
after
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez
gave it as a gift to
U.S. President
Barack Obama
in 2009.
[23]
[24]
Galeano was also an avid fan of
football
, writing most notably about it in
Football in Sun and Shadow
(
El futbol a sol y sombra
).
[4]
In a retrospective for
SB Nation
after Galeano's death, football writer Andi Thomas described the work?a history of the sport, as well as an outlet for the author's own experiences with the sport and his political polemics?as "one of the greatest books about football ever written".
[25]
Death
[
edit
]
Galeano died on 13 April 2015 in Montevideo
[26]
[27]
from
lung cancer
at the age of 74, survived by third wife Helena Villagra and three children.
[28]
Awards and honors
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Parker, Graham (3 September 2021).
"Eduardo Galeano: The beautiful game loses its man of letters"
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
"Writer Eduardo Galeano dies"
.
buenosairesherald.com
. 3 September 2021
. Retrieved
3 September
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Bernstein, Adam (3 September 2021).
"Eduardo Galeano, influential Uruguayan author, dies at 81"
.
The Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
. Retrieved
7 January
2022
.
- ^
a
b
"Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano dies at 81"
. Fox News Latino. 3 September 2021
. Retrieved
3 September
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Martin 1992
, p. 148.
- ^
Simon Romero, "Eduardo Galenao, Uruguayan Voice of Anti-Capitalism, Is Dead at 81,"
The New York Times
, 14 September 2021, A17.
- ^
a
b
Galeano, Eduardo (15 March 2010).
"Entrevista a Eduardo Galeano"
.
Mundo y Sociedad
.
Archived
from the original on 18 March 2010
. Retrieved
7 January
2022
.
- ^
Wilson 1980
, p. 31.
- ^
Romero, "Eduardo Galeano,"
- ^
Fresh Off Worldwide Attention for Joining Obama’s Book Collection, Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with "Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone"
.
- ^
Maybury-Lewis 1991
, p. 376.
- ^
Eduardo Galeano,
"Where the People Voted Against Fear"
Archived
13 February 2007 at the
Wayback Machine
January 2005
The Progressive
- ^
Alfonso Daniels,
"'Chavez TV' beams into South America"
,
The Guardian
, 26 July 2005.
- ^
"Eduardo Galeano se recupera de operacion"
Archived
17 February 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
,
El Universal
, 11 February 2007
(in Spanish)
.
- ^
Interview with Amy Goodman
on
Democracy Now!
,
5 November 2008 (video, audio, and print transcript)/
- ^
The Washington Times
- ^
Audio and transcript of interview
, May 2009.
- ^
"Sounds and Colours"
. Archived from
the original
on 29 April 2015
. Retrieved
10 June
2014
.
- ^
The Open Veins of Eduardo Galeano
,
Monthly Review
, 11.06.14.
- ^
http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb9916/
Open Veins of Latin America
- ^
De autores varios: Maryse Conde; Ariel Dorfman.
- ^
"Search ? List of Books by Eduardo Galeano"
. Paperback Swap. 13 April 2015.
- ^
"Open Veins of Latin America"
.
Monthly Review Press
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
- ^
Clark, Andrew (19 April 2009).
"Chavez creates overnight bestseller with book gift to Obama"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
- ^
Thomas, Andi (13 April 2015).
"Looking back at Eduardo Galeano's masterpiece, 'Soccer in Sun and Shadow'
"
. SB Nation
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
- ^
"Writer Eduardo Galeano dies"
.
buenosairesherald.com
. 13 April 2015
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
- ^
"Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan Voice of Anti-Capitalism, is Dead at 74."
The New York Times
, Tuesday, 14 April 2015, A17.
- ^
Kraul, Chris (13 April 2015).
"Eduardo Galeano, Latin American author and U.S. critic, dies at 74"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
- ^
"Past Honorees"
. Global Exchange. Archived from
the original
on 27 June 2015
. Retrieved
13 April
2015
.
- ^
"Stig Dagermanpriset till Eduardo Galeano"
.
sverigesradio.se
(in Swedish). 12 September 2010
. Retrieved
27 October
2012
.
- ^
"I ar gar Stig Dagermanpriset till forfattaren Eduardo Galeano"
.
webfinanser.com
(in Swedish). 18 August 2010. Archived from
the original
on 29 May 2013
. Retrieved
27 October
2012
.
- ^
"Argentine university awards posthumous "honoris causa" prize to Eduardo Galeano"
. Aldianews
. Retrieved
29 September
2022
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
External videos
|
---|
"
'Voices of Time': Legendary Uruguayan Writer Eduardo Galeano on Immigration, Latin America, Iraq, Writing ? and Soccer
,"
Democracy Now!
19 May 2006.
|
Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with
Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone
? video report by
Democracy Now!
|
Eduardo Galeano, Chronicler of Latin America’s "Open Veins," on His New Book "Children of the Days"
,
Democracy Now
, 8 May 2013.
|
"Reflections from Eduardo Galeano"
,
The Leonard Lopate Show
, 19 May 2006.
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