We explain who Eduardo Galeano was, what his main works were and why he is considered a key representative of left-wing thought in Latin America.
Eduardo Galeano is one of the most renowned Uruguayan writers in the world and the author of a work committed to Latin American politics and history.
Who was Eduardo Galeano?
Eduardo Galeano He was a Uruguayan writer and journalist, author of a diverse literary work politically committed to the Latin American leftist movement. His best-known work, The Open Veins of Latin Americais a classic of Latin American political literature and considered by many to be the political “Bible” of the continent.
Galeano’s literary work has been translated into more than twenty languages and, along with his journalistic work and political activism, earned him persecution and censorship from the military dictatorships of the Southern Cone in the 1970sHe lived in exile in Argentina and Spain before returning to his country and joining the efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the crimes against humanity committed in Uruguay.
Founder of various magazines and publications, Galeano defined himself as a “special Marxist”since he did not hesitate to admit and condemn the errors and crimes committed during the Cuban Revolution.
Childhood and youth of Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano was born on September 3, 1940 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was the first of three children born to Eduardo Hughes Roosen and Licia Esther Galeano Muñoz. The Catholic, well-off family lived in a large house in the Montevideo neighborhood of Pocitos, near the city zoo.
Like his brother Guillermo and his sister Matilde, Edward received a secular education at an English school, although his family values were fervently Catholic.When he was already in high school, his father, a state official linked to the world of livestock, divorced his mother and remarried Nelly Ramos, with whom he had two more children.
Eduardo and his family then moved to La Mondiola, a middle-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Montevideo. His mother also found a job in a bookstore in the city center, where she had access not only to books, but also to foreign magazines and newspapers. From her, Eduardo inherited his passion for reading; perhaps that is why he used her surname “Galeano” as his artistic pseudonym.Mother and son always had a close and loving relationship.
The economic outlook was not good in those days after the Second World War, when Great Britain, Uruguay’s largest trading partner, significantly reduced its demand for imported products. In that context, the Galeano family’s inheritance was lost and, at just fourteen years old, young Eduardo abandoned his studies to devote himself to work.
Eduardo held several jobs during his youth: messenger, typist, painter, bank teller. However, It was the publication of his first cartoon, in the weekly Sunaffiliated with the Socialist Party of Uruguay, which showed him the way to follow.
At the age of 19, Eduardo was already the editor-in-chief of the weekly and published theatre reviews, trade union news and other writings. During this time, he devoted himself to his self-taught education in Marxism.
In 1959, he fell in love with and married Silvia Brando, and they had a daughter, Verónica (1959). Their marriage lasted only until 1962; they divorced and the following year Galeano remarried Graciela Berro Rovira, with whom he had two children: Florencia (1963) and Claudio (1966).
The beginnings in journalism
In one of his notes published in SunGaleano dared to make certain criticisms and reflections on the Uruguayan left. And despite his inexperience, with this text he caught the attention of Carlos Quijano (1900-1984), founder and director of Marcha weekly left-wing journalism magazine.
Quijano was, in the words of Galeano himself, his “journalistic father”, when at the age of 23 he became editor-in-chief of this magazinewhich included the collaboration of figures from Latin American culture such as Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-), Mario Benedetti (1920-2009), Alfredo Zitarrosa (1936-1989) and Roberto Fernández Retamar (1930-2019), among others.
In addition, they were part of the team of March well-known figures such as Ángel Rama (1926-1983) and Carlos María Gutiérrez (1926-1991). There the young Galeano grew up and developed intellectually. So much so that in 1963 he published his first novel: The following days.
At the end of that year, Galeano was sent to China to learn about the new communist power forged by Mao Zedong (1893-1976). From his experiences he wrote: China, 1964. Chronicle of a challengepublished the following year by an Argentine publishing house.
Also in 1964, Galeano took over the leadership of the independent newspaper Epochwhich he headed for two years. And in 1965 he became director of publications at the University of the Republic, a position he held until 1973. In 1966, his second literary work appeared: Colorsand went to France with his wife Graciela, who had received a scholarship from the university to attend the School of Political Studies in Paris.
The couple lived in France for a year. While his wife was dedicated to her studies, Galeano contacted the magazine Modern Timesdirected at the time by Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and obtained a space for his publications. The same happened with Monthly Review by economist Paul Sweezy (1910-2004) and Leo Huberman (1903-1968).
At that time, moreover, He met with the Argentine politician Juan Domingo Perón (1895-1974), who was exiled in Spain and wanted to meet the young and promising journalist..
Finally, in 1967, Galeano returned with his family to Uruguay, although shortly after he set off on another journey, this time to Guatemala, where he established contact with the revolutionary guerrillas and interviewed their leader Cesar Montes (1942-).
Two of his journalistic books were published at the end of these trips: Guatemala, an occupied country and Reportsas well as a collection of short stories: The ghosts of the day of the lion and other stories. In 1968, already back in Uruguay, he appeared His Majesty Footballwhere he reflects on this sport and its importance in South American culture.
The Open Veins of Latin America
Galeano’s best-known and most translated book had its first edition in Uruguay in 1971.
In 1971, Galeano published his greatest work: The Open Veins of Latin America, A review of Latin American history from Spanish colonization to the present dayemphasizing the policy of plundering and extraction of wealth from the region implemented by the colonial empires of Europe first and then the United States. From the moment of its publication, the work was extraordinarily popular.
The work is composed of four segments:
- An introduction, entitled “One hundred and twenty million children at the eye of the storm.”
- The first exhibition, entitled “The poverty of man as a result of the wealth of the earth”, consists of three parts: “Gold fever, silver fever”, “The sugar king and other agricultural monarchs” and “The underground sources of power”.
- A second exhibition, entitled “Development is a journey with more castaways than sailors” and which consists of two parts: “History of early death” and “The contemporary structure of dispossession.”
- A conclusion, included in all editions since 1977, entitled “Seven Years Later” and intended to update and contextualize what is presented in the book. These editions are also usually published with a prologue by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende (1942-).
In a context of political instability and social and ideological conflicts such as the 1970s in Latin America, The appearance of this book made a deep impression on youth groups and leftist activists in general.to the point that it has been considered a sort of “Latin American political Bible.”
The book won an honorable mention in the prestigious Casa de las Américas competition, and has since inspired numerous theatrical, literary and musical works in the decades since its publication. The immense popularity of the work, however, did not always mean good news for its author: When the coup d’état took place in 1973 that led Uruguay to a civil-military dictatorship, Galeano became the head of the list of dangerous intellectuals of the far-right regime..
Galeano’s prison and exile
On June 27, 1973, the civil-military dictatorship began in Uruguay and, with it, the persecution of left-wing thinkers and popular activists. Galeano, given his political affiliations and his literary work, was no exception: His books were censored and he himself was imprisoned and then forced to leave the country.which he did on his way to Argentina, governed at that time by Juan Domingo Perón.
In Buenos Aires, he founded and directed the cultural magazine Crisis in its first stage (1973-1976), and published Vagabond and other stories in 1973, and his novel of exile, Our song in 1975. This second work earned him the Casa de las Américas Prize. The following year he met his third and last wife, Helena Villagra.
However, in March 1976, a military coup d’état took place in Argentina and the so-called National Reorganization Process (1976-1983) began, that is, a civil-military dictatorship of far-right affiliation. Galeano, once again, found himself censored and persecutedand left for Spain.
During his stay in Spain, Galeano wrote numerous books, among which we can mention: Conversations with Raimon (1977), Days and nights of love and war (1978), The stone burns (1980), Voices of our time (1981) and his famous trilogy Memory of fire (1982-1986), composed of the works Births (1982), The faces and the masks (1984) and The century of the wind (1986). It was his most prolific period as a writer.
At that time He was also part of the tribunal charged with judging the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.. To this end, he temporarily moved to Stockholm, Sweden. Finally, at the beginning of 1985, after the end of the dictatorship, he returned with his family to his native Montevideo.
Back in his homeland, Galeano founded the magazine Gaptogether with Mario Benedetti and Hugo Alfaro (1917-1996), and Between 1987 and 1989 he was part of the National Pro Referendum Commission whose mission was to revoke the law that prevented the trial of the repressors of the dictatorship for crimes against humanity committed during the civil-military regime.
The last years of Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano died in Montevideo at the age of 74.
Throughout the 1990s, Galeano continued…