Beloved Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Dies

    Eduardo Galeano. (Mariela De Marchi Moyano / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Eduardo Galeano, the Latin American writer commonly regarded as the poet laureate of the anti-globalization movement, has succumbed to lung cancer at age 74. Watch all of his interviews on “Democracy Now!”

“Democracy Now!” reports:

The Uruguayan novelist and journalist made headlines when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a copy of his classic work, The Open Veins of Latin America.

Galeano is also the author of the three-volume Memory of Fire, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Upside Down, The Book of Embraces, We Say No, Voices of Time and Mirrors, among others. In the interview above he discusses his most recent book, Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History.

In 2013, Galeano told Guardian contributor Gary Younge, “My great fear is that we are all suffering from amnesia. I wrote to recover the memory of the human rainbow, which is in danger of being mutilated.”

“This world is not democratic at all,” he continued. “The most powerful institutions, the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank, belong to three or four countries. The others are watching. The world is organised by the war economy and the war culture.”

In a May 2013 “Democracy Now!” appearance, below, Galeano talked about his book “Children of the Days”:

Also in May 2013, Galeano discussed writing, “historical amnesia” and his struggle against cancer:

In 2009, Galeano responded to then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s act of giving a copy of Galeano’s classic work “The Open Veins of Latin America” to U.S. President Barack Obama:

After the election of Obama in November 2008, Galeano said the president should never forget that “the White House was built by black slaves”:

In 2006, Galeano talked about immigration, Latin America, Iraq, writing and soccer:

In an audio-only clip recorded in 2000, Galeano joins Brazilian photojournalist Sebastian Salgado and “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman for a conversation about the world’s poor and the human condition.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.