margaret_j_c's review against another edition
"Perhaps writing is no more than an attempt to save, in times of infamy, the voices that will testify to the fact that we were here and this is how we were."
The fragmentary nature of this seminal work bears witness to the fragmented lives of those who have lived under a dictatorship, those like Galeano who constantly began and re-began their lives in and out of danger and exile. At the same time, Galeano uses vignettes to bear witness to a vast number of individual narratives, giving a voice to silenced stories and denying, through their sheer number, the existence of the "master narrative" told by dictatorship and colonialism. A powerful work, and a beautiful one.
The fragmentary nature of this seminal work bears witness to the fragmented lives of those who have lived under a dictatorship, those like Galeano who constantly began and re-began their lives in and out of danger and exile. At the same time, Galeano uses vignettes to bear witness to a vast number of individual narratives, giving a voice to silenced stories and denying, through their sheer number, the existence of the "master narrative" told by dictatorship and colonialism. A powerful work, and a beautiful one.
gomar93's review against another edition
5.0
If there is a single text less than 200 pages that can better simultaneously transport one through the traumatic history of Latin America and give one hope for the improvement of the region through knowledge, I want to know of it! The poetics of Galeano's mostly biographical entries, so rapid-fire and yet complete, make me long for a book like this written by every author I admire. (Take, for example, Sandra Cisneros's wonderful adoption of the journal entry style to pay tribute to Galeano in the introduction). He composes each entry with a grace that is emblematic of all Latin America's greatest authors, crushing the limitations of time to fuse personal memory with the greater Latin American saga. In short, I felt I was Bolívar's ghost reading Galeano's prose, shaking my head for what has become, but also feeling nostalgic for the places I've been and feeling renewed to challenge the horrors that almost 40 years later linger from where we have come.
giovannigf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
pturnbull's review against another edition
4.0
So this is what it was like to live in the southern cone during its dirty little war against the young. At first the fragmented, sparse, understated narrative voice reminded me of Henri Michaux and Jean Rhys. Later, I realized that the narrator is numb most of the time, due to the war waged against love, against the poor, against joy, by the machine, which is power, and which represents a major player in Latin American history.
This book was first published in translation in 1983 and describes Galeano's experiences in the 1970s, when he lived in Argentina as an exile from his native Uruguay. He was the editor of Crisis, a political-cultural magazine published in Buenos Aires, and his work has him traveling throughout Latin America. Some of the people he meets and describes include Che, Salvador Allende, "the old man" (a disguised Borges, I think) as well as those who are not so famous, whose careers were abbreviated by their unfortunate citizenship in countries where thinking was punished by death. The book tells about Galeano visiting a cafe in Santiago, for example, and meeting a friend after months apart, and having a conversation in which that friend relays her kidnapping and mock execution. The bodies of writers he has edited are fished out of rivers. Danger is always there, but in a banal, quotidian way--it's just life, it's the way the machine works. Someone is kidnapped at night, tortured, returned after two days. Another is not returned, but killed, along with his young son.
Despite the horror and fear, there are nights of love with friends and strangers. Though many of these unions are brief affairs, the connections sustain him. Moments of tenderness, warmth, friendship and loyalty exist, even in this dirty war. Love is a rebellion against the machine, which views humans as slaves to be used and destroyed. The machine does what it can to annihilate the creative, caring community of humankind in the service of death and profit. Galeano remembers the heat of a woman's body and draws strength from the memory to pick up pen once more to write and share the stories of his time and place with the future. Recommended for all who are interested in 20th century Latin American history.
This book was first published in translation in 1983 and describes Galeano's experiences in the 1970s, when he lived in Argentina as an exile from his native Uruguay. He was the editor of Crisis, a political-cultural magazine published in Buenos Aires, and his work has him traveling throughout Latin America. Some of the people he meets and describes include Che, Salvador Allende, "the old man" (a disguised Borges, I think) as well as those who are not so famous, whose careers were abbreviated by their unfortunate citizenship in countries where thinking was punished by death. The book tells about Galeano visiting a cafe in Santiago, for example, and meeting a friend after months apart, and having a conversation in which that friend relays her kidnapping and mock execution. The bodies of writers he has edited are fished out of rivers. Danger is always there, but in a banal, quotidian way--it's just life, it's the way the machine works. Someone is kidnapped at night, tortured, returned after two days. Another is not returned, but killed, along with his young son.
Despite the horror and fear, there are nights of love with friends and strangers. Though many of these unions are brief affairs, the connections sustain him. Moments of tenderness, warmth, friendship and loyalty exist, even in this dirty war. Love is a rebellion against the machine, which views humans as slaves to be used and destroyed. The machine does what it can to annihilate the creative, caring community of humankind in the service of death and profit. Galeano remembers the heat of a woman's body and draws strength from the memory to pick up pen once more to write and share the stories of his time and place with the future. Recommended for all who are interested in 20th century Latin American history.
brittac's review against another edition
5.0
“If what is written is read seriously and to some extent changes or nourishes the consciousness of the reader, a writer had justified his or her role in the process of change: with neither arrogance nor false humility, but with the recognition of being a small part of something vast.”
Thank you, Galeano, for nourishing my consciousness and for being a small part of something vast.
Thank you, Galeano, for nourishing my consciousness and for being a small part of something vast.
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