EDUARDO GALEANO: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE, WORKS, PHRASES - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano (1940-2015), better known as Eduardo Galeano, was a Uruguayan writer and journalist who is considered one of the most outstanding intellectuals in America. His work focused on investigating and exposing the realities of the continent and knowing the origin of its political and social elements.

Galeano's texts were characterized by being critical, controversial, reflective, analytical and incisive. The writer used clear and precise language, almost always challenging and in a denouncing tone. This author also reflected in his works his thoughts on the enrichment of European countries and the United States at the expense of the benefits of Latin America.

Eduardo Galeano. Source: Mariela De Marchi Moyano from Vicenza, Italy, via Wikimedia Commons

Eduardo Galeano's literary production was broad and oriented towards the social, cultural, political, historical, ethical and moral. Some of his most outstanding works were: The open veins of Latin America, Violence and alienation, Vagamundo and Voices of our time. This Uruguayan writer continues in force through his intelligent texts.

Biography

Birth and family

Eduardo was born on September 3, 1940 in the city of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The author came from a cultured family, with a high socioeconomic level and a Catholic belief. His parents were Eduardo Hughes Roosen and Licia Esther Galeano Muñoz, who cared greatly for his academic and intellectual training.

Studies and youth

Galeano attended his first years of studies in his hometown. Little data is available on the secondary and university education of this writer. Now, what is known is that as a teenager he became interested in literature and drawing and for both activities he showed talent.

Young Eduardo started the labor market at an early age. He dedicated himself to making caricatures and at the age of fourteen he sold one of his political drawings to the socialist-oriented publication El Sol. After that, he worked as a messenger, worker, factory employee and bank teller.

Journalistic beginnings

Eduardo Galeano's journalistic career began in 1960, when he was barely twenty years old. At that time he was in charge of directing the editorial department of the weekly Marcha, one of the most prestigious of the time. The mentioned publication had as main collaborators Mario Benedetti, Adolfo Gilly and Mario Vargas Llosa.

The nascent journalist proved to have sagacity and poise for the exercise of journalism. Galeano published his first work The following days and then he made China known in 1964, three years after having made his way in that field. By the mid-sixties he was already a recognized intellectual in his native Uruguay.

Literary boom

The sixties were significant for Galeano because he consolidated his career as a journalist and writer. In addition to publishing several newspaper articles, he released seven works. Some of the most outstanding publications of the author at that time were: The colors, Guatemala, occupied country and His majesty soccer.

First marriages

Eduardo Galeano was a man of love. Before the seventies he married twice. The first was with a young woman named Silvia Brando. As a result of the relationship, a daughter named Verónica was born. After that union, the writer married Graciela Berro Rovira and they had two children: Florencia and Claudio Hughes Berro.

Imprisonment and exile

Galeano's leftist thinking led him to intervene constantly in the political events of his nation. This is how the writer was accused of participating in the coup that took place in Uruguay on June 27, 1973 and which began a dictatorial government that lasted until 1985.

As a consequence of his political position, Eduardo Galeano was sent to prison for a time and then forced into exile. The journalist went to Argentina and quickly resumed his professional career with the creation of Crisis, a cultural and political magazine. Despite what has happened in his country, the author refused to put aside his criticism.

At that time the work of the writer The Open Veins of Latin America (1971) was banned in Uruguay for its critical content.

Exile in spain

Galeano's years of exile in Argentina were productive, but marked by the shadow of persecution. At that time the author published works such as: Vagamundo and The song of us. That was the time when he married for the third time. On this occasion he did so in 1976 with Helena Villagra, who became his life partner.

Eduardo Galeano, in the late sixties, interviewing the guerrilla César Montes in the Guatemalan jungle. Source: Eduardo Galeano, via Wikimedia Commons

Shortly after getting married, Eduardo went to Spain to avoid constant threats. There she began to develop one of her most recognized books, Memory of fire. The writer devoted himself to journalistic activity and released the works Days and nights of love and war, The stone burns and Voices of our time.

Return to your country

Eduardo Galeano lived in Spain for almost a decade. After that time he returned to Uruguay in 1985, just when the dictatorship came to an end. That same year the writer joined the journalistic and literary work.

A few months passed and the writer created the newspaper Brecha, together with Mario Benedetti and other intellectuals who were part of the now-defunct weekly Marcha. The publication had a large following and maintained its critical guidelines against capitalism and systems of global domination.

At the end of the eighties the writer published several works, some of them were: Password, The crossroads of Colombian biodiversity, The discovery of America that was not yet and other writings and The book of embraces.

Galeano and the Pro Referendum

Galeano's righteous and controversial personality remained alive despite the experiences of persecution and exile. That is why the intellectual was part of the 1987 National Pro Referendum Commission that was held in Uruguay to invalidate or revoke the Law of Expiration of the Punitive Claim of the State.

The aforementioned Law established that the criminal acts committed by the 1973-1985 dictatorship should not be tried.

Literary production in the nineties

In the nineties Eduardo Galeano had already consolidated his literary career throughout America. That time was one of the most productive stages of the intellectual. The author published nine works, including: Latin America to understand you better, The Walking Words and Letter to the Citizen 6,000 million.

Galeano's literary work was recognized in 1999 with the Lannan Literary Awards for freedom.

Galeano in the 21st century

Eduardo Galeano remained active in the public arena during the 21st century. The writer brought to light publications such as Tejidos. Anthology and Bocas del tiempo. In addition to this, recognition began by several universities in the American continent.

Eduardo Galeano during the Madrid Book Fair in 2008. Source: Mr. Tickle, via Wikimedia Commons

The intellectual expressed his support for Tabaré Vázquez in 2004 as a candidate for the presidency of Uruguay. A year later, Galeano was part of the TeleSUR television station as a member of the advisory committee. The journalist participated in the lawsuit for the sovereignty of Puerto Rico in 2006 with intellectuals of the stature of García Márquez and Ernesto Sabato.

Last years and death

The last years of Galeano's life were marked by lung cancer that he suffered since 2007. However, the author continued to write and attend some cultural events. Some of his most current works were: Letter to the Future Lord, Mirrors, The Children of the Days and Women. Anthology.

The awards and recognitions emerged at this stage in the life of the Uruguayan writer. He received the Honoris Causa Doctorate from the National University of Córdoba, the Stig Dagerman Award from Sweden and the Casa de las Américas Award. Eduardo Galeano died of cancer on April 13, 2015 in the city where he was born. The writer was seventy-four years old.

Awards and honours

- Lannan Literary Awards Award for Freedom in 1999.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Havana in 2001.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of El Salvador in 2005.

- Commander of the Order of May of Merit of the Argentine Republic in 2006.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad Veracruzana in 2007, Mexico.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Córdoba in 2008, Argentina.

- Professor Honoris Causa by the University of Buenos Aires in 2009.

- Stig Dagerman Award in 2010, Sweden.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Cuyo in 2011, Argentina.

- Bi-100 Medal in 2011.

- Bi-200 Medal in 2011.

- Casa de las Américas Award in 2011, Cuba.

- Deodoro Roca Distinction from the University Federation of Buenos Aires in 2011 for being a guide for young Latin Americans.

- Alba de las Letras Award in 2013.

- Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Guadalajara in 2013, Mexico.

Style

Eduardo Galeano's literary style was characterized by the use of clear and precise language, with a certain journalistic tonality. The work of this Uruguayan author was based on exposing the historical, social and political reality of America and the submission it received from the world powers.

Galeano's texts were investigative and reflective. In general, the content that the writer developed generated controversy and debate within right-wing political systems, this was due to his leftist thinking and his position in front of the empires.

Plays

- The following days (1963).

- China (1964).

- The colors (1966).

- Guatemala, occupied country (1967).

- Reports (1967).

- The ghosts of the day of the lion and other stories (1967).

- His majesty football (1968).

- The open veins of Latin America (1971).

- Seven images of Bolivia (1971).

- Violence and alienation (1971).

- Latin American Chronicles (1972).

- Vagamundo (1973).

- The song of us (1975).

- Conversations with Raimón (1977).

- Days and nights of love and war (1978).

- The stone burns (1980).

- Voices of our time (1981).

- Memory of fire (1982-1986).

- Adventures of the young gods (1984).

- Window on Sandino (1985).

- Password (1985).

- The crossroads of Colombian biodiversity (1986).

- The discovery of America that was not yet and other writings (1986).

- The blue tiger and other articles (1988-2002).

- Interviews and articles (1962-1987).

- The book of hugs (1989).

- We say no (1989).

- Latin America to understand you better (1990).

- Words: personal anthology (1990).

- Being like them and other articles (1992).

- Amares (1993).

- The walking words (1993).

- Use it and throw it away (1994).

- Football in the sun and shade (1995).

- Legs up: school of the world upside down (1998).

- Letter to the citizen 6,000 million (1999).

- Fabrics. Anthology (2001).

- Mouths of time (2004).

- The trip (2006).

- Letter to the future man (2007).

- Upside down. The school of the world upside down (2008).

- Mirrors (2008).

- The resurrection of the Parrot (2008).

- The children of the days (2011).

- Women. Anthology (2015).

Brief description of some of his works

The Open Veins of Latin America

It was one of the most outstanding and referential books by Eduardo Galeano. The work was an essay of historical and political content on the use of the economic and natural resources of America by the powerful and imperialist countries. The text ranged from the Spanish conquest to the middle of the 20th century.

Eduardo Galeano in 1984. Source: Antonio Dal Masetto - Eduardo Galeano, via Wikimedia Commons

The text was supported by several months of documentary research carried out by the author. The book was not well received by the dictatorial governments of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile and was censored. The work was very controversial due to its content and is still in force due to its depth and reflective character.

Structure

Galeano wrote the book in simple, precise and easily understood language. He structured it in two sections: "The poverty of man as a result of the wealth of the earth" and "Development is a journey with more castaways than sailors."

Fragment

“The system is very rational from the point of view of its foreign owners and our bourgeoisie of commission agents, who have sold their souls to the devil at a price that would have shamed Faust. But the system is so irrational for everyone else, that the more it develops the more it sharpens its imbalances and its tensions, its burning contradictions…

“The system has not anticipated this small annoyance: what is left over is people. And people reproduce. Love is made with enthusiasm and without precautions. More and more people are left on the side of the road, without work in the fields, where the large estates reign with its gigantic wastelands, and without work in the city, where machines reign: the system vomits men ”.

Memory of fire

It was a trilogy by Galeano, which was released between 1982 and 1986. This work was conceived by the author during his years of exile in Spain. The content of the book was a narrative about the origin of Latin America and its historical evolution until the 20th century.

The work was made up of:

- The births (1982). It spanned from the creation of the world to the seventeenth century.

- The faces and the masks (1984). The work spanned the 18th and 19th centuries.

- The century of the wind (1986). This last part of the trilogy spanned the 20th century.

Fragment

“The gods made the first Maya-Quiche out of clay. They did not last long. They were soft, without strength; they fell apart before walking. Then they tried wood. The stick figures talked and walked, but they were dry: they had neither blood nor substance, memory nor direction. They didn't know how to talk to the gods, or they couldn't find anything to say to them…

“Then the gods made mothers and fathers out of corn. With yellow corn and white corn they kneaded their meat. The women and men of corn saw as much as the gods. Her gaze extended over the entire world. The gods steamed and left their eyes cloudy forever, because they did not want people to see beyond the horizon… ”.

The book of hugs

It was one of the most recognized works of the Uruguayan writer, which exhibited short stories on topics related to literature, history, culture, religion, politics and society. The 191 stories were accompanied by some drawings made by the author himself.

The stories are only expressions of the writer extracted from their experiences. They do not have a narrative sequence or a trigger to direct the story. They were constant evocations to the past to value the present. Eduardo Galeano used clear and precise language with a certain emotionalism.

Some of the most prominent stories were:

- "La ventolera".

- "Mapamundi / I".

- "Diagnosis and therapy".

- "Cortázar".

- "Cry".

- "Celebration of friendship".

Fragment of "Diagnosis and Therapeutics"

"Love is one of the most fucking and contagious diseases. To the sick, anyone recognizes us. Deep circles under the eyes reveal that we never sleep, awakened night after night by the hugs, and we suffer from devastating fevers and feel an irresistible need to say stupid things…

“Love can be provoked by dropping a handful of love me powder, as if inadvertently, in coffee or soup or drink. It can be provoked, but it cannot be prevented. Holy water does not prevent it, nor does host dust prevent it; neither the clove of garlic is good for anything… ”.

Fragment of "Cortázar"

“… Julio said that the emotions of the living reach the dead as if they were letters, and that he had wanted to come back to life because of the great pain that his death had given us. Besides, he said, being dead is a boring thing. Julio said that he wanted to write a story about that… ".

Mirrors

It was one of the last works of Eduardo Galeano, through which he exhibited more than a hundred stories on various subjects. It was a book about history, anecdotes, religion, humanity, culture, society, education, among other aspects.

Some of the titles that made up this work were:

- "Resurrection of Jesus".

- "The ages of Juana La loca".

- "Foundation of machismo".

- "Education in the times of Franco."

- "Forbidden to be a worker."

- “Civil rights in football”.

- "Forbidden to be a Jew."

- "Forbidden to be normal."

- "In God We Trust?".

- "Forbidden to be a woman."

- "Family portrait in Argentina".

- "Two traitors."

- "Your future condemns you."

- "The salt of this earth."

- "Jazz Foundation".

Fragment of "The salt of this earth"

“In 1947, India became an independent country. Then the great Hindu newspapers, written in English, who had made fun of Mahatma Gandhi, a ridiculous little character, changed their minds when he launched the Salt March in 1930. The British Empire had built a wall of logs four thousand six hundred kilometers long, between the Himalayas and the coast of Orissa, to prevent the passage of salt from this land… ”.

Fragment of "Your future condemns you"

“Centuries before cocaine was born, coca was already the devil's leaf. As the Andean Indians chewed it in their pagan ceremonies, the church included coca among the idolatries to be extirpated. But the plantations, far from disappearing, have multiplied by fifty since it was discovered that coca was essential…

"She masked the exhaustion and hunger of the multitude of Indians who ripped silver from the guts of Cerro Rico de Potosí… Today, coca is still sacred for the Indians of the Andes and a good remedy for anyone…".

The following days

First novel by the Uruguayan author. According to Galeano himself, it is a "pretty bad" story that is part of his "literary prehistory."

However, it is interesting to know the beginnings of a writer who progressed by leaps and bounds as his narrative capacity grew.

The story hunter

Galeano's last work, written one year before he died and published just one year after the fatal outcome.

In it, he shows us a world full of horrors through rawness and a sense of humor. To do this, she narrates small stories where she leaves us some apexes of her childhood, youth and stage of continuous transitions through the turbulent stage that Galeano had to live through.

Days and nights of love and war

At the age of 26, a young journalist Galeano traveled to the Central American country that gives the novel its title in order to meet with some of the protagonists of the war that was going on at that time.

In the book all those interviews and experiences that the author lived are captured, dividing it into ten chapters and an appendix written by the poet and essayist Luis Cardozo y Aragón.

Football in sun and shade

“He was a brilliant player, the best in the world… when he was dreaming. When he woke up he had wooden legs. So I decided to be a writer ”. A soccer fan and Nacional fan, Galeano wrote this work narrated with great passion.

The book is considered one of the greatest tributes that the beautiful sport has received, despite also having a certain pessimistic tone about how commercial interests are placed before the romanticism of sport.

The song of us

Winning novel of the Casa de las Américas contest. Testimony about her exile of which she makes a metaphor through the destruction.

The horror, against the background of fascism and the military dictatorship and the melancholy of a forbidden land that he longs for, is one of his most difficult works to catalog.

Legs up: School of the world upside down

From Sherezade to Marilyn Monroe, Galeano tells a series of stories dedicated to famous women, anonymous or female groups whose personality and firmness led them to make history in a man's world.

A tribute to them, in a work cared for from the smallest detail by the author himself.

The children of the days

Compilation of 366 short stories based on anonymous heroes, each representing one day of the year.

Again, Galeano makes use of irony and intelligent humor to sensibly narrate events in today's society.

The walking words

Series of stories, experiences and anecdotes with the novelty of being accompanied by more than 400 engravings that enliven a work with an overloaded language.

Written in order to make you think but also to laugh and enjoy the humor of the Uruguayan author.

Mouths of time

Set of small stories on various topics such as childhood, love, land, music or war that lead to a single story.

Phrases

- "Unlike solidarity, which is horizontal and is exercised as equals, charity is practiced from top to bottom, it humiliates those who receive it and never alters even a little the power relations."

- “Each person shines with their own light among all the others. There are not two equal fires. There are big fires and small fires and fires of all colors ”.

- "Utopia is on the horizon. I walk two steps. I walk ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further. No matter how much I walk I will never reach it. So, for what does the utophy works? For that, it serves to walk ”.

- “Cult is not the one who reads the most books. Cult is one who is capable of listening to another ”.

- "Scientists say that we are made of atoms, but a little bird told me that we are made of stories."

- “Only fools believe that silence is a void. It is never empty ”.

- "Many small people, in small places, doing small things, can change the world."

- "And there was nothing wrong, and there was nothing strange that my heart had broken from using it so much."

- "Hopefully we can have the courage to be alone, and the courage to risk being together."

- “If I fell, it's because I was walking. And walk worth, although you fall".

References

1. Eduardo Galeano. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia, org.
2. Tamaro, E. (2019). Eduardo Galeano. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
3. Galeano, Eduardo. (2015). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: writers.org.
4. Eduardo Galeano, 15 reflections and a memory. (2018). (N / a): Restless Culture. Recovered from: culturainquieta.com.
5. The Open Veins of Latin America. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.