Eduardo Galeano

Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015), born in Montevideo, Uruguay, was an essayist, journalist, historian and activist, as well as one of Latin America’s most beloved literary figures. Galeano’s books include the trilogy Memory of Fire; The Book of Embraces; We Say No; Walking Words; and Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. His last book, Children of the Days (Los híjos de los días), was published in English in 2013. An outspoken critic of the increasingly dehumanizing effects of globalization on modern society, Galeano remained a passionate advocate for human rights and justice. His dissection of colonialism’s ruinous impact on South and Latin America — Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent — remains the seminal book on the topic.