Century of the Wind

This book was completely mesmerizing and beautiful in its portrait of human nature and the history of two continents. Galeano unfolds the story of the Americas in the 20th century with his magnificent story telling which makes the book difficult to put down or to forget. Each snipet tells of the experiences of various Americans from poor Indigeneous folk to the heads of state. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to people in the U.S. who should develop a better understanding of their sister countries to the south. Galeano is neither pessimist, nor optimist but rather chooses to reveal the naked reality of human experience and conduct from the most avaricious calousness to the most magnanimous heroism.

The literary world is indebted to Galeano for hispoetical honesty in articulately conveying the voice of suffering in the masses, in the few. In Century of the Wind, he speaks with fascinating brevity as he dances and intertwines the triumphs and failures of a resilient, albeit it haunted, century. Galeano's words become newspaper articles that come Alive, his charachters become colorful fragments of peace and war and love and politics, refusing to be silenced. He urges the reader to pay attention to the paradox of romancing a people whom have had chaos and horror thrust upon them. Cetury of the Wind is a pathway in which we can collectively examine the troublesome past of America and ask the next great question with some degree of vigor -- And where are we heading?

As an operatic finale, "El Siglo del Viento" could stand alone as one of the greatest pieces of Latin American literature. However, it is just the last part of the "Memoria del Fuego" trilogy. This makes it a unique book, a treasure, and -personally- one that influenced the most on me. Many historians have had outstanding investigative History books on Latin America. The difference with Galeano is that he found the way to conjugate History, Poetry and Story-telling into what is a superb masterpiece. Yet, his language (and I refer now to the original, Spanish version) is plain, easy to read and so pleasing. The tragedy of Latin American History is exposed in this exquisite homage to the lost lives of many Latin Americans who believed in a better future for this region. Despite everything that has happened in Latin America since Galeano wrote this book, it is still quite fresh. The roots of disgrace and -yet- the magic greatness of Latin America are alive: misery and dignity come hand in hand, like two inseparable sibblings. However, as Galeano said, utopia is necessary... to keep us walking.

Eduardo Galeano may be the world's best living writer and thinker, and Century of the Wind may be his best book. I've not yet read his newest. But this is an extraordinary history of the western hemisphere in the 20th century, told vignette by vignette. Each paragraph is a story of its own, but they form into a moving collage that will change forever how you view the world around you.

the trilogy of the americas comes to an end leaving me wishing this series could have gone on...perhaps Galeano will gifts us by making this a tetralogy by taking the books into the millenium...however here we see the owrld of the americas go through industrial transformations which turns the pristine world of the indians into a melting amalgam of cars, factories, wars, and crime...this Uruguayan writer tells history with no no pretense of his won point of view, which is very convincing if not idealistic at times...to read this book is not only to learn that there is much more to the word "america" than we think...we learn of our americas, a unique part of the world where many worlds collided and in turn, we learn of ourselves, because Galeano's vision here awakens us with his epic history inviting us to learn more.... this epic triology is still an overview that lingers in details here and there, but if you look at all the sources isted at the end of each book, you will find that this triology was more like a river leading to many seas....