Open Veins of Latin America : Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Excellent and classic book of Latin American history, from a Latinamerican and critic point of view. A must read for everyone interested in the hidden mechanisms of neocolonialism, imperialism, globalization and capitalism.

I was a bit bemused when Chavez gave Open Veins to Obama (if he hasn't already read it he probably won't start now), but I'm enormously pleased it shot to the top of the list here. Galeano is a glorious, incandescent, cruel, and heartbreaking writer - Open Veins was the first, and remains one of the very few, history books I've ever read that I couldn't put down, stayed up all night to read, and started waving in front of friends before I was even done. Is it an "unbiased" history? No. It's a corrective history, and as medicine for an all-american lifetime of Chiquita Banana + Flying Down To Rio + Those Mexican Devils, it's necessarily strong-tasting. There are no unbiased histories, remember? This is history written by the (nearly) defeated, a document of everything that was already left out once. If you think it should include the benefits of US participation in student exchanges with our Friends to the South, you're an idiot. You already got that part in the State Department filmstrip. To all you folks who just bought this (except for the Fox news interns - I assume you're just cherry-picking it for some lame scandal material) - when you're done move on to Galeano's Memories of Fire trilogy. Open Veins was just your warm-up, a really well written "history book". Memories of Fire is something else entirely, history as a hand on your face. And to all you world leaders scheduled to meet with President Obama - would one of you give him some Mike Davis next? Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World would be great. Thanks.

Gosh...I remember reading this book about 15 years ago during college. I do think it's important to put this book in historical context prior to judging the book itself...and yeah, it helps to read it before commenting on it! lol. Written during the height of the Cold War and after Castro's Cuban revolution by a Uruguayan writer, at that time there wasn't yet the sort of disappointment in the reality versus idealism of Communism that we take for granted today. Who knew that Castro would end up being such a megalomaniacal weenie, or that he would cling to power for so very long?! And to say the least, Latin America had experienced so much turbulence, poverty, and misery that it's hard for average US citizen to comprehend(try researching a little on the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia, to get just a taste, or see the Brazilian film "Pixote"). So, the book is a bit dated...it contains that zeitgeist of an era in which people really thought Communism could save the world. Kind of like the way we naively used to think Capitalism and Democracy could save the world, before the current Recession and Iraq, respectively.lol. Nevertheless, it does give a good tutorial on some of the long-standing grievances that cause strained relations between the US and its Southern neighbors even to this day. The problem is, it's an incomplete picture of blame. For example, while it's true that our CIA and govt. supported and even put in power brutal dictators such as Pinochet in Chile, and it's indeed a shameful part of our history, there were plenty of structural inequalities that would've taken place just the same without US interference(Spanish/Portuguese colonization being just as economically stratisfied and in many cases just as brutal as our English version, if not more...let's not forget that Portuguese and Spanish brought many slaves to South America and the Carribean, so that alone has it's own unfortunate legacy). And it's not as if most of the caudillos pre and post Bolivar weren't already either incompetent or money-grubbing scum. So, this is why I appreciated Obama's remark during the recent summit in which he said that the US would no longer interfere, but that being the case, let's not blame the US for every single problem(current economic disaster notwithstanding!). As for the blowhard Chavez, he's just a narcissistic Castro wannabe; dude even has his own tv show 'Hola Presidente'...good grief. Yet with all that oil money Caracas is still a dangerous dump(yes, I've been). In fact, many Venezuelans who live there believe Chavez is 1)the Devil 2)stealing tons of money and hiding it in Swiss bank accounts. I happen to think he's sincere but he's still a kook. An attention-craving kook. The best thing we can do is ignore him. Really. Another reason why getting off the oil teet is a good thing to do. I am recommending this book because it does explain some of the historical reasons why some South/Central Americans look at the US with distrust(and yeah, t

Este libro es un clasico. Te ayudara a entender el presente de America Latina llendo al pasado. Como fuimos invadidos por los europeos y nuestras riquezas saqueadas. Como se creo el sistema de produccion existente que nos ha mantenido "suddesarrollado", cual que el papel de los Estados Unidos y de los gobiernos corruptos Latinoamericanos". El libro es un grito por la libertad, una voz que se alza para decir basta ya de tanta sangre inocente derramada. Este libro nos recuerda que no debemos olvidar nuestra historia. porque "los pueblos que olvidan su historia cometen los mismos errores."

This book truly gives a historical view of the South America throughout during its last 500 years. The book depicts the abuses suffered by the common people. It begins by depicting the brutality of the Spanish Conquistadores and runs through the hole list of abusers. It gives a true historical account of what really happened. Needless to say, I recomend that you read it, if you really want to learn the truth. A true masterpiece of South American and Uruguayan literature.