He wrote novels and political articles exposing imperialism and right-wing oppressive governments.

Galeano’s style is unique, presenting facts and giving lessons of history in a beautiful and exciting prose, submerging the readers in pages of fascinating developments, helping them to understand the most complex historical processes with ease. Translated into many languages, “Open Veins” once again became a hit in 2009 when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez gave a copy to President Barack Obama during an OAS Summit, in that way introducing it to a new generation of readers. For example, while it was banned by several Latin American dictatorships, the book was allowed in the military jails of his native Uruguay for the first few months of the dictatorship because they thought it was a medical textbook, an anatomy book! Of course, once they realized their mistake, it was forbidden. It is a book that has many stories surrounding it. The student who went from one bookstore to another for a week in Buenos Aires’ Calle Corrientes, reading bits of it in each store because he hadn’t the money to buy it.” The woman who fled from Santiago in the days of the Chilean bloodbath with this book wrapped inside her baby’s diapers.

The girl who was quietly reading ‘Open Veins’ to her companion in a bus in Bogotá, and finally stood up and read it aloud to all the passengers. … The most heartening response came not from the book pages in the media but from real incidents in the streets. This book was written to have a talk with people. Seven years after publication, Galeano himself wrote: “Seven years have gone by since ‘Open Veins of Latin America’ was first published. Over the years, it has become a textbook of knowledge on the subject, in a way that ordinary textbooks cannot achieve.

Galeano’s “Open Veins” is required reading for those who want to learn about Latin America. Written in the early 1970s, his book exposed the devastating ravages of imperialist domination in Latin America and the Caribbean, much as Walter Rodney’s book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa,” did for that continent. Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan writer most famous for his “Open Veins of Latin America,” died April 13 of lung cancer at the age of 74.

Galeano open veins