Essay
Open Veins of Latin America
Las venas abiertas de América Latina
Eduardo Galeano · 1971
Synopsis
An essay in two parts on the economic history of Latin America since the conquest. The first follows the wealth of the soil: the gold and silver that make the fortune of Potosí, Zacatecas or Ouro Preto until the mines are exhausted, then sugar, cotton, coffee and cocoa, which wear out the land and impose monoculture. The second describes the stranglehold of foreign capital and large companies over industries and markets. One thesis recurs from beginning to end: the continent's underdevelopment is the reverse side of the development of others.
Context
The author says he spent four years gathering documentation and wrote the book in about ninety nights; it appeared in 1971. Banned by the military governments of Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, it was translated into English by Cedric Belfrage in 1973 and into French by Claude Couffon in 1981. Later editions add an epilogue written seven years later. In 2009, given by the Venezuelan president to the American one, it returned to the top of the bestseller lists; in 2014, the author said he could no longer reread his prose of that time, which he judged too heavy.
Who it is for
An essay in economic history in Spanish, in the tone of an indictment; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
Sold in more than a million copies and translated into more than a dozen languages, it is its author's best-known book; it is still read at university.