When it is genuine, when it is born of
the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a
mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or
anything at all. Because every single one of us has something to say
to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven
by others.
A person's Birth Certificate should be
their Passport.
Dreams and nightmares are made from the
same materials, but this particular nightmare purports to be the only
dream we are allowed to have: a development model that scorns life
and worships things. ~From We Say No”
The System: “The machine persecutes
the young: it locks them up, tortures them, kills them. They are
living proof of its impotence. It expels them: it sells them, human
flesh, cheap labor, abroad. The sterile machine hates everything that
grows and moves. It is only able to multiply the jails and the
cemeteries. It can produce nothing but prisoners and cadavers, spies
and police, beggars and exiles. To be young is a crime. Reality
commits it each day, at dawn; and so does history, which is each
morning born anew.
And so reality and history are banned.” ~From the book, Days and Nights of Love and War, by Eduardo Galeano
And so reality and history are banned.” ~From the book, Days and Nights of Love and War, by Eduardo Galeano
”The gods of the pariahs is not
always the same as the god of the system that makes them pariahs”
(Galeano, 1940, p. 85).
”The ruling powers shrug it off,”
wrote Galeano in 2002, of environmental destruction. ”When this
planet’s no longer profitable, they’ll move to another.”
”In Defense of the Word One writes
out of a need to communicate and to commune with others, to denounce
that which gives pain and to share that which gives happiness. One
writes against one's solitude and against the solitude of others. One
assumes that literature transmits knowledge and affects the behavior
and language of those who read... One writes, in reality, for the
people whose luck or misfortune one identifies with — the hungry,
the sleepless, the rebels, and the wretched of this earth — and the
majority of them are illiterate.”
The division of labor among nations is
that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the
world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has
specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance
Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the
throats of the Indian civilizations. Centuries passed, and Latin
America perfected its role. We are no longer in the era of marvels
when face surpassed fable and imagination was shamed by the trophies
of conquest — the lodes of gold, the mountains of silver. But our
region still works as a menial. It continues to exist at the service
of others' needs, as a source and reserve of oil and iron, of copper
and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined
for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin
America does from producing them. The taxes collected by the buyers
are much higher than the prices received by the sellers; and after
all, as Alliance for Progress coordinator Covey T. Oliver said in
July 1968, to speak of fair prices is a ”medieval” concept, for
we are in the era of free trade. The more freedom is extended to
business, the more prisons have to be built for those who suffer from
that business. Our inquisitor-hang-man systems function not only for
the dominating external markets; they also provide gushers of profit
from foreign loans and investments
...
in the dominated internal markers. Back
in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson observed: ”You hear of
'concessions' to foreign capitalists in Latin America. You do nor
hear of concessions to foreign capitalists in the United States. They
are not granted concessions.” He was confident; ”Slates that are
obliged ... to grant concessions are in this condition, that foreign
interests are apt to dominate their domestic affairs. . . . ,” he
said, and he was right. 1 Along the way we have even lost the right
to call ourselves Americans, although the Haitians and the Cubans
appeared in history as new people a century before the Mayflower
pilgrims settled on the Plymouth coast. For the world today, America
is just the United States; the region we inhabit is a sub-America, a
second-class America of nebulous identity.
Latin America is the region of open
veins. Everything, from the discovery until our times, has always
been transmuted into European — or later United States — capital,
and as such has accumulated in distant centers of power. Everything:
the soil, its fruits and its mineral-rich depths, the people and
their capacity to work and to consume, natural resources and human
resources. Production methods and class structure have been
successively determined from outside for each area by meshing it into
the unive
xxx
Along the way we have even lost the
right to call ourselves Americans, although the Haitians and the
Cubans appeared in history as new people a century before the
Mayflower pilgrims settled on the Plymouth coast. For the world
today, America is just the United States; the region we inhabit is a
sub-America, a second-class America of nebulous identity.
6 million Latin Americans at the top of
the social pyramid is the same as the amount shared by 140 million at
the bottom. There are 60 million campesinos whose fortune amounts to
$.25 a day. At the other extreme, the pimps of misery accumulate $5
billion in their private Swiss or U.S. bank accounts. Adding insult
10 injury, they squander in sterile ostentation and luxury, and in
unproductive investments constituting no less than half the total
investment, the capital that Latin America could devote to the
replacement, extension, and generation of job-cre
xxx
120 million children are Stirring.
Latin America's population grows as does no other: it has more than
tripled in half a century. One child dies of disease or hunger every
minute, but in the year 2000 there will be 650 million Latin
Americans, half of whom will be under fifteen; a time bomb. Among the
280 million Latin Americans of today, 50 million are unemployed or
underemployed and about 100 million are illiterate; half of them live
in crowded, unhealthy slums. Latin America's three largest markets —
Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico — together consume less than France
or West Germany, although their combined population considerably
exceeds that of any European country. In proportion to population
Latin America today produces less food than it did before World War
II, and at constant prices there has been a threefold decline in its
per capita exports since the eve of the 1929 crisis.
The human murder by poverty in Latin
America is secret; every year, without making a sound, three
Hiroshima bombs explode over communities that have become accustomed
to suffering with clenched teeth. This systematic violence is not
apparent but is real and constantly increasing: its holocausts are
not made known in the sensational press but in Food and Agricultural
Organization statistics. Ball says that it is still possible to act
with impunity because the poor cannot set off a world war, but the
Imperium is worried: unable to multiply the dinner, it does what it
can to suppress the diners. ”Fight poverty, kill a beggar!” some
genius of black humor scrawled on a wall in La Paz. What do the heirs
to Malthus propose bur to kill all the beggars-to-be before they are
born? Robert McNamara, the World Bank president who was chairman of
Ford and then secretary of defense, has called the population
explosion the greatest obstacle to progress in Latin America; the
World Bank, he says, will give priority in its loans to countries
that implement birth control plans. McNamara notes with regret that
the br
xxx
”If,” one of the Bank's documents
assures us, ”a developing country with an average per capita
income of $150 to $200 a year succeeds
in reducing its fertility by 50 percent in a period of twenty-five
years, at the end of thirty years its per capita income will be
higher by at least 40 percent than the level it would otherwise have
achieved, and twice as high after sixty years.” Lyndon B. Johnson's
remark has become famous: ”Let us act on the fact that less than $5
invested in population control is worth $100 invested in economic
growth.” 3 Dwight D. Elsenhower prophesied that if the world's
inhabitants continued multiplying at the same rate, not only would
the danger of revolution be increased, but there would also be a
lowering of living standards for all peoples, including his own. The
United States is more concerned than any other country with spreading
and imposing family planning in the farthest outposts. Not only the
government, but the Rockefeller and the Ford foundations as well,
have nightmares about millions of children advancing like locusts
over the horizon from the third world. Plato and Aristotle considered
the question before Malthus and McNamara; in our day this global
offensive plays a well-defined role. Its aim is to justify the very
unequal income distribution between countries and social elates, to
convince the poor that poverty is the result of the children they
don't avoid having, and to dam the rebellious advance of the masses.
While intrauterine devices compete with bombs and machine-gun salvos
to arrest the growth of the Vietnamese population, in Latin America
it is more hygienic and effective co kill guerrilleros in the womb
than in the mountains or the streets. Various U.S. missions have
sterilized thousands of women in Amazonia, although this is the least
populated habitable zo
xxx
Brazil has thirty-eight times fewer
inhabitants per square mile than Belgium, Paraguay has forty-nine
times fewer than England, Peru has thirty-two times fewer than Japan.
Haiti and El Salvador, the human antheaps of Latin America, have
lower population densities than Italy. The pretexts invoked are an
insult to the intelligence; the real intentions anger us. No less
than half the territory of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay,
and Venezuela has no inhabitants at all. No Latin American population
grows less than Uruguay's — a country of old folk — yet no nation
has taken such a bearing in recent years, with a crisis that would
seem to drag it into the last circle of hell. Uruguay is empty, and
its fertile lands could provide food for infinitely more people than
those who now suffer in such penury.
Over a century ago a Guatemalan foreign
minister said prophetically: ”It would be strange if the remedy
should come from the United Stares, the same place which brings us
the disease.” Now that the Alliance for Progress is dead and buried
the Imperium proposes, more in panic than in generosity, to solve
Latin America's problems by eliminating Latin Americans; Washington
has reason to suspect that the poor peoples don't prefer to be poor.
But it is impossible to desire the end without desiring the means.
Those who deny liberation to Latin America also deny our only
possible rebirth, and incidentally absolve the existing structures
from blame. Our youth multiplies, rises, listens: what does the voice
of the system offer? The system speaks a surrealist language. In
lands that are empty it proposes to avoid births; in countries where
capital is plentiful but wasted it suggests that capital is lacking;
it describes as ”aid” the deforming orthopedics of loans and the
draining of wealth that results from foreign investment; it ca
The wages Haiti requires by law belong
in the department of science fiction: actual wages on coffee
plantations vary from $.07 to $.15 a day. Galeano (1973) Vagamundo ,
p. 112
The big bankers of the world, who
practise the terrorism of money, are more powerful than kings and
field marshals, even more than the Pope of Rome himself. They never
dirty their hands. They kill no-one: they limit themselves to
applauding the show.
Their officials, international
technocrats, rule our countries: they are neither presidents nor
ministers, they have not been elected, but they decide the level of
salaries and public expenditure, investments and divestments, prices,
taxes, interest rates, subsidies, when the sun rises and how
frequently it rains.
However, they don't concern themselves
with the prisons or torture chambers or concentration camps or
extermination centers, although these house the inevitable
consequences of their acts.
The technocrats claim the privilege of
irresponsibility: 'We're neutral' they say.
Galeano (1991) Professional Life/3 p.
108; As cited in: Paul Farmer (2005) Pathologies of Power: Health,
Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor.. p. 10
I don't believe in charity. I believe
in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the
bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I
have a lot to learn from other people.
Galeano, in: David Barsamian (2004)
Louder Than Bombs: Interviews from The Progressive Magazine. p. 146
Fleas dream of buying
themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one
magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them - will rain
down in buckets. But good luck doesn't rain down, yesterday, today,
tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn't even fall in a fine drizzle, no
matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is
tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start
the new year with a change of brooms.
The nobodies: nobody's children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way.
The nobodies: nobody's children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way.
Who are not, but could
be.
Who don't speak
languages, but dialects.
Who don't have
religions, but superstitions.
Who don't create art,
but handicrafts.
Who don't have culture,
but folklore.
Who are not human
beings, but human resources.
Who do not have faces,
but arms.
Who do not have names,
but numbers.
Who do not appear in
the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local
paper.
The nobodies, who are
not worth the bullet that kills them.
The Nobodies; Cied in Mother Jones
Magazine (1991) The Book of Embraces. March-April 1991. p. 71
”Your legs will be your passport,
valid forever.”
I'm not particularly interested in
saving time; I prefer to enjoy it.
xXx
I believe in the diversity of the human
condition. The best thing about the world is the amount of worlds it
has.
My greatest fear is that we are all
suffering from amnesia.
Our defeat was always implicit in the
victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by
nourishing the prosperity of others - the empires and their native
overseers. In the colonial and neocolonial alchemy, gold changes into
scrap metal and food into poison.
The division of labor among nations is
that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the
world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has
specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance
Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the
throats of the Indian civilizations.
I don't believe in charity. I believe
in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the
bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I
have a lot to learn from other people.
History never really says goodbye.
History says, see you later.
Each person shines with his or her own
light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames and little
flames, flames of every color. Some people's flames are so still they
don't even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames that
fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor shed
light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you can't look at
them without blinking and if you approach you shine in the fire.
Utopia Lies At the Horizon. When I draw
nearer by two steps, it retreats two steps. If I proceed ten steps
forward, it swiftly slips ten steps ahead. No matter how far I go, I
can never reach it. What, then, is the purpose of utopia? It is to
cause us to advance. ”We have maintained a silence closely
resembling stupidity. —From the Revolutionary Proclamation of the
Junta Tuitiva, La Paz, July 16, 1809
La memoria sabe de mí más que yo; y ella no pierde lo que merece ser salvado. ― Eduardo Galeano
Nos podrán quitar las flores, pero
nunca la primavera. ― Eduardo Galeano
El subdesarrollo no es una etapa del
desarrollo. Es su consecuencia. ― Eduardo Galeano
Si Eva hubiera escrito el Génesis,
¿cómo sería la primera noche de amor del género humano? Eva
hubiera empezado por aclarar que ella no nació de ninguna costilla,
ni conoció a ninguna serpiente, ni ofreció manzanas a nadie, y que
Dios nunca le dijo que parirás con dolor y tu marido te dominará.
Que todas esas historias son puras mentiras que Adán contó a la
prensa. ― Eduardo Galeano
Si le niegan la boca, ella habla por
las manos, o por los ojos, o por los poros, o por donde sea. Porque
todos, toditos tenemos algo que decir a los demas; alguna cosa que
merece ser por los demas celebrada, o perdonada. ― Eduardo Galeano
¿Para qué escribe uno si no es para
juntar sus pedazos? ― Eduardo Galeano
La historia es un profeta con la mirada
vuelta hacia atrás: por lo que fue, y contra lo que fue, anuncia lo
que será. ― Eduardo Galeano
“I don't believe in charity. I
believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top
to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other
person. I have a lot to learn from other people.” ― Eduardo
Galeano
“The Church says: the
body is a sin.
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The Body says: I am a fiesta.”
― Eduardo Galeano
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The Body says: I am a fiesta.”
― Eduardo Galeano
“Each person shines with his or her
own light. No two flames are alike. There are big flames and little
flames, flames of every color. Some people’s flames are so still
they don’t even flicker in the wind, while others have wild flames
that fill the air with sparks. Some foolish flames neither burn nor
shed light, but others blaze with life so fiercely that you can’t
look at them without blinking, and if you approach you shine in the
fire.” ― Eduardo Galeano
“We are all mortal until the first
kiss and the second glass of wine.” ― Eduardo Galeano
“I have never killed anybody, it is
true, but it is because I lacked the courage or the time, not because
I lacked the desire” ― Eduardo Galeano
I am not particularly interested in
saving time; I prefer to enjoy it. ― Eduardo Galeano
The walls are the publishers of the
poor. ― Eduardo Galeano
“If the past has nothing to say to
the present, history may go on sleeping undisturbed in the closet
where the system keeps its old disguises.” ― Eduardo Galeano
“The big bankers of the world, who
practise the terrorism of money, are more powerful than kings and
field marshals, even more than the Pope of Rome himself. They never
dirty their hands. They kill no-one: they limit themselves to
applauding the show.” ― Eduardo Galeano
”In this world of ours, a world of
powerful centers and subjugated outposts, there is no wealth that
must not be held in some suspicion.” ― Eduardo Galeano
”Our defeat was always implicit in
the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by
nourishing the prosperity of others - the empires and their native
overseers. In the colonial and neocolonial alchemy, gold changes into
scrap metal and food into poison.” ― Eduardo Galeano
”History really never says goodbye.
It says, see you later.”
”While we can’t guess what will
become of the world, we can imagine what we would like it to become.
The right to dream wasn’t in the 30 rights of humans that the
United Nations proclaimed at the end of 1948. But without it, without
the right to dream and the waters that it gives to drink, the other
rights would die of thirst.”Excerpt from ”The Right To Dream.”
”In 1492 the natives discovered they
were Indians, they discovered they lived in America.”
Excerpt from ”Children Of The Days.”
Excerpt from ”Children Of The Days.”
”The division of labor among nations
is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of
the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has
specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance
Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the
throats of the Indian civilizations.” ~Opening to ”Open Veins of
Latin America.”
"I think the purpose of the writer is
to help us see. The writer is someone who can perhaps have the joy of
helping others see.” ~Interview with Argentina newspaper, Clarín.
"One writes out of a need to
communicate and to commune with others, to denounce that which gives
pain and to share that which gives happiness.” ~From ”Days And
Nights of Love and War.”
"The human rainbow had been mutilated
by machismo, racism, militarism and a lot of other isms, who have
been terribly killing our greatness, our possible greatness, our
possible beauty.” ~In a 2013 interview with Democracy Now
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