President Obama met up with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez at the Summit of the Americas, where Chávez gave Obama a "gift" of a book, The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, by Eduardo Galeno. Obama joked to a reporter: "I thought it was one of Chávez' books. I was going to give him one of mine." And Chávez said of Obama: "I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president."For me, there are two kinds of people that hold opinions regarding Latin America: those who've read Eduardo Galeano's book "Las Venas Abiertas" ...and those who have not. Already, Galeano's English-language Wiki page has been updated to reflect that he is now most famous for Chávez' gift yesterday.
Oh, well. There's a lot of rediculousness in this world; you just have to make the best of it. Galeano has been a hero of mine ever since my Brother-in-law gifted me with a copy in 2000.
Apparently, President Obama is getting an opportunity to dig into Galeano's 1971 book in which he analyses 500 years of Latin American history. It is part of the canon, I think, of learning anything about the New World.
Others are picking up on Galeano, as well. This from ABC:
Sales Soar of Book Chavez Gave Obama
April 18, 2009 4:49 PM
Just after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a present this morning of a book that criticizes the role of the United States in Latin America -- "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano -- its Amazon sales rank was No. 54,295.
Just a few minutes ago it was No. 20.
- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller
2 comments:
(please forgive my inglish)
Mike, I´m very interesting in your opinion about the book. I´ve spoke with many (north)Americans and most of them denied the responsability of USA empire, and others empires, in the origin of our troubles.
Thnk.-
I really should write somemore about the book ...it's one of the most important works about Latin America ...and nowhere near as well-known as it should be.
Obama's a smart, well-educated guy; I was surprised that he wasn't familiar with it. But maybe he just didn't want anyone to know that he'd read it... the book has the power to change anybody that reads it.
This big leap in sales on Amazon.com has the power to change the attitude of US citizen more than almost any event I can remember.
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