The final book of this amazing trilogy by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano really capped off the cycle. Galeano's history vignettes started with creation in the first book, Genesis, then covered 1700 to 1900 in the second book, Faces and Masks. This is so much more American history than I ever got in U.S. History or World History in school. Most of the little I already knew came from my own self-directed learning or from Memories of Liars (see what I did there?) on very biased news reports.

Although extremely interesting like the earlier books, this was the hardest for me to read. Before 1900, it was mostly colonial European powers, the church, and the elite that were the bane of people's existence in the Americas. I already knew enough about the behavior of those groups to dislike them and didn't take it personal except from a humanist point of view. Histories of behavior like Galeano documents are exactly the types of things that made me leave the catholic church as a teenager, become anti-war and a pacifist, and altered my view forever of capitalism and free enterprise. But the last book brought personal shame. After 1900, the United States really stepped up its sick imperial power game of installing dictators and murderers throughout the region. This game continues to this day. And now it was my country being primarily responsible for the misery of American peoples. Hard reading but necessary reading.

Reading Central and South American literature gives one a window into what life has been like in those areas. Many, if not all, of my favorite American writers were exiles at some point in their lives. Galeano himself had to flee Uruguay after the 1973 coup and then Argentina in 1976 after yet another coup there. He spent 10 years in Spain, where he wrote this trilogy, before eventually returning to Uruguay. Whether or not the history will lead you down the same evolutionary path as it did for me, you should read this trilogy. Your understanding and knowledge of western hemispheric history will benefit immensely. ¡Leamos! ( )

Covering the 20th Century up to 1984 this is the third and last of the three volumes of this work by Galeano. There is no way to describe it other than by confessing the sense of humbleness one is left with after completing its reading. This work is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of epic proportions that will by itself ensure the Uruguayan author a lasting place in the pantheon of 20th Century writers. ( )

Clippings from "news" items from 1900 through 1984. Galeano consulted a wide variety of documentary sources. ( )

see review for the trilogy

15.5