The title of this book refers directly to Eduardo’s words in a speech where he encourages us all to say “no” to global systems of greed, regimentation, violence, repression and exploitation and “yes” to sharing, equality, justice and love. There are nearly three dozen essays here, all squarely hitting on themes revolving around the ongoing struggle for human dignity. For example, here are some of the essay titles: Pelé and His Retinue, El Che Guevara: Cuba as Showcase or Spark, In Defense of the Word, In Defense of Nicaragua, The Body as Sin or Celebration, War of the Fallacies. For the purpose of my review, below are my comments coupled with direct quotes from one essay I found particularly insightful and supercharged with passion - Ten Frequent Lies or Mistakes about Latin American Literature and Culture:

“A writer is one who writes books, says bourgeois thought, which splinters everything it touches. The compartmentalization of creative activity has ideologues specialized in raising walls and digging ditches.” ---------- Fortunately with our international internet culture with such sites as Goodreads, as readers and writers we are no longer bound (no pun intended) by books and other print media edited and produced by the publishing industry. A personal note: I am continually amazed at the creativity and innovations I see on Goodreads. That’s why I myself am hesitant to approach a newspaper or magazine to be a reviewer: I wouldn’t be able to choose the books I review or use any of the half dozen different formats I’ve created on my own. Also, of course, with Goodreads, a reviewer has immediate feedback from readers all over the world. To hell with all that bourgeois nonsense that says you are only a writer if you write books!

“The corporate powers behind mass media teach competition, not sharing. In the world that they set forth, people belong to automobiles and culture is consumed, like a drug, but is not created. This is also a culture, a culture of resignation, that generates artificial needs to obscure real ones.” ---------- I am appalled at all the violence and consumerism trumped up in the mass media; likewise, in places like the US, how automobiles dominate the culture. Also, I’m sickened at how I’ve heard people, even educated people, assume that retirement means spending most of the day and evening sitting in front of a TV. Side note: I’m very encouraged by the new Minecraft (created by an individual not a company) that encourages players to express themselves and create their own game environments and games. Evidently, this creativity has really caught on among kids all around the world.


“From the standpoint of the dominant ideology, folklore is a pleasant and minor thing, but this paternalism is exposed as pure and simple contempt when “handicrafts” invade the sacred sphere of “art.”” ---------- This is exactly why, as part of my review, I have included a fair number of images of street art from Latin America, which can be seen as a form of popular folk art. In many books by art historians discussing modern and contemporary art, this amazingly vibrant art of the people is not even given a word of coverage.


“We writers come from and write for a minority, although we are spurred by the intention and the hope of communicating with all the others.” ----- Eduardo Galeano regrets the current plight in his home country of Uruguay and all of Latin America – many millions of people he would dearly love to have read his books are illiterate. Personally, living in the US where the entire population in all 50 states is provided tuition-free public education, this statement gave me pause.


“A report of the International Labor Organization a few years ago indicated that there exist in Latin America 110 million persons “in conditions of abject poverty.” Isn’t structural censorship being applied to a huge number, denying them access to books and magazines which “circulate freely”? How can these multitudes read if they don’t know how to read, or have money to buy what they would need to read?” ---------- There is one online magazine featuring a review of Eduardo's book where the reviewer's concluding statement to sum up was: “For connoisseurs of propaganda only.” I wonder how many illiterate people living in abject poverty this reviewer knows personally. Would this reviewer judge any book providing a voice for people usually not given a voice a piece of propaganda?


“Literature can, I believe, claim a liberating political role whenever it contributes to revealing reality in its multiple dimensions and, whatever its subjects may be, in some way nourishes the collective identity or rescues the memory of the community that generates it. A love poem may end up, from this point of view, politically more fruitful than a novel about the exploitation of tin miners or banana-plantation workers.” ---------- And Eduardo Galeano goes on to say how a fantastic tale can reflect reality better than a naturalistic story respectful of what reality seems to be. Case in point, he cites how Julio Cortázar is more connected to reality in a story like “House Taken Over” where the author depicts a man and women representing a certain social class dislodged by a presence it lacks the courage to face. Now I must say, although I’ve read “House Taken Over” multiple times, this interpretation never occurred to me. Thank you Eduardo!


“When they are about to give birth, the Huichol women in Mexico’s Nayarit mountains do not think about the Biblical curse which condemned woman to beget in pain. They concentrate on the memory of the night nine months earlier, so that the child to be born may be worthy of the joy that made it.” ---------- Actually, this quote is from another essay in the book but I include it here since it contains so much wisdom in its celebration of life.

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The title of this book refers directly to Eduardo’s words in a speech where he encourages us all to say “no” to global systems of greed, regimentation, violence, repression and exploitation and “yes” to sharing, equality, justice and love. There are nearly three dozen essays here, all squarely hitting on themes revolving around the ongoing struggle for human dignity. For example, here are some of the essay titles: Pelé and His Retinue, El Che Guevara: Cuba as Showcase or Spark, In Defense of the Word, In Defense of Nicaragua, The Body as Sin or Celebration, War of the Fallacies. For the purpose of my review, below are my comments coupled with direct quotes from one essay I found particularly insightful and supercharged with passion - Ten Frequent Lies or Mistakes about Latin American Literature and Culture:

“A writer is one who writes books, says bourgeois thought, which splinters everything it touches. The compartmentalization of creative activity has ideologues specialized in raising walls and digging ditches.” ---------- Fortunately with our international internet culture with such sites as Goodreads, as readers and writers we are no longer bound (no pun intended) by books and other print media edited and produced by the publishing industry. A personal note: I am continually amazed at the creativity and innovations I see on Goodreads. That’s why I myself am hesitant to approach a newspaper or magazine to be a reviewer: I wouldn’t be able to choose the books I review or use any of the half dozen different formats I’ve created on my own. Also, of course, with Goodreads, a reviewer has immediate feedback from readers all over the world. To hell with all that bourgeois nonsense that says you are only a writer if you write books!

“The corporate powers behind mass media teach competition, not sharing. In the world that they set forth, people belong to automobiles and culture is consumed, like a drug, but is not created. This is also a culture, a culture of resignation, that generates artificial needs to obscure real ones.” ---------- I am appalled at all the violence and consumerism trumped up in the mass media; likewise, in places like the US, how automobiles dominate the culture. Also, I’m sickened at how I’ve heard people, even educated people, assume that retirement means spending most of the day and evening sitting in front of a TV. Side note: I’m very encouraged by the new Minecraft (created by an individual not a company) that encourages players to express themselves and create their own game environments and games. Evidently, this creativity has really caught on among kids all around the world.


“From the standpoint of the dominant ideology, folklore is a pleasant and minor thing, but this paternalism is exposed as pure and simple contempt when “handicrafts” invade the sacred sphere of “art.”” ---------- This is exactly why, as part of my review, I have included a fair number of images of street art from Latin America, which can be seen as a form of popular folk art. In many books by art historians discussing modern and contemporary art, this amazingly vibrant art of the people is not even given a word of coverage.


“We writers come from and write for a minority, although we are spurred by the intention and the hope of communicating with all the others.” ----- Eduardo Galeano regrets the current plight in his home country of Uruguay and all of Latin America – many millions of people he would dearly love to have read his books are illiterate. Personally, living in the US where the entire population in all 50 states is provided tuition-free public education, this statement gave me pause.


“A report of the International Labor Organization a few years ago indicated that there exist in Latin America 110 million persons “in conditions of abject poverty.” Isn’t structural censorship being applied to a huge number, denying them access to books and magazines which “circulate freely”? How can these multitudes read if they don’t know how to read, or have money to buy what they would need to read?” ---------- There is one online magazine featuring a review of Eduardo's book where the reviewer's concluding statement to sum up was: “For connoisseurs of propaganda only.” I wonder how many illiterate people living in abject poverty this reviewer knows personally. Would this reviewer judge any book providing a voice for people usually not given a voice a piece of propaganda?


“Literature can, I believe, claim a liberating political role whenever it contributes to revealing reality in its multiple dimensions and, whatever its subjects may be, in some way nourishes the collective identity or rescues the memory of the community that generates it. A love poem may end up, from this point of view, politically more fruitful than a novel about the exploitation of tin miners or banana-plantation workers.” ---------- And Eduardo Galeano goes on to say how a fantastic tale can reflect reality better than a naturalistic story respectful of what reality seems to be. Case in point, he cites how Julio Cortázar is more connected to reality in a story like “House Taken Over” where the author depicts a man and women representing a certain social class dislodged by a presence it lacks the courage to face. Now I must say, although I’ve read “House Taken Over” multiple times, this interpretation never occurred to me. Thank you Eduardo!


“When they are about to give birth, the Huichol women in Mexico’s Nayarit mountains do not think about the Biblical curse which condemned woman to beget in pain. They concentrate on the memory of the night nine months earlier, so that the child to be born may be worthy of the joy that made it.” ---------- Actually, this quote is from another essay in the book but I include it here since it contains so much wisdom in its celebration of life.
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