Uruguay and the larger Americas have lost a great author and lifelong activist. Eduado Galeano, the author of the Veinas Abiertas de Latinoamerica passed on to join his colleagues at the age of 74 on Monday April 14, 2015. Galeano was known for his leftist leanings when it came to politics and justice in society. However, when he wrote about the society, culture, heritage and history of the Americas, but also the Global South he wrote universal stories and characters than transcended physical and linguistic borders. His characters and stories centered around the ordinary people and the everyday as in his latest novel Mirrors: the story of almost everyone. His last and final book Children of the Days recalls human history in diverse societies. Also a journalist, Galeano witnessed and wrote of the disastrous Cold War policies, US backed dictators/rebel groups across the Americas and revival of Latin American societies throughout the centuries. He was imprisoned during Uruguay's right wing dictatorship in 1970s and eventually left his birth country. In each of his story, he crisscrossed time and space, culture and combined poetry and critique of the world system. Going beyond the usual journalistic "unbiased" observations, Galeano wrote on the social movements for people's rights, human suffering and joy. Inspired by Uruguayan folk history, Galeano took up writing early in life and continued to write books and for magazines. He understood first hand the need to hear the stories/perspectives of all humanity not just a select few, to reclaim and decolonize world's memory and implement real justice for the marginalized and forgotten peoples.
Maldicion de Malinche por Las Zucaras
The song tells the story of indigenous identity and life during and after Spanish colonialism. It laments the real life betrayal of La Malinche, a Nahua women (the Nahuatl People are one of many indigenous peoples of Mexico) who aided Hernan Cortes and the Spanish in conquering Aztec lands in Mexico. Maldicion de Malinche was originally song by famed Mexican folk singer Amparo Ochoa. However the song applies to many countries in the Americas and spans a universal theme of indigenous rights to land, identity lost and found. Los Zucara as a Uruguayan duo band known for its popular music and folkloric music from 1967-1995. Los Zucara performed during the era of dictatorships and death squads across the Americas often supported directly and indirectly by the United States and its European allies at the expense of indigenous and local peoples in the region fighting for their rights. A fight that Los Zucara and Galeano understood too well.
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