One of my favorite books is Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina (The Opens Veins of Latin America), written by Eduardo Galeano. I like this book because it shows the hard reality in our continent since several years ago. In Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina the autor try to teach us about a point of view of the poor people.
This book is set since Colony times until the seventies, a period of military dictatorships in South America. In each chapter, the book show us the injustice in this zone of world; the slavery in the mineral mines, the business between the powerful companies and the illness and poverty of the people that here lived.
Here is a quote where the autor argues about his idea of powerful countries versus poor countries:
"La división internacional del trabajo consiste en que unos países se especializan en ganar y otros en perder".
"The international division of labor consists in some countries are specialized in winning and other countries are specialized in losing". (Eduardo Galeano in Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina).
Here is a review of the book on Amazon
This book is MUST read for Every North and Latin American, April 9, 2000
This review is from: Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Paperback)
This Book was written By Galeano in 90 days ( moolighting) after his regular work in 1970. Yet it is the most enlightening account of 500 years of ransaking of a continent along with Genocide. This one and John Dos Pasos's USA, constitute the masterpieces in meta-historic literature. It is the story of spanish , british and american colonialism. What a shame for the guilty. A must read for all americans ( north and south of the border)... to see the naked truth. It also explains how this happened with the help of conquistadores, (the Cross and the Sword)along with the more recent and most corrupt mother-land sellers, diplomacy, dictators and transnationals. A must read for burocrats and hypocrits in international finance agencies, as well as the lay people interested in knowing the facts anywhere from the Bearing Strait to the Patagonia.
I totally agree whit this review, I think this book is MUST read for americans, europeans and everyone. There is History and there are stories about Latin America and his people. It's a very necessary reading material for young and old people.