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Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

Book by Eduardo Galeano · 21 quotes · America Latina, Latin America, Believe

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Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent Quotes

“Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others - the empires and their native overseers. In the colonial and neocolonial alchemy, gold changes into scrap metal and food into poison.”

WealthPovertyVictoryGoldDefeatProsperityPoisonNativeEmpiresMetalsAlchemyScrapImplicitScrap Metal
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“The tree of life knows that, whatever happens, the warm music spinning around it will never stop. However much death may come, however much blood may flow, the music will dance men and women as long as the air breaths them and the land plows and loves them.”

KnowsMenMayLongHappensAirTreeBloodLandMen And WomenFlowAnd LoveBreathsWarmSpinningWhatever HappensTree Of LifeSpinning Around
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“To narrate is to give oneself: it seems obvious that literature, as an effort to communicate fully, will continue to be blocked so long as misery and illiteracy exist, and so long as the possessors of power continue to carry on with impunity their policy of collective imbecilization through the mass media.”

GivingLongSeemsLiteratureEffortMediaPolicyMassMiseryOneselfObviousCommunicateCollectivesBlockedImpunityMass MediaIlliteracy
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“The Latin American cause is about all a social cause: the rebirth of Latin America must start with the overthrow of its masters, country by country. We are entering times of rebellion and change. There are those who believe that destiny rests on the knees of the gods; but the truth is that it confronts the conscience of man with a burning challenge.”

MenBelieveCountryAmericaSocialCausesChallengesDestinyMastersTruth IsConscienceBurningKneesRebellionLatinEnteringRebirthLatin AmericaLatin American
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“In un certo senso la destra ha ragione quando s'identifica con la tranquillità e con l'ordine: è l'ordine della quotidiana umiliazione della maggioranza, ma è pur sempre un ordine; è la tranquillità dell'ingiustizia che continua a essere ingiusta e della fame affamata.”

Human RightsRight WingSouth AmericaGaleanoSudamericaDestraSouth American AuthorsOpen VeinsVene Aperte
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“The Nobodies Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will suddenly rain down on them---will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn't rain down yesterday, today, tomorrow, or ever. Good luck doesn't even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day with their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody's children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don't speak languages, but dialects. Who don't have religions, but superstitions. Who don't create art, but handicrafts. Who don't have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the police blotter of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them.”

Nobodies
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“Y hay que tener en cuenta, que en una sociedad socialista, a diferencia de la sociedad capitalista, los trabajadores ya no actúan urgidos por el miedo a la desocupación ni por la codicia. Otros motores la solidaridad, la responsabilidad colectiva, la toma de conciencia de los deberes y los derechos que lanzan al hombre más allá del egoísmo deben ponerse en funcionamiento.”

SociedadSocialismoCapitalismoEconomía
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“En la actualidad, cualquiera de las corporaciones multinacionales opera con mayor coherencia y sentido de unidad que este conjunto de islas que es América Latina, desgarrada por tantas fronteras e incomunicaciones. ¿Qué integración pueden realizar, entre sí, países que ni siquiera se han integrado por dentro?”

America Latina
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“The vicious circle is perfect: foreign debt and foreign investment oblige us to multiply exports that they themselves devour. The task can't be accomplished with gentlemanly manners. To fulfill their function as hostages of foreign prosperity, Latin American workers must be held prisoner, either inside or outside of the jails.”

ProtestExploitationLatin AmericaDependency Theory
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