But there was. For quite a while the twentieth century has been on its way; it forges ahead as if nothing had happened. The inhabitants of San José de Gracia continue in the same houses, living and surviving among the same mountains of central Mexico—to the disenchantment of the devout who were expecting Paradise, and to the relief of sinners, who find that this little village isn’t so bad after all, if one makes comparisons.
(200)*
* The numbers at the foot of each item refer to the documentary sources consulted by the author, listed on pages 281–301.
1900: West Orange, New Jersey
Edison
Through his inventions the new century receives light and music.
Everyday life bears the seal of Thomas Alva Edison. His electric lamp illumines the nights and his phonograph preserves and diffuses the voices of the world, no longer to be lost. People talk by telephone thanks to the microphone he has added to Bell’s invention, and pictures move by virtue of the projecting apparatus with which he completed the work of the Lumière brothers.
In the patent office they clutch their heads when they see him coming. Not for a single moment has this multiplier of human powers stopped inventing, a tireless creator ever since that distant time when he sold newspapers on trains, and one fine day decided he could make them as well as sell them—then set his hand to the task.
(99 and 148)
1900: Montevideo
Rodó
The Master, the talking statue, sends forth his sermon to the youth of America.
José Enrique Rodó vindicates ethereal Ariel, the pure spirit against savage Caliban, the brute who wants to eat. The century being born is the time of anybodies. The people want democracy and trade unions; and Rodó warns that the barbarous multitude can scale the heights of the kingdom of the spirit where superior beings dwell. The intellectual chosen by the gods, the great immortal man, fights in defense of private property in culture.
Rodó also attacks North American civilization, rooted in vulgarity and utilitarianism. To it he opposes the Spanish aristocratic tradition which scorns practical sense, manual labor, technology, and other mediocrities.
(273, 360, and 386)
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Acknowledgments
In addition to the friends mentioned in Genesis, who continued collaborating through this second volume, many others have facilitated the author’s access to the necessary bibliography. Among them, Mariano Baptista Gumucio, Olga Behar, Claudia Canales, Hugo Chumbita, Galeno de Freitas, Horacio de Marsilio, Bud Flakoll, Piruncha and Jorge Galeano, Javier Lentini, Alejandro Losada, Paco Moncloa, Lucho Nieto, Rigoberto Paredes, Rius, Lincoln Silva, Cintio Vitier, and Rene Zavaleta Mercado.
This time the following nobly undertook to read the first draft: Jorge Enrique Adoum, Mario Benedetti, Edgardo Carvalho, Antonio Doñate, Juan Gelman, Maria Elena Martinez, Ramirez Contreras, Lina Rodríguez, Miguel Rojas-Mix, Nicole Rouan, Pilar Royo, Cesar Salsamendi, Jose Maria Valverde, and Federico Vogelius. They suggested several changes and caught foolish and silly mistakes.
Once again Helena Villagra accompanied the work step by step, sharing tailwinds and setbacks, to the last line with mysterious patience.
This book
is dedicated to Tomás Borge, to Nicaragua.
Translator’s Acknowledgment
Translation is a field in which two heads are better than one. I am grateful to Mark Fried for making himself so freely available to cooperate in this work.
About the Author
Eduardo Galeano (1940–2015) was one of Latin America’s most distinguished writers. He was the author of the trilogy Memory of Fire, Open Veins of Latin America, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Days and Nights of Love and War, The Book of Embraces, Walking Words, Voices of Time, Upside Down, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, and Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History. Born in Montevideo, he lived in exile in Argentina and Spain for years before returning to Uruguay. His work has inspired popular and classical composers and playwrights from all over the world and has been translated into twenty-eight languages. He was the recipient of many international prizes, including the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom, the American Book Award, the Casa de las Américas Prize, and the First Distinguished Citizen of the region by the countries of Mercosur.
About the Translator
Born in London in 1904, Cedric Belfrage came to the U.S. in 1925 and began writing about movies in Hollywood. He was a cofounder of the National Guardian in 1948 and its editor until 1955, when a brush with McCarthy led to his deportation. He wrote ten books and novels published in this country, including Away from It All; Abide with Me; My Master Columbus; and The American Inquisition, 1945–1960. He lived with his wife, Mary, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, until his death in 1990.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Originally published in 1984 in Spain as Memoria del fuego, II. Las caras y las mascaras, by Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A.
Translation Copyright © 1987 by Cedric Belfrage
Copyright © 1984 by Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A.;
Copyright © 1984 by Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A.
Copyright © 1984 by Eduardo Galeano
Cover design by Liz Connor
ISBN: 978-1-4804-8141-1
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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Eduardo Galeano, Faces and Masks
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