The job of a writer is to break through this suppression, calling forth the reader’s imagination and freeing the mind and soul. For him, the most important thing is described by an expression he says originated with Argentinian fishermen: the semipensante, or the half-thought that necessarily manifests but is suppressed from being spoken aloud. For Galeano, writing from within a system of oppression forces an author to give precedence to specific elements over others. Most of The Book of Embraces is a reaction to being an exiled artist, and Galeano writes about the “culture of terror” that pervades Latin America. A native of Uruguay, Galeano was exiled from the country from 1973 to 1984 after a military coup took power and imprisoned him for his leftist beliefs. The writing is accompanied by Galeano’s hand-drawn illustrations. The elliptical, collage-like collection of short narrative pieces that make up Eduardo Galeano’s 1989 work The Book of Embraces takes as its subject matter the ways autobiography, anecdotes, dreams, political theories, and parables can be blended into a “sweeping critique of colonial culture, pop culture, dictatorships, and market-based economies.” Translated by Cedric Belfrage, Galeano’s writing tackles a panoply of genres and is unified by the narrator’s mordantly funny voice-suffused with a dark humor that jokes in the face of crisis.
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