The reading list for my college core course at UC Santa Cruz in the early 1970s included a book by a young Uruguayan author, Eduardo Galeano, called "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent." The book, which excoriated Europe and the United States for their exploitation of the region, was pretty standard fare at a school where Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse was a visiting professor and Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton was a fellow student.
I hadn't thought of the text for years. Then, at the Summit of the Americas last weekend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a copy to President Obama, and I dug out my musty edition to consider how much has changed since then -- and how much has not.
Read Full Article »
