Teotihuacán, 4
Tepeaca, 69
Tepehuanes Indians, 189–90
Tepeyac, 84
Tereupillán, 211–12
Tetón, Juan, 128
Teuctepec, 54
Texcoco, 70, 128, 156
Tierra del Fuego, 36
Tillamook Indians, 31
Titicaca, Lake, 23, 39, 154
Tituba (slave), 270
Tlatelolco, 64, 71, 155, 156
Tlaxcala, 48, 70, 129
Tlazoltéotl, 66
Tocuyo, 118
Toledo, 80
Toltec Indians, 5, 19
Tonantzin, 84
Torama, 170
Torres, Alonso de, 112
Torres, Luis de, 46
Torres, Simón de, 167
Tortuga Island, 244, 246–47
Tovar, Hernando del, 189
Treatise on Necessary Policy (González de Cellorigo), 174
Trinidad, 190, 193
Trujillo, 197
Tucapel, 119
Tucumán, 254
Tukano Indians, 9
Tukuna Indians, 34–35
Tula, 19, 156
Tulán, 40
Tumbes, 81, 94
Tunis, 93
Túpac Amaru, 147, 169
Tuxkahá, 79
Ubinas volcano, 205–6
Uceda, duke of, 195–96
Uitoto Indians, 12
Ulúa, Valley of, 96
Underhill, John, 221–22
Urubamba River, 96
Utatlán, 78
Utopia, 61
Utopia (More), 132
Vaca de Castro, Cristóbal, 115
Valderrábano (scribe), 59
Valdivia, Pedro de, 101, 102, 111–12, 113, 116, 118, 119–20, 177
Valladolid, 54, 110, 117, 174
Valle, Jualdel,189
Valparaíso, 111, 116
Valverde, Vincente de, 87–88
Vanbel, 280–81
Vancouver Island, 15
Vázquez, Antonio, 226
Vázquez, Juan Bautista, 159
Vázquez, Tomás, 136
Vázquez de Coronado, Francisco, 157
Vázquez de Espinosa, Antonio, 197–98
Vega, Lope de, 195
Velasco, Luis de, 228
Velázquez, Diego, 65
Velho, Jorge, 273
Venezuela, 81, 118, 134
Veracruz, 64, 95, 213
Verapaz, 204
Vespucci, Amerigo, 54, 61
Vieira, Antonio, 225–26, 276
Vilcabamba, 107
Villa de los Bergantines, 133
Virginia, 182, 190, 191, 221, 228, 244, 255
Virginia Company, 182, 190
Virgin of Copacabana, 154
Virgin of Guadelupe, 84, 187–88
Virgin of Regla, 277
Virgins of Candelaria, 193
Waiwai Indians, 9
Wall Street, 243
Wampanoag Indians, 255–56
Wanakauri, Mount, 39
Waterdrinker, 41–42
Wawenock Indians, 5
Welser (German banker), 62, 81, 100
Wilcabamba Mountains, 147
Winthrop, John, 220–21
Wiracocha, 39
Xaquixaguana, 90, 112, 113, 114
Xochimilco, 150, 151
Yagan Indians, 36
Yanaoca, 205
Yarovilcas Indians, 184
Yarutini, 181
Yauyoa, 141
Yobuënahuaboshka, 7
York, duke of, 252
Yorktown, 255
Yoruba Indians, 258
Yucatán, 4, 42, 65, 76, 96
Yupanqui, Francisco Tito, 154
Yuste, 129
Zaca, 170
Zacatecas, 115, 189, 190
Zamora, 204
Zape, 189
Zapotec Indians, 24, 26, 237
Zárate (lawyer), 109
Zuazo, Alonso, 78, 79
Zumárraga, Bishop, 84
Zumbí, Chief, 258, 274, 275
Acknowledgments
to Jorge Enrique Adoum, Angel Berenguer, Hortensia Campanella, Juan Gelman, Ernesto González Bermejo, Carlos María Gutierrez, Mercedes López-Baralt, Guy Prim, Fernando Rodríguez, Nicole Rouan, César Salsamendi, Héctor Tizón, José María Valverde, and Federico Vogelius, who read the drafts and made valuable comments and suggestions;
to Federico Alvarez, Ricardo Bada, José Fernando Balbi, Alvaro Barros-Lémez, Borja and José María Calzado, Ernesto Cardenal, Rosa del Olmo, Jorge Ferrer, Eduardo Heras León, Juana Martínez, Augusto Monterroso, Dámaso Murúa, Manuel Pereira, Pedro Saad, Nicole Vaisse, Rosita and Alberto Villagra, Ricardo Willson, and Sheila Wilson-Serfaty, who eased the author’s access to the necessary bibliography;
to José Juan Arrom, Ramón Carande, Alvaro Jara, Magnus Mörner, Augusto Roa Bastos, Laurette Sejourné, and Eric R. Wolff, who answered queries;
to the AGKED Foundation of West Germany, which contributed to the realization of this project;
and especially to Helena Villagra, who was its implacable and beloved critic, page by page, as it was realized.
This Book
is dedicated to Grandmother Esther. She knew it before she died.
E. G.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Memory of Fire Trilogy
Promise of America
The blue tiger will smash the world.
Another land, without evil, without death, will be born from the destruction of this one. This land wants it. It asks to die, asks to be born, this old and offended land. It is weary and blind from so much weeping behind closed eyelids. On the point of death it strides the days, garbage heap of time, and at night it inspires pity from the stars. Soon the First Father will hear the world’s supplications, land wanting to be another, and then the blue tiger who sleeps beneath his hammock will jump.
Awaiting that moment, the Guaraní Indians journey through the condemned land.
“Anything to tell us, hummingbird?”
They dance without letup, ever lighter and airier, intoning the sacred chants that celebrate the coming birth of the other land.
From the sea coasts to the center of America, they have sought paradise. They have skirted jungles and mountains and rivers in pursuit of the new land, the one that will be founded without old age or sickness or anything to interrupt the endless fiesta of living. The chants announce that corn will grow on its own and arrows shoot into the thickets all by themselves; and neither punishment nor pardon will be necessary, because there won’t be prohibition or blame.
(72 and 232)*
* These numbers refer to the documentary sources consulted by the author as listed on pages 261–76.
1701: Salinas Valley
The Skin of God
The Chirigua Indians of the Guaraní people sailed down the Pilcomayo River years or centuries ago, and reached the frontier of the empire of the Incas. Here they remained, beneath the first of these Andean heights, awaiting the land without evil and without death.
The Chiriguans discover paper, the written word, the printed word, when after a long journey the Franciscan monks of Chuquisaca appear carrying sacred books in their saddlebags.
As they didn’t know paper or that they needed it, the Indians had no word for it. Today they give it the name skin of God, because paper is for sending messages to friends far away.
(233 and 252)
1701: Sāo Salvador de Bahia
Voice of America
Father Antonio Vieira died at the turn of the century, but not so his voice, which continues to shelter the defenseless. The words of this missionary to the poor and persecuted still echo with the same lively ring throughout the lands of Brazil.
One night Father Vieira spoke about the ancient prophets. They were not wrong, he said, in reading destinies in the entrails of the animals they sacrificed. In the entrails,
he said. In the entrails, not the heads, because a prophet who can love is better than one who can reason.
(351)
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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 1982 in Spain as Memoria del fuego, I. Los naciminientos, by Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A.
Translation Copyright © 1985 by Cedric Belfrage
Copyright © 1982 by Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A.;
Copyright © 1982 by Siglo Veintiuno de España Editores, S.A.;
Copyright © 1982 by Eduardo Galeano
Cover design by Liz Connor
ISBN: 978-1-4804-8138-1
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
180 Maiden Lane
New York, NY 10038
www.openroadmedia.com
THE MEMORY OF FIRE TRILOGY
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