The Memory of Fire Trilogy: Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind

Memoria del fuego

by Eduardo Galeano

Now in one collection, the century-spanning trilogy filled with “the wonders of the lands and people of Latin America” (The Washington Post).

Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire Trilogy defies categorization—or perhaps creates its own. It is a passionate, razor-sharp, lyrical history of North and South America, from the birth of the continent’s indigenous peoples through the end of the twentieth century. The three volumes form a haunting and dizzying whole that resurrects the lives of Indians, conquistadors, slaves, revolutionaries, poets, and more.

The first book, Genesis, pays homage to the many origin stories of the tribes of the Americas, and paints a verdant portrait of life in the New World through the age of the conquistadors. The second book, Faces and Masks, spans the two centuries between the years 1700 and 1900, in which colonial powers plundered their newfound territories, ultimately giving way to a rising tide of dictators. And in the final installment, Century of the Wind, Galeano brings his story into the twentieth century, in which a fractured continent enters the modern age as popular revolts blaze from North to South.

This celebrated series is a landmark of contemporary Latin American writing, and a brilliant document of culture. 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Latin American Literature, Politics, Poetry, 20th Century, Spanish Literature

984 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Eduardo Galeano was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1986) and Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history.

The author himself has proclaimed his obsession as a writer saying, "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."

He has received the International Human Rights Award by Global Exchange (2006) and the Stig Dagerman Prize (2010).

Reviews

[Shuhan Rizwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘এই মহাদেশ আমার কানে কানে অনেক কিছু বলে !’ এদুয়ার্দো গ্যালিয়ানো বলেছিলেন লাতিন আমেরিকাকে নিয়ে। বলেছিলেন, ‘অতীত ভুলে যাওয়ার রোগ আমার প্রিয় এই জায়গাটাকে অ্যাকেবারে কুরে কুরে খায় ! এই ব্যাপারটা বড্ড কষ্টদায়ক আমার জন্য। ’

আমেরিকা মহাদেশের ইতিহাস নিয়ে গ্যালিয়ানোর তিন খণ্ডের ‘মেমোরি অফ ফায়ার’ নামক সংকলন পড়তে গিয়ে টের পাই- গ্যালিয়ানো নিজের ওই কষ্টকে করে তুলেছেন সকলের।

কোথাও পড়েছিলাম, বেলজিয়ামের রাজা লিওপোল্ডের বদলে আমরা চিনি হিটলারকে, কারণ দ্বিতীয় জনের হাতে মারা যাওয়া মানুষগুলো ছিলো সাদা চামড়ার। টিভি পর্দায় ইউক্রেনের সাথে সিরিয়া বা ইয়ামেন দেখতে দেখতে, সেই উক্তিতে অবিশ্বাস করার কারণ খুঁজে পাই না। আমাদের উপনিবেশিত মন কেবল জানে সাদা চামড়ার নায়কদের। আমাদের চেনা ইতিহাস তাই ইউরোপের, এশিয়াও ধূলো আজ, আফ্রিকা কি লাতিন ছাই হয়ে গেছে।

এদুয়ার্দো গ্যালিয়ানোর দেখার চোখটা আলাদা। সাংবাদিক হিসেবে লাতিন আমেরিকার পথে পথে দীর্ঘকাল ঘুরে তিনি কথা শুনেছেন আদিবাসী থেকে গেরিলা যোদ্ধার, শিল্পী থেকে ডাকাতের। সাক্ষাৎকার নিয়েছেন প্রেসিডেন্ট থেকে পাদ্রীর, পাহাড়ে খেয়েছেন সাপের ছোবল, অরণ্যে আক্রান্ত হয়েছেন কালাজ্বরে। উত্তর আর দক্ষিণ মিলিয়ে, গোটা আমেরিকার এক অবিশ্বাস্য সজীব ইতিহাস তাই উঠে এসেছে তার রচনায়। কনডর পাখি বা জাগুয়ার নিয়ে লাতিন লোককথা যেমন আছে এই বইতে, আছে ‘সভ্য’ সব দখলদার মাদারচোত কর্তৃক গোটা মহাদেশটার প্রাচুর্য আর প্রথা হারানোর ক্ষোভ। আর আছে আধুনিক লাতিন আমেরিকার নায়কেরা; হোসে মার্তি, সাইমন বলিভার, এমিলিয়ানো জাপাটা, সান্দিনো; প্রত্যেকেই।

একটা আস্ত মহাদেশের ঐতিহ্য, পুরাণ, নায়কেরা- গ্যালিয়ানোর টুকরো টুকরো তথ্যমালায় হয়ে গেছে ইতিহাস। সেই ভাষাও প্রতিবেদনধর্মী নয়, বরং কবিতার মতো ধারালো। এই ভাষার প্রতি একটা মাত্র অনুযোগ আমার আছে, এবং সেটা আদতে প্রশংসাই। গ্যালিয়ানো সার কথাটি বলতে পারেন এমন সংক্ষেপে, যে আলোচ্য ব্যক্তি/ঘটনা সম্পর্কে কিছুই-না-জানা পাঠকের কাছে সেটা হয়তো হয়ে যাবে ধাঁধা। ম্যারাডোনার কথাই ধরুন, তাকে নিয়ে গ্যালিয়ানো যা বলেছিলেন (‘যতদিন খেলেছে, সে কেবল জিতেই গেছে। কিন্তু পেশাব করা মাত্রই সে হেরে গেলো।’); পেছনের ঘটনা কিছুই না জানা অ-ক্রিড়াপ্রেমীর কাছে; এই ব্যাখ্যা আকর্ষণীয় লাগবে হয়তো, কিন্তু দুর্বোধ্যও কি মনে হবে না?

এক বসায় নয়, দীর্ঘদিন ধরে অল্প অল্প জিইয়ে নিয়ে পড়ার মতো বই।

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genesis
Part 1 (Myths):
I really enjoyed these myths. Starting with the beginning of time, earth and man, these myths build to the creation of various flora, fauna and human traits over time; from "the creation" to the dreams/premonitions of "men wearing clothes".
Some of these myths & stories are familiar: the flood and the Orpheus & Eurydice, for example. The world is a small place; we all have similar stories.
I highly recommend this section of this series. (5-star)

Part 2 (Old New World)
Wow! What a ride!
The scope of this work is amazing. I thought it was about the South American and Mexican Indians but the range includes North American Indians of the South-East United States to Boston and El Paso. A truly grand scope.
It also includes the Africans brought over as slaves. I didn't realize that slavery was so wide spread in South America.
To the Europeans, the difference between the Africans and Native Indians was that the Africans attended to the personal & household needs of the Europeans, while the Native Indians attended to the mining and farming needs of the Europeans.
Throughout this telling, the myths and legends of all the peoples involved, including the Europeans is interwoven and present. It sometimes gives a surreal feeling to the stories being told.
This really is a book with a huge scope.
Galeaono tells these stories in very short chapters (mostly a page or less). In themselves the stories tell of heartache, suffering, traitors, saints, sinners, treachery. This land was taken for its riches and not an ounce of gold returned to the people for their welfare on any level. The addition that Galeano manages to include in these stories is Emotion. These stories show the depth of what the people were going through. How they hurt and lost and hoped and prayed.
The final chapter was a very fitting ending for the first part of this trilogy.
Not an easy book to read at times but always interesting and heartfelt. Well written and presented. Galeano told the story from all sides; Native and European.
I'll continue with the series but want to read a few lighter, happier books first.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Memory of Fire: Genesis

This was kind of a classic of Latin American lit in the 1980s. Galeano is an Uruguayan journalist and novelist who was persecuted by the dictatorships in Uruguay and Argentina during the 1970s. His other books include Days and Nights of Love and War and Open Veins of Latin America (which was banned in Argentina). Memory of Fire is a trilogy including: Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind. It is an epic prose poem covering Latin American history that defies easy genre categorization. It is written in short vignettes that are nonfiction, but flow in a narrative prose which reads like fiction. It is a delight to read. I read it in college when I was studying all things Latin American and just re-read Genesis. It was as powerful 30 years later.

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have spent the last 30 or so years citing the trilogy that makes up Memory of Fire recalling a comment in (I remembered) the third part – ‘Century of the Wind’ – along the lines that democracy is often confused with an electoral ritual. I’d read the trilogy just after they came out in English in the late 1980s and this comment really struck me. Earlier this year I wanted to quote it in a piece I was writing but knew I hadn’t a full citation, passed it over and headed back into the book so I had the reference for next time…. and now, 919 pages later know my memory failed me. So, democracy may still be mistaken for an electoral ritual, but Eduardo Galeano doesn’t say that in as many words anywhere in this superb history of the Americas (that quest continues).

More importantly, returning to collection after over 30 years away it is even better than I remember. Galeano’s grasp of the writer’s craft, his ability to allow an anecdote or moment to stand in, often metonymically, for a major historical moment, event or process makes this one of the finest historical narratives and pieces of creative non-fiction I know. The three volumes – ‘Genesis’, ‘Faces and Masks’ and ‘Century of the Wind’ – cover the period up to 1700, the 18th and 19th centuries and the 20th century (to 1984) respectively. Starting from time immemorial he opens with Indigenous (precontact) histories of world formation and human relationships with their worlds before leaping into the onset of colonialism, genocide, enslavement and colonial plunder. This is then followed by struggles for social justice and independence, democracy and dignity and the various forces of class and global power that set out to stop that.

Most of the focus is the areas colonised within the Spanish and Portuguese empires, but not exclusively, which can unsettle the English language reader where our focus is usually on the British and French colonial regions in the north. Yet this is very much a global history with Galeano linking back to the imperial bases in west and north Europe both for policy and practice as well as cultural and scientific developments. Even with this, it is very much up to us as readers to build the links and recognise the association: no chapter is more than a page long, some a single sentence – although themes recur, characters appear and disappear being picked up at various stages.

Most characters are not the ‘great men’ of history (such is the nature of my discipline that there are very few ‘great women’), but are often the marginal figures who provoke actions by Power in its quest to retain power. That this is the case means that Galeano shifts agency away from the dominant classes and elites to the ordinary people so often obscured or ignored by historical narratives. In building that dialogic, dialectical even, history the text reminds me of the observation by Mao Zedong that ‘the people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history’. Galeano’s style and the textual form take us into the worlds of the ordinary people, and in doing so gives us a transcontinental version of EP Thompson’s quest to “rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the ‘obsolete’ handloom weaver, the ‘utopian’ artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity” – the specific characters may not be the same, the social relationships are.

Re-reading after three decades with the changes to my historical consciousness and style brings home to me just what a superb piece of historical writing, analysis and presentation this is, and has reinforced my frustration at its marginalisation in my discipline – partly due to its form, partly due to its focus/subject, partly due to its authorship. It remains one of the great pieces of writing. But still, I am left with a quest for a quotation…..

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! A lot to talk about this book, he has done a lot of research on topics that doesn't appear in history books, but paints in a fascinating way a cruel epoch of the American continent.

[Kristel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eduardo Galeano was a was an Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, a literary giant of the Latin American left". In this work of fiction that reads like history and is history the author presents the history of America (Canada, US, Mexico, Central, and South America in this trilogy The Memory of Fire that covers the time period of the 1500s to 1984. I especially enjoyed book 1 and 2 which covers up to 1900s. The latter, more recent history was interesting to explore from the perspective of this leftist author and journalist. I believe that this book is historically accurate and gives the reader the truth of history from the writers POV. This was a violent, painful read, especially the last book. With time you would think things would improve but they only got worse. I am ashamed for the US and the part that it played in the manipulations of these countries. There was opportunity to do great things but instead people with greed called the shots. I am not a leftest in any way and do not feel that this is a story of capitalism verses socialism as the author presents. People are the source of evil, not ideology, guns, drugs. We must own our contribution to the problems no matter who we are. I learned a lot and I know that this book will be a resource that I will turn to often. The points I really enjoyed were the references to great literature and authors through history. I recommend this book to anyone who likes history, who wants to know more about our neighbors or about America.

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I don't know much about South American history, what I've learned has come from books on the 1001 lists.
Memory of fire starts before the arrival of the spanish and continues to the 1980's with short entries descibing things that have occurred in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Brazil etc. There are characters who crop up repeatedly, some famous and infamous.

[Catinca Ogrutan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit I did not want to finish this book...that's why I dragged it on as much as possible, about 10 years...
This is the origin of my love for South America, for Marques, Isabel Allende as well as Cesaria Evora and Compay Segundo.
My veins have South American blood flowing through them.

[Cristhian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta obra incluye las tres partes:
Los Nacimientos (5/5)
Las Caras y máscaras (3.8/5)
El siglo del viento (4.8/5)

La primera parte es maravillosa con leyendas prehispánicas de toda Latinoamérica recontadas bajo la pluma de Galeano. La segunda parte estuvo so-so comparada con la anterior. La tercera repunta siendo un anecdotario moderno muy interesante.

En fin, disfrutable totalmente.

4.5/5

[Gabrielle Bellemare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aride lecture (ça prend un bon moteur de recherche pour compléter la lecture en parallèle), mais un réel plaisir que de découvrir l'histoire populaire de l'Amérique du Sud - même si elle est atrocement violente, il va s'en dire.

Le genre de livre qui nous transforme, qui fait de nous des humains plus conscients et sensibles à l'histoire de l'humanité en général et qui nous permet de découvrir la richesse de la diversité des peuples indigènes du continent.

Ça reste un sujet vaste, donc je repart avec la soif d'en apprendre plus, de continuer à creuser certains sujets.

Une lecture qui ne pourrait être obligatoire, car trop dense, mais dont certains extraits devraient définitivement être présentés à tous dans le cadre d'une éducation réaliste de l'histoire de la colonisation de l'Amérique.

[Jack Neath · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thing of horror and hope, Galeano's prose is heartbreaking, furious, and staggeringly human. I would give this so much more than 5 stars if I could.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a trilogy of Latin American History in the form of a episode per year or so from pre-history/myth then 1492-1700; 1701-1900 and 1901-1986. I read it as a form of fiction and literature rather than history book; not so much because it was poorly researched or otherwise magical realism but because the so much history in so little a volume across such vast area meant the author had to chose an engaging style, merging a 'sense' of time/place/people to the point where one was merged into an unreality.

I found on many occasions researching some of the true stories finding them 'unbelievable' - suffice to say all where basically factual. Quite remarkable how cruel people, religion, wealthy and powerful can be. I should know this from all the Latin American novels I've read but somehow seeing it occurring again and again and again over such an expanse of poor, innocent indigenous peoples was heart breaking - it would appear modern times are completely unchanged.

I have read many Latin America authors and often found events/novels and their names mentioned - but also found several important ones I was unaware of notably 'Macunaima'-early magical realism.
.
The narrative history flowed into a wonder book. The 900 odd pages fly by

A quote "It is hoped that Christ will unpin his right hand from the cross and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rags are winning the war against lace." This encapsulates the gist of this trilogy. Galeano writes at a time when the Sandinistas could still be idolized, when Cuba might be judged through rosy shades as a viable alternative nation trying to achieve a collective ideal, and Reagan reigned as bogeyman among the left. His sympathies are rooted in the people who have had little say in making choices and deciding their destinies. And he does make some effort to narrate the saga of mostly Latin American leaders, scoundrels, turncoats, dreamers, dissidents, and too often the easily fooled or insufficiently empowered common folk who agitate for a way to escape their fate under dictators, despots, demagogues, tycoons, and canny politicians. It makes for an immersive presentation. And it's a welcome compendium of all sorts of tales, anecdotes, vignettes, and testimonies to human hopes, fears, and routines. Making allowances for Galeano's unapologetic perspective which tilts towards the oppressed, and his stated predilection for shaping his chronicles to lift up the voices of the forgotten rather than the records left by their rulers, it stands as innovative history. I wish more historians and critics followed his organizational example, expanding it for other times and places. This should inspire today's writers to experiment with methods and styles which enliven our understanding of both past and present.

[Pip · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three volumes of this work are a revelation. Galeaono writes a series of vignettes which span the whole history of the Americas from stories of creation to 1984. He concentrates particularly on Central and South America and the treatment of indigenous peoples by colonial forces and U.S. imperialism, but the United States gets some coverage and Canada hardly at all. Because his stories are written in the present tense the tales they tell are immediate, fascinating and beautifully written. This is an important book to read and savour and remember.

[Bridgid · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing, poetic history of Latin America.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

[Andre Abukawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Não consegui terminar a leitura. Muitos dados históricos, da America Latina pré colombiana (até onde li).

[AlexDC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pour que les ouvriers soient de plus en plus dociles et leur travail de moins en moins payé, les pays pauvres ont besoin de légions de bourreaux, de tortionnaires, d'inquisiteurs...

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's just as brilliant the second time.

[Jean Rockfort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mémoire du feu raconte l'histoire populaire d'un continent qui fut pendant des siècles conquis, ravagé, pillé, violé, massacré. C'est l'histoire de celles et ceux qui se sont battus courageusement contre les conquistadores, les dictatures militaires et autres "combattants de la liberté" états-uniens.
De l'époque précolombienne à 1985 c'est une mosaïque de portraits héroïques qui est à l'honneur:
Le peuple.

[Mar de Hielo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pero bueno!!! La verdad es que el libro es bastante interesante y definitivamente merece 5 estrellas. Lo único triste es que faltaron más relatos Colombianos. Pero no significa que el libro deba tener menor calificación. Los relatos son increíbles y bastante apegados a la historia. Galeano la rompió y me gustaría que más personas conocieran este libro.

Un gran descubrimiento de este año en mis lecturas.

[René · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un excellent recueil de capsules historiques, folkloriques et autres qui démontre, avec force, le racisme, le sexisme, l’impérialisme et autres systèmes d’exploitation (dont la religion imposée aux nations du Nouveau Monde et l’esclavagisme) qui ont pratiquement anéanti le dynamisme communautaire et les innovations médicales des premières nations. Difficile de ne pas se convaincre des théories sociales et économiques du marxisme en lisant cet ouvrage.

[Alvaro Alcocer Sotil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Publicada entre 1982 y 1986, se compone de los títulos Los nacimientos (1982), Las caras y las máscaras (1984) y El siglo del viento (1986).
La trilogía cuenta la historia de América Latina, desde la creación del mundo hasta nuestros días. Cada tomo está ordenado cronológicamente

[A. Jambo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories but the author is a bit too lefty to my taste. Actually, the first Romanian edition of the book has been published by Ceausescu's propaganda publishing house (Editura Politica) in 1986, when Romania was ruled by a communist regime.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, all encompassing, abstractly poetic yet finely tuned across generations, many generations and their thoughts, the people's thoughts and the thoughts of nature.

[Manicus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is truely a mind altering book. 500 years of greed.

[Rory · Rating 1 out of 5]

Difficult to follow and uninteresting.

[Jeroen Scheerder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting, riveting, mesmerizing. I wish I'd never read it, so I could read it again for the first time.