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April 14, 2015<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/14/galeano-bolivar-with-a-pen/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/14/galeano-bolivar-with-a-pen/</a><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle">History Written as Poetry</div>
<h1 class="article-title">Eduardo Galeano: Bolivar with a Pen</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by TARIQ ALI </div>
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<p>My friend and comrade Eduardo Galeano had been ill for some
time, but the treatment worked and he would recover and put pen
to paper again. Asked to comment on him in a TV interview with
Telesur, this is what I said:</p>
<p>What Bolivar sought to accomplish with sword, Galeano did with
his pen. He sought to unite the continent against US
imperialism. He spoke for the underground voices of the
continent when US-backed military dictatorships had crushed
democracy in most parts of South America; he spoke for those who
were being tortured; he spoke for the indigenous people crushed
by the dual oppression of Empire and creole oligarchs.</p>
<p>Was he optimistic or pessimistic? He was both and often
simultaneously, but he never gave up hope. That remained strong
all his life. It is visible in his lyrical works on South
American history. History written as poetry. It is there in his
journalism from <em>La Marcha</em> in the Uruguay of the 60s to
<em>La Jornada</em> in Mexico today. He was never dogmatic,
always open to new ideas.</p>
<p>After the tyranny of the dictatorships he realised like many
others that the armed road had been a disaster, that the Cuban
Revolution could not be imitated blindly. The birth of new
social movements and the Bolivarian victories were a source of
inspiration and concern. He did not want to see old mistakes
repeated. Whenever we met this was strong in him. We were not
simply defeated by the enemy, he would insist, but also to a
certain extent by ourselves.</p>
<p>He wrote with a biblical simplicity, strong and political with
history as his teacher.</p>
<p>Read Galeano is what I would advise every aspiring young
radical journalist today. Don’t mimic him. Learn from him.</p>
<p><em><strong>Tariq Ali</strong> is the author of </em><em><a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844677575/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">The Obama Syndrome</a></em><em> (Verso).</em></p>
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San Francisco, CA 94110
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