One of Latin America's most famous writers, Eduardo Galeano, died Monday in his native city of Montevideo, Uruguay, at age 74. Galeano was a prolific writer and an activist in left-wing causes. He is best known in the English-speaking world for his classic "Open Veins of Latin America, Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" which explores the role of colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism in the region. For many it was their first introduction to an alternative narrative of Latin American reality. In 2009 Hugo Chavez gave the book as a gift to Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. teleSUR
