Galeano

Eduardo Galeano was born in Uruguay in 1940, at a time when the country was regarded as one of the more stable and socially progressive democracies in Latin America. During his lifetime, Uruguay experienced profound political and social change: economic stagnation and growing political conflict in the 1960s, the rise of the Tupamaros, and the military coup of 1973 that began a twelve-year dictatorship.

Galeano's generation witnessed the suppression of political freedoms, censorship and exile. After the 1973 coup, Galeano went into exile, first in Argentina and later in Spain. The dictatorship ended after the democratic opening of the early 1980s and the return to civilian government in 1985, the year Galeano returned to Uruguay.

The following decades brought the consolidation of democracy and major changes in Uruguayan society. In 2005, the left-wing Frente Amplio came to power for the first time, marking another important turning point in the country's political history. Galeano lived through this transformation until his death in 2015.