Memory of Fire
Memory of Fire is a trilogy written by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano.
Published between 1982 and 1986, it consists of the titles Genesis, Faces and Masks and The Century of the Wind. It is a rewritten history of the Americas since the days of creation myths to the 21st century.
Content
Considered Galeano’s greatest achievement, the trilogy encompasses the entire history of the Americas, from creation myths to the date of its first publication in 1982. He claims to have written it out of his growing dissatisfaction with Open Veins while living in exile in Spain as a result of the military dictatorships in Uruguay and Argentina.Open Veins, he worried in 1983, “may reduce history to a single economic dimension” when life “sings with multiple voices.” Thus, Galeano brings the reader not just through the pillaging of mineral rights but through the grand dreams of the Western Hemisphere.
The volumes of the trilogy are arranged chronologically:
- Genesis: from the creation of the world to the 17th century.
- Faces and masks: 18th and 19th centuries.
- Century of the wind: 20th century.