Eduardo Galeano quotes
1940 – 2015 · Uruguay, 20th–21st century · writer, journalist, essayist
About Eduardo Galeano
Born in Montevideo on 3 September 1940, Galeano was a journalist, editor and political chronicler. He published Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and the Memory of Fire trilogy, lived in exile during the dictatorships, and died in Montevideo on 13 April 2015 of lung cancer.
Works: Open Veins of Latin America; Memory of Fire; The Book of Embraces; The Following Days
Quotes
“The tree of life knows that, whatever happens, the warm music spinning around it will never stop. However much death may come, however much blood may flow, the music will dance men and women as long as the air breathes them and the land plows and loves them.”
Source: Century of the Wind, conclusion (1986) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is published at the end of Memory of Fire III (Century of the Wind); the quotation is reliably attributed to Eduardo Galeano.
- What remains uncertain
- Some online records miscite Open Veins of Latin America; minor transcription variants (breathes/breaths, plows/ploughs) also appear across editions.
Placed at the end of Galeano's final Memory of Fire volume, the image turns a catalogue of violence into a closing affirmation: the 'tree of life' stands for communal endurance and the 'warm music' for cultural survival that outlasts death and bloodshed. The line is from Memory of Fire III, Century of the Wind.