Open Veins of Latin America Chapter One

1. The challenge and the triumph in reading Galeano are in his expansive vocabulary and his writing style where historical references are constantly woven into his own commentary. Pick three words, names, or ideas you had to look up while reading this section and write a couple sentences why you think knowing those definitions significantly enhanced your comprehension of the text.

There are so many different names and places in this book that i'd live to look up but I just don't have the time. A few things I had to look up are:

- Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile: Their marriage laid the foundation of a unified Spain.

- Papal bull: A particular type of letters patent of charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church.

- Quetzalcoatl: Quetzalcoatl was one of the several important gods in the Aztec pantheon.

Looking up the terms we don't know (which is a lot with this book) increases our understanding of what we're reading. It might take a lot longer to read but with the knowledge we gain, it's worth it.

2. The description Galeano provides for the first contact between the indigenous peoples of Latin America has some stark similarities with the description of Captain Cook’s first contact with the Hawaiians. What are some of the similarities in both accounts?

There were way too many similarities. The indigenous people were so amazed by the simplest things. The people completely trusted the outsiders when given stuff such as beads or string. They treated their new "friends" nicely and welcomed them to their community, they looked up to them as if they were gods. The Europeans looked at these people as if they were savages. They forced them into their religion, made the people show them where their riches are, and then shipped them off into slavery.

3. America was the vast kingdom of the Devil, its redemption impossible or doubtful; but the fanatical mission against the natives’ heresy was mixed with the fever that the New World treasures stirred in the conquering hosts (13). A lot of this section discusses the relationship between the land conquest paralleled with the ideological conquest (religion). What role did religion have in the invasion of Latin America?

Religion was used to make the "invaders" feel better about themselves. They would send the indigenous off into slavery and justify it by saying they're serving "His Majesty" and everything is fine as long as it's for the church.

4. Galeano quotes the saying “Father a merchant, son a gentleman, grandson a beggar” as an analogy to describe what Spain did with the immense amount of wealth it extracted from Latin America. How does this saying represent the ways that Latin America’s resources were the delirium and demise of Spain?

I think this quote literally means the thing it's saying. Your father worked hard to get the money and riches that he had. His son wasn't quite born into the money so he was able to appreciate it and work with it to better himself. The grandson was born into being wealthy and mentally was a beggar, he would do anything to get the money that he was so used to. The Father represents old Spain, the Son represents Spain's first interaction with the New World, and the Grandson represents many years of taking advantage of the indigenous in the New World.