Salt of the Earth | Century of the Wind | Galeano

Earlier this semester in both our e493 and e725 seminars, we immersed ourselves in the works of Eduardo Galeano and his disturbingly beautiful Century of the Wind. Here's a posting from e725 secret agent Sarah Smorol that authors a cinematic riff off of Galeano's singular melody.

From: sarah smorol
To: Nericcio
Subject: RE: ENGL725-01
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:06:40 -0800

Hello Dr. N- here is another movie that relates

In Galeano's book one of the subjects that came up over and over again was Miners. Whatever was being mined (free tin?) and wherever it was done one thing was certain- people and their rights were being abused and taken advantage of for "someone" else's gain. In 1954's Salt of the Earth this issue was addressed, as well as exhibiting the strength of the Chicana wives and girlfriends of these men. This movie deals with a true story of zinc mine in New Mexico and was originally Banned in the US! After its eventual release it was added to the Library of Congress's 100 American films(short list!) being preserved. See this and more at imdb and pbs, links below.

An UPDATE that relates as well to Eduardo Galeano's fictions:

From: sarah smorol
To: nericcio
Subject: Plaza de Mayo
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:25:42 -0800

Dear Dr. N- I subscribe to spanish word of the day (as well as english word of the day) on dictionary.com. The Spanish word of the day is often related to cultural or historical events, although at times it is something more simple. Today's word is as follows, and elucidates something about the plaza de Mayo that I didn't glean entirely from the book(Galeano) particularly, the naming of the square and the reasons behind it, as well as the estimated numbers of dead- as you know, we get an alarmingly small amount of global history in a US upbringing-

plaza de mayo, noun
All major cities have their iconic sites, such as Time Square and Red Square. One of the most famous places in Buenos Aires is la Plaza de Mayo, word for word: May Square. It stands downtown, in front of the presidential palace. It is called Plaza de Mayo because it was in May 1810 that the events which led to the independence of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia from Spain were set in motion.
In recent history it is, sadly, most famous for las madres de la Plaza de Mayo and las abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo - the mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. These are the mothers and grandmothers of los desaparecidos - the disappeared - the thousands of people who were murdered by the military regime in the late 1970s. As a protest they demonstrated silently in the Plaza de Mayo.