Open Veins of Latin America

Section 1 Summary: “Plantations, Latifundia, and Fate”

After the mining of gold and silver, Latin America also yielded a new source of wealth for Europe in the form of sugar. Sugar became the new “white gold” (77). As demand for sugar grew abroad, canefields increased in number across the Americas, especially in the Caribbean Islands and along the Peruvian coast. The demand for sugar also created the plantation system, which eventually evolved into the modern-day latifundia system. The early plantation system employed black and Indian slave labor to cultivate sugar. While slave labor is now abolished, the latifundia system continues to exploit marginalized people for their cheap labor, which bears resemblance to the conditions of enslavement. Much like gold and silver, the integration of sugar in the world market produced several detrimental effects. The widespread cultivation of sugar led to soil degradation, disabling other crops from growing as easily. There was also widespread poverty based on the exploitative nature of plantation work.

Section 2 Summary: “How the Soil Was Ravaged in Northeast Brazil”

As the mining of precious metals was the primary activity for Spain in its colonies, sugar became secondary. However, sugar became a major Portuguese activity. The Dutch largely funded Portuguese business dealings in sugar in Latin America. In 1630, the Dutch India Company dominated sugar production in the Brazilian Northeast region, decimating the land through excessive sugar production until the land was exhausted. Barbados became the new place for sugar cultivation after Brazilian soil became washed out and eroded. Through sugar production, the Brazilian Northeast region became considered at one point, “the most underdeveloped area in the Western hemisphere” (80).

The production of sugar created an economy of dependency for Latin American cities. For instance, Pernambuco was a city known mainly for sugar production. Now, only a fifth of the land is for sugar. Although the city produces half the amount of sugar as Sao Paulo, it does not have the means to diversify its production. Pernambuco is dependent on sugar production for its local economy and for consumption.

Section 3 Summary: “The Devastation of the Caribbean”

When sugar production moved to the Caribbean Islands, the islands of Barbados, the Leewards, Trinidad-Tobago, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Santo Domingo became known as “sugar islands” (82). In 1641, Barbados became the first Caribbean Island to produce sugar for the world market. By 1666, Barbados had over 800 plantations and 80,000 slaves. While the island used to have diversified crops, sugar took over the fields, decimating the land and preventing growth of other crops. Eventually, sugar production and the slavery system used to work the sugar plantations expanded to Jamaica and Guianas. At a certain point, the number of slaves in Jamaica exceeded the number of white colonists.

In 1791, during the Haitian Revolution, slaves burned sugar fields in rebellion, driving the French colonial army back to France. The rebellion coincided with the French Revolution. In response, France established trade blocks with Haiti and convinced US to do the same. France finally lifted the trade block in 1825 with the recognition of Haiti’s independence. However, France still demanded a cash indemnity from Haiti. This financial tie has led Haiti to become the “poorest” country in Latin America (83).

Section 4 Summary: “Sugar Castles on Cuba’s Scorched Earth”

In 1762, British colonial forces took over Havana, Cuba, making it an important shipyard site for building merchant and war ships. Before the British took over, Cuba’s rural economy consisted of tobacco plantations and cattle ranching. Less than a year after the British arrived, the growing number of sugar plantations ultimately made sugar the largest export in Cuba’s economy. This decreased other forms of production as sugar became the priority. The emphasis on sugar led to the ruin of Cuba’s natural resources such as its timber, which used to be abundant. As a result, the US became the biggest exporter of timber. The British also introduced slaves into Cuba to work these sugar plantations, creating a deepening wealth division between the wealthy European colonialists, the native populations, and poor slaves.

As sugar overtook the Cuban economy, Cuba became a “sugarocracy” (86) with sugar as its main export. This benefitted Western buyers like the US over Cubans. In 1920, sugar was $0.22 per pound, which led Cuba to become the country with the highest per capita income in Latin America. By the end of the year, the price dropped to $0.04, leading to bankruptcy for many Cuban sugar mills. US banks bought many of these failing sugar mills. By 1932, the price dropped to $0.01 per pound, cementing the relationship of economic dependency between Cuba and the US.

Section 5 Summary: “The Cuban Revolt Against the Structure of Impotence”

Cuba’s dependency on the US in terms of its production led to severe economic struggles within the country. With no control over the country’s production, Cuba relied on exports of basic goods such as food and produce from the US, which its people had once produced on their own. US producers owned over 47 percent of sugar cane production in Cuba, yielding approximately $180 million per harvest. The US also mined precious metals from Cuba, which supplemented US defense and industry reserves. The US exploitation of Cuba through mining and sugar plantations led to unemployment of many Cubans when these exports did not fare well in the global economy, and also prostitution.

In 1959, the Cuban Revolution began as a revolt against dependency on the US for such goods and a means of gaining economic autonomy. The attempt to extricate US presence in Cuba was not an easy transition as much of economic production in the country relied on US knowledge and resources. However, even though Cuba was “crippled by its dependent status” (90), Revolution leader Fidel Castro gradually established literacy programs to address the illiteracy gap throughout the nation. According to Galeano, these changes were gradual due to “the structure of impotence forged by four and one-half centuries of oppression” (90) that had been in place before the Revolution toppled it.

Section 6 Summary: “In Cuba, Sugar Was the Knife, Imperialism Was the Assassin”

After the Cuban revolution, there was a difficult period of transition for the people of Cuba. There was a sense of impatience from the people to transform the Cuban economy quickly. The Revolution caused the destruction of many cane fields, and there was a deep need for diversifying agricultural production beyond sugar. While the people first attempted to grow a variety of crops quickly, they soon realized that “they had confused the knife with the assassin” (93) when it comes to sugar. Cuba decided to continue producing sugar and selling it as an export, though this would happen on their terms.

According to Galeano, Cuba progressed slowly after the Revolution, but the social reform did yield some gradual changes. Since the Revolution, there has been an increase in the production of fertilizer, as well as the development of many more electrical and cement plants. Additionally, there are more reservoirs for water and breeding of cows for milk production. There have also been construction of highways bridging different parts of Cuba. New hospitals and free access to medical care have also become a part of Cuban life.

While new resources have emerged since the Revolution, there is still a sense of scarcity. Galeano addresses this scarcity by arguing that “The essential cause of scarcity is the new abundance of consumers: the country now belongs to everyone, consumption is by all, not just a few” (94). The US has tried to topple what the Cuban Revolution has built through such political acts of violence as the invasion of the Bay of Pigs in 1961, which was an attempted attack on Cuba by US military and Cuban political exiles to undo its socialist government. Galeano argues that the attack failed because the virtues of the Cuban government were “defended by a people in arms” (94).

Section 7 Summary: “From the Sacrifice of the Slaves in the Caribbean Were Born James Watt’s Steam Engine and George Washington’s Cannon”

The triangular trade, which ensured a steady supply of African slaves from Africa to the Americas to profit those in Europe, was an essential part of building the global mercantile economy. Slaves traders captured Africans and brought them to the Americas to work the mines and fields.

Britain was the most prevalent European nation in the slave trade, which the Dutch used to dominate. The success of Britain’s role in the slave trade enabled local successes in the textile and weapons manufacturing industries, which produced cloth, knives, and muskets they then traded with African chiefs for capture of more slaves. Britain was also able to excel in the slave trade due to Englishman James Watt’s invention of the steam engine, which advanced the transport of human and non-human cargo alike.

In the early 19th century, Britain was also a leader in the movement to abolish of slavery. However, Galeano posits that the anti-slavery movement was not about morality but rather to increase the nation’s purchasing power in the international markets. When British would attack slaver ships, they ended up driving up prices for slaves. Slavers had no issue throwing slaves overboard and raising prices for the sale of surviving slaves.

Section 8 Summary: “The Rainbow Is the Road Back to Guinea”

Galeano points to different examples of slave rebellions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean islands. He identifies the revolt against Diego Columbus, son of the Portuguese explorer Christopher Columbus, as the first slave rebellion, inspiring other slave uprisings throughout Santo Domingo. In Haiti, there were slaves who ran away to the mountains and rebuilt their lives there. The symbol of the rainbow represented a return to Guinea “in a ship with a white sail” (101).

In Brazil, black slaves organized themselves into the state of Palmares, which was one of the longest slave rebellions in history. In Palmares, the formerly enslaved created a new form of governance and produced diversified agriculture. The Portuguese military finally defeated them. Meanwhile, in Cuba, the enslaved people rebelled by committing suicide to spite their slavers. Despite the trials of slavery, the enslaved people of Latin America and the Caribbean islands were able to retain the spiritual essences of their religious and cultural practices, oftentimes hiding them behind Christian faith to mask them from their masters. Some practices remain to this day in the African languages from which they came.

Section 9 Summary: “Peasants for Sale”

Despite the abolishment of slavery in Brazil in 1888, the conditions of slavery still afflict the country’s peasants in the present. Due to the pressures of international trade, peasants from Paraíba and Rio Grande de Norte moved in large numbers to the Amazon to meet the global demand for rubber from abroad. In 1970, the ensuing drought from mass excavation of rubber from the Amazon propelled people to Northeastern cities. The local police captured these peasants from trains and sold them to work in the latifundio. Galeano notes that these peasants were “sold for $18 a head to rural landowners in Minas Gerais state” (104).

Section 10 Summary: “The Rubber Cycle: Caruso Inaugurates a Jungle Theater”

In 1770, J.B. Priestley discovered that rubber could erase pencil marks, which increased the demand for rubber worldwide. In 1850, vehicle tires used rubber, thus increasing demand for the material even further. With the majority of the rubber coming from Acre, an area of Brazil, the material quickly became one of the country’s main exports.

The mass movement of poor Brazilian peasants to the Amazon to meet the demand for labor led to many deaths from the poor working conditions. Galeano describes the conditions as “a work regime very similar to slavery” (105). Peasants received payment in dried meat and unrefined sugar, which added to the debt that they needed to pay off for their freedom. Work tools such as machetes, knives, and eating bowls also added to their increasing debt, which made it impossible for anyone to pay off what they owed.

Brazil did not stay the world’s site for rubber for long. In 1873, Henry Wickham illegally brought back seeds from a rubber tree species in Brazil to Britain. The seeds propagated throughout Southeast Asia, making Malaysia the next big site of rubber production. While Brazil had once dominated the world trade in rubber exports, it eventually had to purchase half of its rubber from abroad. In the present-day, Brazilian labor focuses on constructing a highway that would cut across Brazil as part of an “agricultural colonization project to extend ‘the frontiers of civilization’” (107).

Section 11 Summary: “Cacao Planters Lit Their Cigarettes with 500,000-Reis Bills”

In the 19th century, the rise in chocolate consumption led to the mass extraction of cacao from Brazil to plantations across Venezuela and Ecuador. Galeano compares the demand for cacao to sugar, in which the mass production of the plant led to a monoculture, disallowing diversification of agriculture and ensuring that the countries’ economies rely solely on production of these items for export in a global market. The working conditions of the people in Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador worsened as demand for chocolate grew abroad from the world’s biggest consumers—the US, Britain, West Germany, Holland, and France. While chocolate prices rose in these consumer countries, the price of cacao shrunk. The countries producing cacao and chocolate grew poorer as the consumers grew richer.

Section 12 Summary: “Cheap Hands for Cotton”

Galeano points to the dominance of US firms like Anderson, Clayton, which owned land throughout Latin America and controls production of cotton, cacao, and sugar. These firms created “agro-industrial complexes” (113) where sugar and cotton plantations paid egregiously low wages to workers while prices for these products increased in the global market.

The demand for cotton, in particular, drastically shifted the global economy. While Brazil was once one of the world’s largest cotton exporters, the US quickly took its place during the height of US slave labor towards cotton production in its Southern states. While the US Civil War caused the price of US cotton to dip, the nation’s dominance as a consumer meant that Brazilian prices could not compete. This meant that Latin American countries such as Paraguay and Mexico became new sites of cheap labor for cotton production.

Anderson, Clayton owned several affiliates throughout Latin America that ensured not only control over cotton production but the financing and industrialization of cotton fiber and its derivatives, ensuring monopoly over the cotton market. It also became the largest exporter of Brazilian coffee using the same method.

Section 13 Summary: “Cheap Hands for Coffee”

The price fluctuations of coffee in the world market drastically impact the lives of workers involved in coffee production throughout Latin America. Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter, earning half of its export income from this product, but inflation also deeply affects the country. Previously relying on slave labor for coffee plantations, the country now relies on the efforts of “vassal inhabitants” (116) who pay for rent on the land through their labor. The latifundio may occasionally allow sharecroppers who pay for their use of the land by planting more coffee trees. In other Latin American and Caribbean countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, and Haiti, coffee production is also essential to their economies, yet the payment for labor is low and unsustainable for living. Workers there receive low wages and accumulate debt that they cannot pay off through labor alone.

Section 14 Summary: “Burn the Crops? Get Married? The Price of Coffee Dictates All”

According to Galeano, the fluctuating rise and fall of coffee prices serve to benefit consumer countries over suppliers. In a 1970 report published by the World Coffee Information Center, the US, which consumed half the coffee sold globally, was the chief beneficiary of the International Coffee Agreement, an agreement initially created to stabilize market prices for coffee. Additionally, the US and Europe applied taxes to Latin American exports to ensure that they paid more to sell their coffee to consumer countries so that the US and Europe could collect profit.

Galeano describes this economic model as a “kingdom of organized absurdity” (118) in which supplier countries in Latin America suffered if they overproduced or underproduced as they were always responding to the whims of a fluctuating market controlled by consumer countries. In 1929, a decline in consumption caused Brazilian coffee manufacturers to burn over 78 million sacks of coffee. Once demand rose again, these manufacturers would need to overproduce once more and confront the impending possibility of consumption decline. The cycle of supply and demand would repeat itself.

Section 15 Summary: “The Ten Years that Emptied Colombia’s Veins”

Between 1948 and 1957, the fight for control over coffee production led to a long period of sustained violence between revolutionary groups, criminal syndicates, paramilitary groups, and the Colombian government. It began with the assassination of Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, which led to a peasant revolt in the capital that then spilled into the countryside. The Colombian military attacked its own people in brutal ways. With a death toll of over 180,000, Galeano declares that “the horror of all the violence merely exposed the horror of the system” (121). After the decade of violence, a United Nations report indicated high numbers of malnutrition among Colombian children. Rates of homicide and unemployment are also high. The labor market fails to produce more jobs to counter these numbers. Meanwhile, Colombia continues to create public and private universities catering to the middle and upper classes.

Section 16 Summary: “The World Market Casts Its Spell Over Central America”

Central American countries did not encounter the brutal effects of coffee production until later in the 20th century. Previously, Central America produced cochineal and indigo for textiles until cheaper dyes produced elsewhere took over in exports. In 1880, Central America began to grow coffee, joining the global trade of this product due to rising consumer demand. Land was sold, oftentimes without owner consent, to private companies to be used for coffee plantations. According to Galeano, it was the indigenous people of Central America who suffered most during this time. Indians made up the “labor reserve” (124) of the world and constituted cheap labor for these plantations. Meanwhile, US companies took over Central American land for coffee production as well as other affiliate businesses such as the cultivation of bananas. The US also took over ports, customs, and the police systems, giving the nation control over Central American countries.

Section 17 Summary: “The Filibusters Come Abroad”

During the 19th century, US filibusterer William Walker invaded Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras on behalf of bankers Morgan and Garrison. In addition to installing himself as president of each country, he also reinstated slavery. According to Galeano, Walker set a precedent for other American invasions to follow. This includes President Theodore Roosevelt’s design of Panama so that the US could have the Panama Canal to bridge two oceans. In the period following Walker’s invasion, the US intervened in Central American governance, lands, and treasuries “to protect the lives and interests of U.S. citizens” (125).

The US company, United Fruit, dominated the banana market through its strongholds in Central America. In 1928, banana workers conducted a strike in Colombia and were shot for protesting. In present-day, bananas remain essential exports for Honduras and Panama in Central America and Ecuador in South America. United Fruit dictates exports and imports in these countries where they play a major role in production.

Section 18 Summary: “The Crisis of the 1930s: Killing an Ant Is a Greater Crime than Killing a Man”

In 1929, the New York stock market crashed, causing coffee and banana prices to fall dramatically. Across Latin America and the Caribbean islands, public spending, credit, and investment faltered. Unemployment and evictions spread. It was also the beginning of the US’s Good Neighbor policy, which dictated non-intervention in Latin American affairs. This gave rise to the concentration of powers among dictators in several Latin American countries. The dictators that ruled during that period were Jorge Ubico Castañeda in Guatemala, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez in El Salvador, Tiburcio Carías Andino in Honduras, and Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua.

Anastasio Somoza was responsible for killing famed Nicaraguan guerilla leader Augusto César Sandino, who stood up against US invaders and the National Guard, protecting the interests of peasants in revolt. Somoza claimed to act on behalf of US ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane who supposedly ordered the assassination. Somoza would rule over Nicaragua for the next 20 years, becoming the country’s biggest coffee producer.

Meanwhile, Maximiliano Hernández Martínez killed thousands of peasants who revolted. Jorge Ubico Castañeda was also known to kill trade union and political leaders in his reign. He cut the wages of banana and coffee workers to avoid the impact of inflation, granting plantation owners permission to kill their workers to protect their ability to meet their quota if need be.

Section 19 Summary: “Who Started the Violence in Guatemala?”

In 1944, a liberal revolution removed Jorge Ubico Castañeda from power in Guatemala. Juan José Arévalo became president. During his governance, he installed labor codes to protect workers and instituted educational reform. He dealt with numerous conspiracies instigated by United Fruit, which gradually lost control over Guatemala during Arévalo’s reforms. These reforms continued through the following presidency with Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. The land that United Fruit once had control slowly returned to peasants.

In 1954, the US backed Colonel Rodolfo Castillo Armas, a Guatemalan native and graduate of Fort Leavenworth military post, for a military coup that removed Arbenz from office. The US deemed this a “liberating” (130) operation to protect Guatemala from a socialist government. During Castillo Armas’s reign, he returned land to United Fruit control. In the administration that followed, landowners received encouragement to use violence against peasants and strikers. Guatemalan military attacked guerilla movements and anyone who expressed resistance to the government. Galeano shares that this violence persists in Guatemala today. Among this violence is also “the genocide of poverty” (132), with a rising rate of infant mortality due to poor living conditions.

Section 20 Summary: “The First Agrarian Reform: 150 Years of Defeat for José Artigas”

Galeano argues that agrarian reform has been the demand since the beginning of global trade. He makes a redemptive case for Uruguayan agrarian reform leader José Artigas, who installed his own governance from 1811 to 1820. Artigas led peasants, former slaves, indigenous people, and other marginalized groups against Spanish and Portuguese colonizing forces. Galeano considers Artigas as the first leader of agrarian reform as he made changes that challenged colonial influence over domestic production. He levied tariffs against foreign products that competed with domestic products, stopped taxes on foreign merchandise that were necessary for domestic development, and applied a duty to Latin American-made products. He also redistributed land formerly owned by the wealthy few to those who had less so that “the most unfortunate will be the most privileged” (134). Unfortunately, foreign intervention forced Artigas into exile in Paraguay, and the reforms that Artigas made were reversed. The redistributed land returned to the wealthy few once again.

Section 21 Summary: “Artemio Cruz and the Second Death of Emiliano Zapata”

During the dictatorship of Mexican general Porfirio Díaz, Mexico was an independent nation free from Spanish or Portuguese rule but still suffered from concentration of wealth in the hands of few, and extreme poverty. Despite independence, Mexico was “a slave colony to the United States” (139) based on its political dependency on the US. This became increasingly true with the US annexation of present-day Texas and California in 1845, following the loss of territories Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. After acquiring these territories, the US continued to extract from Mexico exports of rubber, copper, petroleum, and sugar using slave labor.

In 1910, an agrarian revolutionary army led by Emiliano Zapata overthrew Díaz. Francisco Indalecio Madero came into power, promising agrarian reforms but ultimately failing to administer them. He sent the General Victoriano Huerta to kill Zapata. Despite the opposition, Zapata issued the Plan de Ayala, which promised the redistribution of land back to the peasants, noting that “the overwhelming majority of Mexican communities and citizens are owners of no more than the land they walk on” (140). The plan drew a lot of support throughout the country. Despite Zapata’s assassination in 1919, his influence lives on through the work of his followers, the Zapatistas, who took back the land stolen by Mexican corporations and gave education and credit to peasants. While his political influence was broad, it did not lead to the transformation of Mexico into a socialist government since the influence of foreign trade and invention remains too prevalent.

Section 22 Summary: “The Latifundio Multiplies Mouths But Not Bread”

Galeano discusses his assertion that the latifundio forms “a constellation of power” (143) that prevents any true social and economic change. While some believe that the latifundio provides employment for peasants, the advancement of farming technology has decreased the need for laborers. While the technology increases yields and profits for landowners, it leaves many low-skilled workers without employment.

The Alliance for Progress, an aid program issued by the US to bolster the Latin American economy, had proposed agrarian reform. While politicians had proposed many reform projects, Galeano is critical of their actual implementation. He believes that promises of agrarian reform have become standard political promise without follow-through.

Galeano argues that the types of agrarian reform that have taken place throughout Latin America oftentimes protect the interests of the latifundio. For instance, the 1964 military dictatorship in Brazil instituted a platform of economic reform that included restoring the latifundistas that the previous government dispelled. In other instances, the reform proposals never improve the living conditions of peasants. In the example of Juan Domingo Perón’s Statute of the Peon for Argentina, the proposal for a minimum wage for the rural laborer was based upon assumptions about the laborer’s “limited need” (147). According to Galeano, the devaluation of the rural laborer in addition to the reform plan’s lack of addressing agricultural underdevelopment made it a failed effort.

Section 23 Summary: “The Thirteen Northern Colonies and the Importance of Not Being Born Important”

Galeano points out that there are different rules for land ownership and economic success between Latin America and the US. Between 1820 and 1850, in response to declining production, Brazil issued legislation that would grant land ownership to people who could produce sugar and coffee from the land. However, this legislation had many bureaucratic obstacles that made it nearly impossible for peasants to accomplish. By contrast, in the US, the Homestead Act of 1862 granted a section of land in the US frontier to anyone who farmed it for a minimum of five years. The decree encouraged many people to pursue this opportunity and benefit from it. Using this example of unequal circumstances and opportunities afforded to the poor across these two territories, Galeano makes a case for examining US rise to political dominance.

Galeano asks, “Why is the north rich and the south poor?” (149). He posits that the US operated on the notion of “free workers” (150) in the early 13 colonies while the Latin American economy operated on slave labor and the latifundio. The US thrived off of overseas markets as its own domestic production was not particularly exceptional. By splitting up Latin America into different areas of exports, the US was able to consolidate its power and grow as a nation.