by the El Reportero’s news services
The remains of Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, who died at 74 years old, will be veiled today in the Hall of Lost Steps of the Legislative Palace, where he will receive official and popular honors.
The Uruguayan Parliament confirmed that the wake will be held between 3 and 9 p.m.
Along with the highest national authorities, numerous political, trade union and cultural figures expressed their grief over the death on the eve of the author of Open Veins of Latin America.
Uruguayan media messages of condolence highlighted several rulers, politicians and intellectuals from across Latin America and elsewhere.
Galeano after two years died fighting against a lung cancer but did not interrupt his literary and journalistic work, always in defense of identity and Latin American culture.
His friends recall that in February last Bolivian President Evo Morales, visited him to give him the Book of the Sea, with which Bolivia defends his claim to the Pacific.
The Uruguayan intellectual immediately renamed the ‘Book of Stolen Mar’, referring to the loss of the Bolivian coast after an ancient war with Chile.
Also, remember that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave US President Barack Obama a copy of Open Veins of Latin America, during the Summit of the Americas in Colombia in 2009.
From a young age, Galeano wrote newspaper articles and became editor of the weekly newspaper Marcha and manage Era, both emblematic for their anti-dictatorial positions.
After the coup of 1973 in Uruguay, Galeano had to exile in Argentina, where he founded and directed the magazine Crisis. In 1976, after a coup in Argentina, had to go into exile again, this time in Spain.
The writer returned to Montevideo, after the end of the Uruguayan dictatorship in 1985.
He holds numerous awards, including the Stig Dagerman prize of Sweden, the Casa de las Americas, of Cuba, and the prize of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).
Matanzas will host danzón festival
From Nov. 12 to the 15, the city of Matanzas will host the Cuba-Danzon Matanzas Festival, to celebrate the music genre created 136 years ago, organizing committee announced today.
Organizing committee spokesperson Luis Ortega told Prensa Latina that dancing couple from across the country will participate in the festival, as well as others from abroad.
“The competition will take place during two nights, and at the end the committee will grant a Grand Prize as well as other awards in categories like Best Elders Couple, Best Youth Couple and Best Foreign Couple”, he added.
Ortega said the panel of judges will be integrated by important figures of the Cuban culture and representatives of Cuban dancing associations.
Ortega added that the Festival will also include theoretical events, with the participation of musicologists, musicians, researchers, professors and experts on the genre.
The Danzon, which since 2013 has been considered as part of the country’s intangible heritage, is an originally Cuban rhythm that originated from the Danza.
Romeo Santos, Juanes & Natalia Jimenez to perform at Latin Billboard
The 2015 Latin Music Billboard awards show will include performances by “The King of Bachata” Romeo Santos, Colombian rocker Juanes, and Spanish singer and “La Voz Kids” Coach Natalia Jimenez, who join previously announced performances by Wisin, Daddy Yankee, Carlos Santana, J Balvin, Carlos Vives, Julion Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda, Ana Gabriel, Lucero, Alejandro Sanz, and Roberto Carlos.
(Prensa Latino contributed to this report).
