Read Online Children of the Days by Eduardo Galeano - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Eduardo Galeano
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Sandokan and to Lady Marianna, his impossible love, to Yanez the sailor, to the Black Corsair and to Honorata, daughter of the Corsairâs enemy, and to so many other friends he invented so they would save him from hunger and keep him company in his solitude.
September 15
A DOPT A B ANKER !
In the year 2008, the New York Stock Exchange tanked.
Hysterical days, historical days: the bankers, those cleverest of bank robbers, had sucked their businesses dry, though none of them was ever caught on security camera and no alarm was ever tripped. By then a widespread crash was unavoidable. The collapse ricocheted around the world; even the moon was afraid of being laid off and having to relocate to another sky.
The magicians of Wall Street, experts at selling castles in the air, stole millions of homes and jobs, but only one of them went to prison. And when they hollered at the top of their lungs for help, for the love of God, their zeal was honored with the largest reward ever paid in human history.
That mountain of money would have fed all the hungry people in the world, dessert included, from here to eternity. The idea did not occur to anyone.
September 16
C OSTUME B ALL
At two in the morning on this day in 1810, Miguel Hidalgo shouted the cry that opened the way to Mexicoâs independence.
When that famous alarum was about to turn one hundred in 1910, the dictator Porfirio DÃaz held the festivities a day early to coincide with his birthday, and he celebrated the centenary in a big way.
Mexico City, painted and polished, received distinguished invitees from thirty countries: top hats, feathered caps, fans, gloves, gold, silk, speeches . . . The Ladies Committee hid the beggars and shod the street kids. Indians were trousered gratis, while anyone wearing traditional homespun cotton was banned. Don Porfirio laid the cornerstone of Lecumberri Prison and solemnly inaugurated the Central Insane Asylum, with capacity for a thousand patients.
A stirring parade presented the nationâs history. Hernán Cortés, the first of the many volunteers who came to improve the race, was played by a student from the dental school, and a glum-looking Indian marched in an Emperor Moctezuma costume. The crowd cheered loudest for the float that featured a French court in the style of Louis XVI.
September 17
M EXICOâS W OMEN L IBERATORS
The centenary celebrations were over and all that glowing garbage was swept away.
And the revolution began.
History remembers the revolutionary leaders Zapata, Villa and other he-men. The women, who lived in silence, went on to oblivion.
A few women warriors refused to be erased:
Juana Ramona, âla Tigresa,â who took several cities by assault;
Carmen Vélez, âla Generala,â who commanded three hundred men;
Ãngela Jiménez, master dynamiter, who called herself Angel Jiménez;
Encarnación Mares, who cut her braids and reached the rank of second lieutenant hiding under the brim of her big sombrero, âso they wonât see my womanâs eyesâ;
Amelia Robles, who had to become Amelio and who reached the rank of colonel;
Petra Ruiz, who became Pedro and did more shooting than anyone else to force open the gates of Mexico City;
Rosa Bobadilla, a woman who refused to be a man and in her own name fought more than a hundred battles;
and MarÃa Quinteras, who made a pact with the Devil and lost not a single battle. Men obeyed her orders. Among them, her husband.
September 19
T HE F IRST F EMALE A DMIRAL
The battle of Salamis ended five centuries before Christ.
Artemisia, the first female admiral in history, warned Persiaâs King Xerxes that the Strait of Salamis was the wrong place for the heavy Persian ships to battle the agile Greek triremes.
Xerxes paid no heed.
In the midst of the battle, when his fleet was getting roundly thrashed, he had no choice but to put Artemisia in command and thus save at least a few ships and some honor.
A
September 15
A DOPT A B ANKER !
In the year 2008, the New York Stock Exchange tanked.
Hysterical days, historical days: the bankers, those cleverest of bank robbers, had sucked their businesses dry, though none of them was ever caught on security camera and no alarm was ever tripped. By then a widespread crash was unavoidable. The collapse ricocheted around the world; even the moon was afraid of being laid off and having to relocate to another sky.
The magicians of Wall Street, experts at selling castles in the air, stole millions of homes and jobs, but only one of them went to prison. And when they hollered at the top of their lungs for help, for the love of God, their zeal was honored with the largest reward ever paid in human history.
That mountain of money would have fed all the hungry people in the world, dessert included, from here to eternity. The idea did not occur to anyone.
September 16
C OSTUME B ALL
At two in the morning on this day in 1810, Miguel Hidalgo shouted the cry that opened the way to Mexicoâs independence.
When that famous alarum was about to turn one hundred in 1910, the dictator Porfirio DÃaz held the festivities a day early to coincide with his birthday, and he celebrated the centenary in a big way.
Mexico City, painted and polished, received distinguished invitees from thirty countries: top hats, feathered caps, fans, gloves, gold, silk, speeches . . . The Ladies Committee hid the beggars and shod the street kids. Indians were trousered gratis, while anyone wearing traditional homespun cotton was banned. Don Porfirio laid the cornerstone of Lecumberri Prison and solemnly inaugurated the Central Insane Asylum, with capacity for a thousand patients.
A stirring parade presented the nationâs history. Hernán Cortés, the first of the many volunteers who came to improve the race, was played by a student from the dental school, and a glum-looking Indian marched in an Emperor Moctezuma costume. The crowd cheered loudest for the float that featured a French court in the style of Louis XVI.
September 17
M EXICOâS W OMEN L IBERATORS
The centenary celebrations were over and all that glowing garbage was swept away.
And the revolution began.
History remembers the revolutionary leaders Zapata, Villa and other he-men. The women, who lived in silence, went on to oblivion.
A few women warriors refused to be erased:
Juana Ramona, âla Tigresa,â who took several cities by assault;
Carmen Vélez, âla Generala,â who commanded three hundred men;
Ãngela Jiménez, master dynamiter, who called herself Angel Jiménez;
Encarnación Mares, who cut her braids and reached the rank of second lieutenant hiding under the brim of her big sombrero, âso they wonât see my womanâs eyesâ;
Amelia Robles, who had to become Amelio and who reached the rank of colonel;
Petra Ruiz, who became Pedro and did more shooting than anyone else to force open the gates of Mexico City;
Rosa Bobadilla, a woman who refused to be a man and in her own name fought more than a hundred battles;
and MarÃa Quinteras, who made a pact with the Devil and lost not a single battle. Men obeyed her orders. Among them, her husband.
September 19
T HE F IRST F EMALE A DMIRAL
The battle of Salamis ended five centuries before Christ.
Artemisia, the first female admiral in history, warned Persiaâs King Xerxes that the Strait of Salamis was the wrong place for the heavy Persian ships to battle the agile Greek triremes.
Xerxes paid no heed.
In the midst of the battle, when his fleet was getting roundly thrashed, he had no choice but to put Artemisia in command and thus save at least a few ships and some honor.
A
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