Eduardo Galeano - Mirrors - Stories of Almost Everyone

broken glass,

bald brooms,

walked-through sneakers,

emptied bottles,

slept-in sheets,

road-weary wheels,

sea-worn sails,

defeated flags,

well-thumbed letters,

forgotten words, and

fallen rain.

Arthur worked with garbage, because all garbage is life lived and from garbage comes everything the world is or has ever been. Nothing intact deserved a listing. Things intact die without ever being born. Life only pulsates in what bears scars.

When someone dies, when his time is up, what happens to the wanderings, desirings, and speakings that were called by his name?

Among the Indians of the upper Orinoco, he who dies loses his name. His ashes are stirred into plantain soup or corn wine and everybody eats. After the ceremony no one ever names the dead person again: the dead one, now living in other bodies, called by other names, wanders, desires, and speaks.

Sleeping, she saw us.

Helena dreamed we were waiting in line at an airport.

A long line where every passenger had under the arm the pillow on which he or she had slept the night before.

The pillows were sent through a dream-reading machine.

The machine detected any dangerous dreams that threatened to disturb the peace.

The twentieth century, which was born proclaiming peace and justice, died bathed in blood. It passed on a world much more unjust than the one it inherited.

The twenty-first century, which also arrived heralding peace and justice, is following in its predecessor’s footsteps.

In my childhood, I was convinced that everything that went astray on earth ended up on the moon.

But the astronauts found no sign of dangerous dreams or broken promises or hopes betrayed.

If not on the moon, where might they be?

Perhaps they were never misplaced.

Perhaps they are in hiding here on earth. Waiting.

Abbeville

Abdallah, Susan

Abdullah

Abdullah, Sarhan

Abdullah, Yasmin

ABC

Acapulco

Achaemenes

Acheson, Dean

Achilles

Acosta, Josep de

Acuña, Cristóbal de

Adam

Adams, John

Aegisthus

Aeneas

Aeschylus

Afghanistan

Africa

Agamemnon

Agrippina

Aguilera, Griselda

Akkra

Al Qaeda

Alabama

Aleijadinho the Cripple, see Lisboa, Antonio Francisco

Alexander, Alfonso

Alexander VI

Alexander the Great

Alexandria

Algeria

Alhambra

Ali, Imam

Ali, Muhammad

Al-Khwarizmi, Muhammed

Al-Kamil, Sultan

Allende, Salvador

Al-Ma’arri, Abu Ali

Almagro, Diego de

Alps

Al-Sukkar

Aluzinnu

Alvarado, Pedro de

Álvarez Argüelles, Father Antonio

Alwar, Maharaja of

Ama, José Feliciano

Amazon

Amazons

Ambrose, Saint

Amecameca

American Colonization Society

Americas

Amherst

Amherst, Lord Jeffrey

Amset

Amsterdam

Anaxagoras

Andalusia

Anderson, John Henry

Andes

Andrade, José Leandro

Anenecuilco

Angela of Foligno, Saint

Anti-Imperialist League

Antilles

Antiochus

Apaza, Gregoria

Aphrodite

Apollo

Apollonius, Saint

Aponte, Carlos

Arabia

Ararat, Mount

Archimedes

Arcimboldo, Giuseppe

Ardila Gómez, Rubén

Arenal, Concepción

Argentina

Argos

Arias-Salgado, Gabriel

Aristophanes

Aristotle

Arizona

Arkah

Arles

Armstrong, Louis

Arnaud-Amaury, Archbishop

Arno River

Artemis

Artigas, José

Asera

Asia

Aspasia

d’Aspremont Lynden, Harold

Assisi

Assumar, Count of

Assyria

Astiz, Alfredo

Asturias

Atahualpa

Athena

Athens

Atlanta

Atlantis

Atreus

Augustine, Saint

Augustus

Auschwitz

Austin

Austin, Stephen

Australia

Austria

Averroes

Avicenna

Ayesha

Babel, Isaac

Babylon

Bacchus

Bachelet, Michelle

Baden-Powell, Colonel Robert

Baghdad

Baker, Josephine

Baku

Bakunin, Mikhail

Balestrino, Esther

Balkans

Bangladesh

Barcelona

Barnard, Christian

Baroda, Maharaja of

Bartola

BASF

Basra

Bassa, Ferrer

Bastidas, Micaela

Bastidas, Rodrigo de

Battle, José

Baudelaire, Charles

Bayer

Bayley, George

Beethoven, Ludvig von

Behmai

Beijing

Belgium

Bell, hermanos, see Brontë, sisters

Benedict XVI

Bengal

Berger, John

Berlin

Bernard, Saint

Bernardo de Tolosa

Bernhardt, Sarah

Bertelsmann

Betances, Ramón

Bethlehem

Beveridge, Albert

Bezerra, João

Béziers

Bharatpur, Mahraja of

Bhopal

Bierce, Ambrose

Bingen

Bioho, Domingo

Bismarck

Black Hills

Black Panthers

Black Sea

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich

BMW

Boccaccio

Boeotia

Bogotá

Bolden, Buddy

Bolivia

Bolívar, Simón

Bologna

Bombay

Bonaparte, Napoleon

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

Borges, Jorge Luis

Borgia, Rodrigo, see Alexander VI Born, Bertrand de

Borromeo, Carlo

Bosch

Bosch, Hieronymus

Bosporus

Boss, Hugo

Boston

Botticelli, Sandro

Bouzid, Saâl

Bowring, John

Bragança y Bourbon, Pedro de Alcântara Francisco Antônio João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim de, see Pedro I

Brandenburg, Archbishop of

Brazil

Brecht, Bertolt

Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme

British Museum

Brontë sisters

Brooklyn

Brunete

Bruno, Giordano

Brussels

Brutus, Marcus

Büchner, Georg

Buckingham, Duke of

Buenos Aires

Buffalo Bill

Bukharin, Nikolai

Bull of Heaven

Bülow, Chancellor von

Burkina Faso

Bush, George

Bush, George W.

Bush, Prescott

Byron, Ada

Byron, Lord

Byzantium

Cádiz

Caeiro, Alberto

Cairo

Calcutta

California

Callender, James

Callixtus III

Calvin, John

Cambodia

Campaoré, Blaise

Campos, Álvaro de

Cancuc

Cang Jie

Cangas

Canning, George

Capetown

Capua

Carabanchel Prison

Caribbean

Carlos, John

Caron, George

Carrera, José Miguel

Cartagena de Indias

Carter, Robert

Carvallo, Luis Alfonso de

Casaldáliga, Pedro

Casasola, Augustín Víctor

Cascais

Cascia

Caspian Sea

Cassandra

Castañega, Father Martín de

Castelli, Juan José

Castile

Castro, Fidel

Catamarca

Catherine, Saint

Catherine the Great

Catholic Monarchs, see Isabella the Catholic and Ferdinand the Catholic

Cauac Sky

Caucasus

CBS

Cedar Forest

Central America

Cervantes, Miguel de

Ceuta

Ceylon

Chagall, Marc

Chalco

Champollion, Jean François

Chamula

Chaplin, Charles

Chapultepec

Charlemagne

Charles I of Spain and V of Germany (Emperor Charles)