One of Latin America’s most acclaimed writers, Eduardo Galeano, has died at the age of 74. The Uruguayan novelist and journalist made headlines when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez gave President Obama a copy of his classic work, The Open Veins of Latin America.

Galeano is also the author of the three-volume Memory of Fire, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Upside Down, The Book of Embraces, We Say No, Voices of Time and Mirrors, among others. In the interview above he discusses his most recent book, Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History.

In a 2013 interview on Democracy Now! Galeano said, “We have a memory cut in pieces. And I write trying to recover our real memory, the memory of humankind, what I call the human rainbow, which is much more colorful and beautiful than the other one, the other rainbow. But the human rainbow had been mutilated by machismo, racism, militarism and a lot of other isms, who have been terribly killing our greatness, our possible greatness, our possible beauty.”

Watch all of Galeano’s interviews on Democracy Now!

In 2009 we spent the hour with the author discussing his reaction to the Chavez-Obama book exchange, media and politics in Latin America, and more.