We the Indians The indigenous peoples of Peru and the struggle for land

Hugo Blanco's vivid and direct prose takes the reader on an inspirational journey to the heart of Peru, looking for a respectful relationship with Pacamama (Mother Earth) and with its indigenous communities and their struggles for land reform and change in the 1950s and 1960s. These pages, written in bursts, disorderly, jubilant and desperate, tell of the adventures and misfortunes of the man who headed the campesino struggle in Peru, the organizer of the rural trade unions, the man who pushed for an agrarian reform born from below. The authorities accused him of being a terrorist. He slept under the stars and in cells occupied by rats. He went on 14 hunger strikes. During one of them, the Minister of the Interior made a kind gesture and sent him a coffin as a gift. More than once, the district attorney demanded the death penalty, and more than once the news was published that Hugo had died. He continues to be that smart, crazy man who decided to be an Indian, even though he was not, and turned out to be the most Indian of all.

Hugo Blanco has been a key figure in the insurrections of the rural poor. In 1963 a military court condemned him to death, a sentence commuted to 25 years' imprisonment after a massive international defense campaign. Well known throughout Latin America, he has participated in many discussions on the role of the indigenous peoples. Eduardo Galeano was a Uraguayan journalist and "a literary giant of the Latin American left." His best-known work is Open Veins of Latin America.