Eduardo Hughes Galeano was a Uruguayan journalist, writer, and novelist, considered by many as a literary giant of the Latin American left. He was born on 3 September 1940 and passed away on 13 April 2015.

Galeano is best known for his works such as Open Veins of Latin America (1971) and the Memory of Fire Trilogy (1982–1986). These works have transcended traditional genres, blending documentary, fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. He once described himself as a writer "obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."

Renowned Chilean author Isabel Allende noted that her copy of Open Veins of Latin America was one of the few items she took with her when she fled Chile in 1973 after the military coup of Augusto Pinochet. She described the book as "a mixture of meticulous detail, political conviction, poetic flair, and good storytelling."

Galeano's contributions to literature and journalism were recognized with awards such as the International Human Rights Award by Global Exchange in 2006 and the Stig Dagerman Prize in 2010.