My First Life
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Hugo Chávez’s extraordinary story—in his own words
Hugo Chávez, military officer turned left-wing revolutionary, was one of the most important Latin American leaders of the twenty-first century. This book tells the story of his life up to his election as president in 1998.
Throughout this riveting and historically important account of his early years, Chávez’s energy and charisma shine through. As a young man, he awakens gradually to the reality of his country—where huge inequalities persist and the majority of citizens live in indescribable poverty—and decides to act. He gives a fascinating description of growing up in Barinas, his years in the Military Academy, his long-planned military conspiracy—the most significant in the history of Venezuela and perhaps of Latin America—which led to his unsuccessful coup attempt of 1992, and eventually to his popular electoral victory in 1998.
His collaborator on this book is Ignacio Ramonet, the famous French journalist (and editor for many years of Le Monde diplomatique), who undertook a similar task with Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro: My Life).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The late Ch vez, president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, emerged as a powerful and eloquent opponent of imperialism and neoliberalism, particularly of the variety he associated with the U.S., and aligned his government with those of Marxist and socialist states throughout the Americas. In so doing, he earned the admiration of many and the enmity of others, both at home and abroad. This volume, based on a series of interviews with sociologist Ramonet, conducted between 2008 and 2011, immerses the reader in the most mundane details of Ch vez's fascinating life, including Ch vez's year as an altar boy, his favorite baseball team in his youth, and the daily routine of the tank unit in which he served during the 1970s. Frustratingly, the narrative ends at the moment that Ch vez took office as president. In addition to the dreariness of the minutiae, Ramonet's admiration of Ch vez verges on the comical, as he praises not only his intelligence, idealism, and determination but his "beautiful calm baritone voice," his abilities as a "natural pedagogue" and "exceptional orator," and even his knack for cooking and housecleaning. The result is a sort of hagiography that offers readers a welter of often trivial details without allowing them a clearer understanding of Ch vez's significant contributions to Venezuela and beyond.
