An eclectic collection of forgotten histories

By Kurt Armstrong and ChristianWeek | September 15, 2009

Eduardo Galeano is a gatherer of forgotten and mislaid stories. Mirrors is his latest collection—nearly 600 tiny histories from around the globe.

Galeano starts at the beginning with Hebrew, African, Babylonian, Summerian, Egyptian, Chinese and Greek myths of origins, then races through 5,000 years of history to bring us to the present. It's history, but not the official history. These are stories of the ones in the mirrors, the so-called "collateral damage," generally forgotten by those who write the histories of civilizations.

The "stories of almost everyone" are almost uniformly tragic. They are stories of oppression, suffering and slaughter. Galeano, who is from Uruguay, wants us to be humble, to remember who we are and where we are from. We are not as noble as we think, say the faces in the mirrors.

However "advanced" we might be, every single generation faces anew the challenge to love our neighbours as ourselves, and so far we have not done well. Throughout history, humans have largely been unspeakably savage towards one another. What we call civilization is built upon the crushed bones and spilled blood of slaves, servants, the poor, women, the disabled, indigenous people and foreigners.

As Galeano describes it, the "civilized" have repeatedly climbed to the top and then kicked out the ladder. This is where your civilization has come from, he says; this is who you are. The suffering faces in Galeano's mirrors reveal who we are. Do we dare to look closely?

This is storytelling at its very best: eclectic, full of lively characters—surprisingly beautiful and profoundly moral. The stories challenge the historical deafness of a culture that ignores the cries of those who suffer and die in the name of "progress." Galeano isn't trying to shame us or make us feel bad, but he is unwilling to let the poor be forgotten. Because alongside the tragedy of these stories, there is an indefatigable sense of hope. In spite of tragedy, the gift of life is renewing and resilient. The image of God in men and women can be debased, but it can never be destroyed.

"Every time someone tells a story and tells it well and truly," says Eugene Peterson, "the gospel is served." Mirrors tells hundreds of stories "well and truly." They serve the gospel, serve the discarded and forgotten faces and voices of history, "the least of these," and serve the reader. They are stories to open the heart and sensitize the soul.