Oro, petróleo y aguacates

Andy Robinson reveals in these chronicles the ins and outs of the extraction and business of the most valuable raw materials in Latin America, such as meat, gold, oil, avocado, iron, diamonds, potato, soy, copper or niobium. Robinson travels through Potosí, Minas Gerais, Zacatecas and many other of the itineraries that Eduardo Galeano already traveled fifty years ago, in The Open Veins of Latin America, and updates the famous thesis that "Latin Americans are poor because the soil we tread on is rich ». That book became the bible of the left-wing generation that came to power in Latin America in the early 21st century, such as Lula da Silva, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa or Hugo Chávez. What has happened in those countries since then? What is the end use of these raw materials in today's world, of ostentatious consumption, dwindling natural resources, strong geopolitical tensions and extreme inequality? What can we learn from indigenous peoples to face the existential challenge of climate change? How does the extraction of raw materials affect the dramatic political events that have shaken the region in recent years? Inevitably, any reader, American or European, will feel challenged as a citizen and consumer