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"This book is an antidote to the poisonous US government mantra against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Ironically, "Cowboy" isn't about Chávez, but about the exciting processes he has helped initiate and about the awakening of Venezuela's poor whom the US media neglects."--Saul Landau, author of A Bush & Botox World
"Charles Hardy has given us a unique perspective on the Chávista revolution as viewed from a cardboard shack on a hillside barrio in Caracas. Writing in a graceful and conversational style in a series of vignettes, Hardy conveys with genuine affection and admiration the dignity and courage of the ordinary people of Venezuela--people whom the Western media, ensconced in fine hotels or tony apartments, only know as maids and waiters. A reader comes away understanding both why Hugo Chávez is loved by these people--and why the U.S. Government is trying so hard to oust him. With the Bush administration still trying to demonize Chávez and his backers, this book is a must read for all Americans--a must read that you won't be able to put down."--Dave Lindorff, columnist for Counterpunch and co-author with Barbara Olshansky, of The Case for Impeachment (St. Martin's Press, 2006)
"Before we take one more bite of the toxic propaganda sandwich our government offers us to nourish their view that Hugo Chávez is a monster suppressing the poor of Venezuela, read this fine book by Charles Hardy, a former Catholic priest from the United States who spent 8 years tending and nurturing the poor in the cardboard slums of Caracas. Even if you choose to ignore that Chávez was democratically elected three times by his own people and defended by them from a US instigated coup, this book will make indelibly clear, the economic horror and chaos foisted on the Venezuelan people by the IMF, World Bank, and free-market privateers. When you understand the grinding, debilitating poverty our nation and its institutions have wrought on the Venezuelan people, it will take you a long way toward appreciating the Presidency of the man they consider their savior, Hugo Chávez. Read this important book, and drop the propaganda sandwich in the trash where it belongs."--Peter Coyote, actor/writer
"In these eloquent and moving pages, Charles Hardy takes us into the very heart of the revolution. This is not a book about the larger-than-life Chávez. Rather it is about the people who support him and why they support him. It is about people who are economically poor but rich in so many other ways as they go through lives of constant struggle to survive with dignity...For an understanding of Venezuela's revolution, you can do no better than to start with this book."--James W. Russell, author of Double Standard: Social Policy in Europe and the United States
"I highly recommend Cowboy in Caracas for people who want to understand the vast changes in Venezuela and the hope the "Bolivarian Revolution" offers for the construction of that better world we often talk about...it is a book worth giving as a gift to someone who would like to know the truth about Venezuela."--Chuck Kaufman, Interim Coordinator of the Venezuela Solidarity Network
"Hardy takes the reader into the byways and undercurrents of Venezuelan society...in vignette-like pieces, parts of which record Hardy's 'feel' so immediately they are like diary passages, the author describes events and political situations so the reader can appreciate the thoughts, hopes, loyalties, and actions of the many lower-income, ordinary, out-of-the-limelight Venezuelans who make up the country's tide of change...It is for its wide-ranging picture of these ordinary and ordinarily unseen Venezuelans that one goes to Hardy's book."--Henry Berry, Suite 101
"Stay tuned to this story--it has all manner of narrative punch."--Morning News
"More of an adventure story than a polemic, this book is a must for anyone who wishes to discover the human stories behind Hugo Chávez's rise to power and the emergence of Venezuela as the revolutionary center of the early 21st Century. Suitable for the general reader, students, academics and opinion formers alike, the book smashes through the lazy journalistic stereotypes and disinformation campaigns of the corporate media. It opens a window to the Venezuela they would prefer you didn't see."--Calvin Tucker, 21st Century Socialism
"A long overdue work...Cowboy in Caracas is an excellent starting point for learning about the Chávez government and the evolution of Venezuela's democratic revolution. The work is a strong reminder for Americans that when money and power are involved, truth often suffers."--Joseph L. Varszegi, Neighbors
"Like Chávez, the author has given a platform to the people's hopes and dreams. Listening to these personal stories is a good way to understand their revolution from below." --Morning Star, Great Britain
"Critics have been praising Hardy's lucid, straightforward memoir, which starts with his shock upon arrival in the cardboard shack that would be his home in the slums of Caracas... 'It is different,therefore,' [Hardy adds],' from the perspective an international correspondent might have who works in a downtown office building of an opposition newspaper and lives in an apartment in a wealthy neighborhood.'"--Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post
"Few authors have described Venezuela's lower class with such explicit details...Charles Hardy did an impeccable job by presenting Venezuela from the view of the oppressed masses, who have always been ignored by the so-called mainstream press. His book is not an intellectual exercise designed to impress those who probably have no interests in the plights of oppressed Venezuelans. Cowboy in Caracas is a clear and honest cry on behalf of the voiceless of Venezuela. This book is a MUST-READ."--CSMS Magazine
"Mr. Hardy's language is clear, sometimes forceful. He is not without an agenda, but he has that rare capacity to engage rather than alienate the reader. Cowboy is not a leftist rant on U.S. imperialism, nor is it a scolding for those of us who just don't get it. Charles Hardy is not the fire and brimstone preacher who will scare you into believing as he does. He's your next-door neighbor. He recognizes you've been misinformed by the mainstream press and he wants to tell you what you've been missing. If you've been waiting for a real story on Venezuela, here it is."--National Catholic Reporter
"Cowboy in Caracas offers vivid depictions of Venezuelan culture and society. Based on two decades of close observation and first-hand experience, Hardy analyzes the rise of Hugo Chávez Frias from lieutenant colonel to President of the Republic...[this] memoir provides helpful insights into the political polarization that prevails in Venezuela from someone sympathetic to Mr. Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution."--Dale T. Graden, Idaho Humanities Newsletter
"An anecdotal memoir and eyewitness chronicle...one learns again the damning consequences of unilateral policy emanating from a unicultural perspective and the demanding but enriching labor of multicultural experience fostering multicultural cooperation."--Edward A. Riedinger, Multi-Cultural Review
No president today is more controversial than Venezuela's Hugo Chávez Frias. Elected in a landslide in 1998, he promised a peaceful revolution. That peaceful dream became a nightmare when Chávez was overthrown in a coup d'état in 2002. Surprisingly, he was brought back to power by his supporters, mostly barrio dwellers, within forty-eight hours. Although Chávez continues to be dogged by controversy, he stays in power because of these supporters who see themselves as active participants in a democratic revolution.
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