My first life

An exciting reconstruction of Hugo Chávez's life and his performance as president of Venezuela ten years after his rise to power.

Few figures in recent history have had such a decisive impact as Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (1954-2013). Elected president of Venezuela in 1999, his message and the example of the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution awakened all of Latin America. The inability of the traditional political class to channel the revolt of "those from below" opened the way for new leaders, from trade union, social activist, military or even guerrilla backgrounds: Lula and Dilma in Brazil, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández in Argentina, Tabaré Vázquez and Pepe Mujica in Uruguay, and many others. But the first was Chávez.

In this revealing book, the result of five years of work and more than two hundred hours of conversations with Chávez, Ignacio Ramonet manages to portray the Venezuelan leader through his own words. Who was Chávez before becoming a universally known public figure? How was his childhood? How was he educated? When did he get involved in politics? What did he read? What influences did he receive? What was his geopolitical vision? What ideological current did he claim to belong to?

These dialogued memoirs, focused on the Venezuelan president's early life, key and explanation of his later trajectory, are an essential historical work for anyone who wants to understand the beginning of the 21st century in Latin America and the world.