Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
La politica es la lucha por la felicidad de todos.Jose Mujica.
Apenas cinco anos como presidente de un pais tan pequeno como Uruguay han bastado para convertir a Jose Mujica en una figura respetada en todo el mundo; un politico distinto que representa otra manera de ejercer la politica y el poder, mas cercana a la gente y al sentido comun. Porque como dije Mujica, los politicos tenemos que vivir como vive la mayoria, no como vive la minoria.Mujica, que siempre se ha sentido una oveja negra, y que paso mas de trece anos en la carcel por su militancia politica, explica en estas paginas su trayectoria hasta llegar al poder, los conflictos con su liturgia y protocolo, el encuentro con figuras como Obama, Fidel Castro, Putin, Chavez o Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, la soledad de sentirse a veces en un mundo ajeno.
Es un relato con un ritmo vertiginoso, producto de mas de cien horas de conversaciones hogarenas e institucionales, politicas e intimas, personales y telefonicas. Todas ellas mantenidas entre el despacho presidencial y la mitad del campo, en escenarios tan disimiles como la Casa Blanca, El Vaticano, la charca de Mujica en las afueras de Montevideo o una pequena casa reciclada, en la que ninguna tertulia termino antes de la madrugada.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
"Politics is the fight for happiness for all." -Jose Mujica.
Just five years as president of a country as small as Uruguay have been enough to turn Jose Mujica into a respected figure around the world: a different sort of politician who represents a different way of practicing politics and power, closer to the people and to common sense. Because as Mujica says, "politicians have to live like the majority, not the minority."
Mujica, who has always felt himself a black sheep, and who spent more than 13 years in prison for his political militancy, explains his rise to power, the conflicts with his liturgy and protocol, his meetings with people like Obama, Fidel Castro, Putin, Chavez, and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and the loneliness of sometimes feeling in a foreign world.
It is a dizzying tale, the product of more than 100 hours of conversations--both cozy and businesslike, political and intimate, in person and via phone. All of them held between the presidential office and the middle of the countryside, in settings as varied as the White House, the Vatican, Mujica's pond in the outskirts of Montevideo, or a small recycled house, in which no social gathering ended before dawn.