Volume III of Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire is titled Century of the Wind (referring to the twentieth century). The author has included about 500 entries, for the years 1900–1986, that he deemed indicative of important trends or events that shaped human history. While he emphasizes Latin America, many of the events included (such as those occurring during the World Wars) are concerned with other places in the world because they had a global impact or were particularly significant for Latin America.

In the Preface, the author states that this volume, like the others in the trilogy, is “not an anthology but a literary creation” in which he employs “complete freedom" in interpreting the documentation on which it is based. He does not know or specify the genre to which it belongs. While every year has at least one entry, numerous years have multiple entries; the connections among them are only occasionally made explicit. The contrast of different types of events or individuals often points to the importance of a theme that, to the author, connects them. The overall impression is of his critical stance, as he looks from Latin America at the actions of the United States, such as military interventions, and the growing global pressures during the Cold War era and through the Contra activities of the 1980s.