Belén: El Pueblo de 80 Personas

While in the northern Chilean campo for a days in April, my groups was broken up and we stayed with Aymara families in various villages in the Chilean altiplano. The Aymara are the 2nd largest indigenous group in Chile and are concentrated in Southern Peru/Bolivia/Northern Chile. Their religious faith is based on complementary; male and female, light and darkness, earth and sky. To them, the earth is alive. The land is called the Pachamama, the sun is called Inti. The mountains, the wind, the rain are all alive.  Before major events, the Aymara conduct a pawa. A blanket is placed on the ground, and coca leaves are placed on top of the blanket. A man and women each take a small cup of wine and pure alcohol (gives from the earth and sky, respectively) and pour a small amount on the ground at each corner of the blanket, asking Pachamama, Inti, and the other divine forces for blessings. They then throw the remaining liquid off into the distance.

I, along with 3 other students, stayed in Belén, a village that, when I asked 3 different people how many people lived there, got 3 different answers of 40, 80, and 300. Since 80 is the middle number, I’ll settle on that. The town maybe 1 square mile big. Most of the people who live there have farm land where they grow corn, lima beans, oregano, and potatoes. I stayed with the Zegarra family. Angelina owns goats and makes goat cheese. Edie is the town handyman and also runs the towns Registro Civil (civil registration service, like a DMV). The son Edie is one of 7 kids that go to the local school.

What did we do in Belén? One night there was a celebration at the school for Día de Los Carabineros, the national police force. The kids did a dance for 2 visiting police officers and then there was a community dinner. We went to some meetings of the town regarding water access for the town, as well as a tour of the campo by Juan, one of the neighbors. We helped pick some vegetables in the campo with Angelina, and I helped repair a roof with several of the local community men (well, not really help, but try to do whatever they told me to do. I think they could tell by looking at me I’m not good with hammers or Spanish).

Belén was a great experience. But it also highlighted some of the problems the campo is facing. There are no young people. Most of them leave for Arica or other big cities for jobs and college, and then never come back. There is an effort by the Foundación Altiplano to restore some of the churches in the region to help preserve the history of the area and bring some tourists to the area. After seeing the work they did on a church in Belén, I decided to do my independent study project on this effort (more info in another post). Also, water is an issue for the Aymara of the altiplano. They consider water to be theirs, but there is conflict with the Chilean government dating back many years about access to water.

Here are some pics from Belén. Mickey enjoyed it a lot. All 4 of us did! ¡Vive Belén!

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El Payaso Y Su Doble

I’ve never been much of a theater person (it’s generally just too classy for me) but here in Arica, I got to see an awesome play that was comical, educational, and great for Spanish practice. And the best part? The play was free. Score one for the cheap guys.

“El Payaso y Su Doble” (The Clown and his double) is the comical story of clown named Oscar (played by Oscar Zimmerman) and his journey through life which led him to becoming a clown. At the start of the play, he is upset that people always laugh at clowns, so he takes the audience back through his life and the events that led him to become a clown. Turned down for love by a girl he had a crush on as a child, he becomes a Communist during his teenage years. During that time, the golpe del estado (coup d’etat) against the Allende government occurred, which forced the clown to escape to Spain as a political exile. Upon the return to democracy in Chile in 1990, he came back, got married and had a child, but his wife left him. All during the play, the events leading him to become a clown are shown. The audience is kept laughing during the entire play.

El Payaso y Su Doble takes the audience through 40 years of Chilean culture and history. It does have a few sad notes, but it uses comedy to show the point of view of a person during the last half of the 20th century. The humor keeps the audience laughing and thinking. And obviously, since it was in Spanish, I learned a little bit. It received a great write up in La Tercera newspaper. Below is a 7 minute clip of the play. Even if you no absolutely zero Spanish, you can enjoy the music and body language that were crucial for the comical success of the play.  Take a watch. You’ll have a new appreciation for clowns after watching it.

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Blame it on the Al-al-al-Altitude Baby

Clearly I’m bad at keeping up with this blog, since I blog about everything at least 3 weeks after it happens. I’m assuming I’m having too much fun to remember to blog about it. So lemme take a minute to write all this down for the historical record. And of course for whoever is having enough of a boring day to decide to read this blog.

During the 2nd half of April, half of our study abroad group took a trip up to Northern Chile, to the Arica y Parinacota region of Chile. Chile is extremely diverse in terms of geography and landscapes. Up in the north, it’s hotter and dryer. The world’s driest desert is actually up here, which we got to drive through. Our group came up here to live with and study about the Aymara people, the 2nd largest indigenous group in Chile.  There are about 46,000 of them, and they generally live in the area that encompasses the Chilean/Peruvian/Bolivian border. They’ll be getting their own special blog post (3 weeks late, as per any #daninchile blog post).

The altitude of the region is quite spectacular. The altiplano and precordillera regions are between 2000 and 4700 meters above sea level (that’s 6561 to 15,419 feet above sea level.) Hence, altitude sickness was always on our minds, between the warnings to always walk slow to a few of the girls in the group who came down with altitude sickness.

For 3 days we stayed in Putre, the “big city” of the altiplano. By big city, I mean there were probably 500 people in the town, and that’s an extremely high number. Putre has probably 20 streets and a military base. It’s a frequent stop for backpackers and visitors to the termas (hot springs about 20 minutes from town). While in Putre, aside from classes, we visited the local school for a day, where we met with the students who are studying agriculture and tourism (we were treated to a tour of the town by the students, followed by a snack). We also had a dinner with a local Aymara family. The Aymara believe in reciprocity, the exchange of gifts. Hence, both the family and us students made food to bring, and invited numerous people from the town to come to dinner.

We also visited Lake Chungará. What a site to see! The lago (lake) is bordered by 2 volcano (Parinacota and Pomerape) and is close to the Chilean border with Bolivia (yes, Sarah Palin, we can see Bolivia from our house!) Because of the shallowness of the lake, it is the highest un-navigable lake in the world.

The entire region was breathtakingly beautiful, and that’s an understatement. It’s very relaxed and tranquil. People aren’t in a rush, because there is no need to be in a rush. The entire region is generally farmers or small business owners, who travel to Arica (the large port city) when necessary. The region and culture tend to be a little more conservative than the rest of Chile. At the school, we met 2 students who are both 17 and have a 2 year old child. Apparently, that’s not uncommon in this region.  The tranquil and peaceful nature of the area is admired. I know where I’m going to retire to.

Here are just a handful of the many wonderful pictures from the area. Donations are now being collected for the Dan Horning and Mickey Mouse retirement funds. Please leave bank account numbers in the comments sections. You’ll get a postcard and a cookie as your thank you.

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Villa Grimaldi

On April 11, our group visited Villa Grimaldi in Santiago, also known as Parque por la Paz. This site is very significant in the story of human rights abuses in Chile during the dictatorship of Agosto Pinochet from 1973-1990. Formerly a farm/restaurant on the outskirts of Santiago, after the coup d’etat in September 1973, the military and the Brigada de Inteligencia Metropolitana (BIM) took over the site and set up a torture center and prison for political opponents of the regime.  Over the course of its 7 years of use,  5000 people were incarcerated there, and roughly 240 were killed there.

The story of Villa Grimaldi is extremely sad. Almost everyone who was brought in was tortured via water boarding, beatings, electroshock to sensitive body parts (including genitals) and women were raped. Prisoners were kept 4 to cabins that were 4 feet long by 4 feet wide by 7 feet tall. All were blindfolded during their time there, and were assigned a number. Their personal identities were eliminated. They were no longer people but simply numbers. If a person was killed, it was a number that disappeared, not a person with a story or a family. There is a reconstructed tower (when the Army left in 1987, they destroyed everything so as to hide evidence from the outside world) where prisoners were put in to die. They were put, 3 to 4 into cells barely big enough for one person, with no windows. They were left there to starve and die.

Today, the former prison and torture center is now a park. It seeks to remember the past atrocities that occurred there while promoting peace and teaching current generations about human rights. There are a few interesting antidotes about the park today. There is an old gate that is no longer in use, and will never be opened again. When the prison was functioning, it was how prisoners entered, but through which many did not leave. When the park was dedicated in 1997, the local authorities gave the key, the only key, to the gate to a local priest who had fought on behalf of human rights during the Pinochet regime. It was symbolic of ensuring that an object that became emblematic of suffering would never open again. There is also a rose garden dedicated to the women victims of the Pinochet regime. Each rose has the name of a woman who was killed during the dictatorship. It is said that only the women who visit can smell a distinct smell from the roses that the men can’t detect.

Why is a visit to Villa Grimaldi important? Because it was a place where blatant violations and abuses of human rights occurred. Murder, rape, torture, being arrested without due process are culturally agreed upon as gravely wrong. If history is not remembered, it is bound to repeat itself. There was a sign that said “El olivdio está lleno de memoria.” The forgotten is full of memory. There were real people there. Real people with real stories. Also, it’s interesting to see how the past is reconciled to the present. Rather than make the grounds simply a museum of gloom and misery, it’s a park, a place for people to be happy. It’s a place where children can run around freely and without worry, something that couldn’t happen during the Pinochet dictatorship.

El olivido está lleno de memoria.

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