Chile on my mind

Last night we got together with a couple other Fulbrighters and friends at a restaurant in Providencia. There were a few people from Chile in the group, as well as a person from Venezuela.  In the last few weeks there has been this transition of being a visitor seeing a lot of new and interesting things to being someone that is beginning to develop a deeper understanding of Chile and Latin America.  It is interesting to talk to people from other South American countries during our visit, and the chance to talk to people from Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and Peru are fairly common occurrences.  Some of these conversations confirm intuition and also provide insight into the relationships between the countries. BTW - feedback is that Uruguay people are the happiest, and the reason cited was that they have the largest middle class.

My closest Chilean friends are in the cyber crimes unit in the Policía de Investigaciones de Chile (PDI).  I have spent quite a bit of time with them and very much enjoy their friendship.  Prior to coming to Chile I had read about the somewhat closed environment - kind of like the clicks you so often see in the States. Other than my experience with PDI, my inclination would be to confirm what I had read.  This isn't meant to paint all with one brush, but compared to other places and countries I've been it does seem to be apparent.  While I could pick up on this early in my stay in Chile, what has changed is that now I am beginning to understand and appreciate why.

As recently as today, I walked into a small tienda and greeted the shop keeper.  He simply looked away.  Often when out on one of my walks or runs and I make eye contact, my inclination is to smile and say hello or wave.  More often than not the action is not reciprocated.  In talking with our friend from Venezuela last night he said that people from Venezuela tend to be somewhat loud spoken and everyone says hello to everyone else.  When he first came to Chile he received a lot of feedback on being loud - or Venezuelan - and learned to be more reserved.  Argentineans and especially Brazilians can be conspicuously flamboyant, especially compared to Chileans.

Chileans seem to spend their time with family and/or close friends.  My experience and the experience of those I've talked with reinforces this.  But now I have gained a better appreciation of what contributes to this.  I thought that once we got past 9/11 and the 40th anniversary of the Pinochet coup that things would fade a bit.  Clearly that is not what is happening.  The momentum to go after those responsible appears to be increasing rapidly.  Just this week it was announced that the country club type of prison that some former Pinochet officials are housed in is going to be closed and the prisoners transferred to a 'regular' prison.  Today, the leader of the 'Caravan of Death' - who was housed at that prison - killed himself while on a weekend release to his home because of fear of the transfer.  A weekend release?  Private bathrooms, Internet, cable tv, tennis, BBQ pits, separate cabins...   I can see how this may get people worked up.

The former president that looks likely to be elected president next month - who herself was a victim of torture and exile - said that even as recently as a few years ago  that the climate wouldn't allow aggressively going after the Pinochet clan. She was president when Pinochet died 6 years ago. It is clear to me that this is a raw wound that has deeply impacted Chile.  Throughout Pinochet's reign people were terrified of becoming a target.  A couple decades of this will surely impact a culture and perhaps make people more reserved and less inclined to be outgoing.

To some degree I could feel some of the Hitler shame coming through in my times in Germany - even though much time had passed and virtually nobody is still alive that had anything to do with it.  The children bearing their parent's shame if you will. When in Hungary recently it was clear there was considerable distaste for the Russians. There are feelings of a similar nature all over Europe. So it is no surprise that the Pinochet issues are so raw and festering.  I hope that the people of Chile are able to deal with this in a way that will allow everyone to move on because the alternatives are not that attractive.

end of post

Start of Spring

This week marked the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, and with it came warmer temperatures. I will experience all four seasons in a three month timespan once I return to the States in Autumn.  Last week was a pretty cool week - 50's (10 - 15 C) for highs and often below freezing at night. This week has warmed to the upper 60's to low 70's (19 - 23 C). Skies were nice and clear with everyone out of town for last week's long holiday, but today was perhaps as smoggy a day as there has been since we've been here.  It was difficult to see the Costanera Center, which is less than two miles away, let alone the Andes.  The Costanera Center is the tallest building in South America at 64 stories above ground.

I took this photo four days ago.  Imagine barely being able to see the tall tower today, let alone the Andes. The tallest mountain you can see from Santiago when the weather is clear is El Plomo at about 17,800 feet.  This is where the El Plomo Boy was found basically buried in a small box at the mountain top by the Incas.  A replica was at the El Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago.  We visited the museum and the replica was a sad scene.  An 8 year old boy with his hair braided in 200 tiny braids along with 3 small toys sitting in a box.  Apparently he was drugged with coca or something similar.  

On Monday I could feel another terremoto (earthquake) from the office at the University of Chile - fourth floor (piso quarto).  It was a 4.8 but didn't last long.  Yesterday was a 7.0 in Peru, which is a pretty big quake.

We went to a movie tonight - Runner Runner (Apuesta Máxima).  Interesting how the title doesn't translate.  Runner Runner would be Corredor Corredor.  Apuesta Máxima means maximum bet.  Anyway, the theater was nice.  The auditorium had many seats and was stacked up high so that if someone sat in front of you it wouldn't block your view.  Not an issue as there were maybe 14 people in the theater (seats perhaps 250) and most people in Chile aren't going to block your view by sitting in front of you because of height.  The seats were very comfortable bucket seats with plenty of leg room.  Ben Affleck did a nice job - and he somehow reminds me of my nephew.  Much of the movie was set in Costa Rica, so Erin could see some familiar sights.  Some of the movie was also in Spanish - and of course was also subtitled in Spanish.  By the way - the movie started exactly on time.

Time is moving quickly as I only have two more weeks of class at the University of Chile and then some free time to hopefully make it over to the Pacific Coast.  Erin wraps up her 6 weeks of Spanish at the same time.  I would have liked to take some Spanish courses as well, but I've got quite a few irons in the fire with things at the University of Chile, a few other projects with other organizations here, and also some things back at Ferris.  It really hasn't been relaxing or a vacation as there always seems to be something.  Today was the second day in the past two plus months that I didn't have something scheduled.  

end of post

Missing Things

There are lots of people and things you miss after being gone from home for a few months.  The people from home know I miss them, but there are also a lot of things from home that I miss too.  So this blog is simply "Missing Things" - things that I miss.

I miss Hudsonville chocolate ice cream.  People that know me know that chocolate milk shakes are an every day staple in my diet and they also know that I make the best chocolate shakes in the world bar none.  (I use secret ingredients...)

I miss the trees and water of Northern Michigan.

I miss peace and quite.  Santiago is never quiet.

I miss Lauri's cooking.

I miss going for a run in the woods.

I miss playing hoop with Ike and games with Seth and Seth's cooking.

I miss Lauri's cooking.

I miss 2% milk by the gallon.

I miss having space.

I miss my grill.

I miss cruising in the Mustang with the top down along Grand Traverse Bay and that cute blonde chick in the passenger seat.

I miss Lauri's cooking.

I miss drinking water straight from the tap.

After two months we've come to the point where we've seen most of Santiago - much of it multiple times.  Shortly, it will be a memory and there will be things that I will miss about Chile.

I will miss the Andes.

I will miss the wide variety of things you see in Chile - from meeting the President to seeing donkeys on the main drag in Santiago.  You can walk right up to La Moneda (the Presidential Palace) and you can walk up to donkeys three blocks away.

(okay, you don't see donkeys all that often...)

I will miss dogs in clothes (they are everywhere).

I will miss Peruvian Pisco Sours, even though I'm not someone that cares for mixed drinks.

 How do you make them?  Come here, we'll show you...dump in some from this jug, then dump in some from this other jug, put in a little of this stuff that comes out of a bottle, a dash of this stuff that comes from trees in the mountains of Peru where people just wear fur shorts and no shirts (I try not to think too much about that), blend it up...enjoy.  Nope, not likely to have the ingredients back in Michigan.

I will miss running Cerro San Cristobal.

I will miss that dive place that has the most awesome chicken.

I will miss going on 5 mile walks just looking for new discoveries.

I will miss being a foot taller than everyone.

I will miss the feeling you get when you see something new for the first time in a different part of the world.

Most of all I will miss the daily time I get to spend with Erin - often dragging her on one of those 5 mile walks - and her patiently correcting my malo español (bad Spanish) as we talk about our new discoveries.

end of post

Semana de la Chilenidad

September 18 is Independence Day in Chile.  Roughly one-third of the population uses the long holiday weekend to travel somewhere.  We were invited to the Semana de la Chilenidad, which is a large Fonda (fair) by the Policía de Investigaciones de Chile (Chile's FBI).  This was the first time we went somewhere with someone from Chile in the two months that we've been here other than something sponsored by the Fulbright Commission.

The event takes place in Parque Padre Hurtado, which is in the Los Condes/La Reina area of Santigo. As you can see, there is everything from bands to a large dance floor to a midway.

Of course, what I was interested in was the food.  They do BBQ right in Chile!

You buy a stick for $8.  The first chunk of meat is pork, then two pieces of beef, pork, sausage, topped off by bread on the end.  I have no idea what the marinade is, but the chef soaked some bread in it and then gave it to me.  He knew what he was doing as he made a sale.

The cow had been on the coals for 16 hours at this point.  It costs extra to get some of it.  Below is a terremoto (earthquake) - at least one version.  It is wine with ice cream.  

I tried to get a new BMW from the Carabineros, but it came sin llaves (no keys).  Several government agencies sponsored the event and used it as a recruiting opportunity.

The one thing you can't miss wherever you are in Santiago would be the Andes.  They are often obscured by the smog, but today they were stunning. Snow capped mountains and palm trees - quite a contrast.

There were multiple arenas.  This first one had terracing to sit on - ride a pony on - whatever.

We also went to a rodeo, but left after a short time.  The idea is to pin the cow between two running horses and then slam the cow into the wall and knock it over.  The cows were taking quite a beating and the event was quite violent.  One horse kicked out one of the banners above the wall when knocking over the cow.  Yes, there were PETA type protestors.  I think they had a point.

These two dogs were incredibly fast and very good at herding sheep.  The little one on the bottom is booking it around the pen to cut the sheep off on the other side so they have to go in the gate.

The white things are slices of apple.  The chocolate things are either apple or combination banana and apple.  Not sure what the red things were.

I'm not big on sweets - don't even have a birthday cake (rhubarb pie anyone?).  We did get some just to see what it was like.

The candy is 150 grams for three thousand pesos.  So guess how much this was?

How did you know it was $8?  Same as the meat skewer.  I see a pattern here.

One thing that caught my eye was the design of a baby jogger.  Being someone that has pushed one with one or two kids for about 10 years and thousands of miles, such things grab my attention.  The platform on the back was unusual - it even had steering casters.

The other thing that was interesting was the archery range.  Several targets were lined up in a row (note the spacing of the targets).  If you were young, you moved up.  If not, you stayed back.  Maybe it is just me, but it seems like it wouldn't be that difficult to skewer someone...William Tell?

Our host was very generous with his time.  His young daughter came along and was very good for the 5 or 6 hours the outing took.

Overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

end of post

Bruce

Shortly after arriving in Santiago it was announced that Bruce Springsteen would be playing a concert on September 12.  I immediately scored a pair of tickets as Erin had never seen him in concert.  He's sold over 120 million albums, placing him in the company of The Eagles, U2, Billy Joel, Barbara Streisand, and Garth Brooks.  Interestingly, I took Lauri (mi esposa) to see Springsteen in 1984 for the Born in the USA tour.  She was 18 at the time.  Erin (mi hija) is 21.  That my friend, will make you feel old.

The concert was at the Moviestar arena, which is in the O'Higgins Park just behind the Universidad de Chile campus that I teach at.  The arena is an unusual dome shaped building.

People talk about how time takes on a whole new dimension in Spain and Latin America.  They are absolutely right.  We arrived about 90 minutes before the concert was to start as we had to pick up tickets from Will Call and didn't know how long that would take.  It seemed like there was only a couple hundred people around.  We met a couple women from Canada - one is a Bruce groupie and flew down just for the concert.  They heard Erin and I speaking English so yelled out to us.

 This is inside the arena about 45 minutes before the show was scheduled to start - 9pm.  Notice I say scheduled.  The show was announced as a sellout, but I was skeptical.  We went outside to get a Bruce t-shirt and were amazed at the line.

After that it was back to the arena.  Did I mention that buildings are often not heated in Santiago?  Bruce hit the stage about 9:40pm sharp.  (un punto!)

There were people literally coming in as late as 11:30.  The thing is, Bruce plays a long time and people that came in 2 hours and 30 minutes after the scheduled start time still had 2 hours of show ahead of them.  He plays a long time.  I've read of places that turned off the power to get him to stop.  Yes, it was a full house. People in Chile for the most part don't speak a lot of English - if any.  Yet it was clear that they were familiar with his music - why else would north of 10,000 Chileans show up?

The Chilean flag (above) had the words "Thank you for coming" in the white part.  There is something about Bruce that is unique and far different than any other performer I've seen.  He will walk through the crowd singing and playing his guitar many times.  He'll pull people up  on stage to dance, play, and sing.  He had a ramp in the middle of the floor crowd probably a 100 feet the other side of the Chilean flag - so maybe 150 feet from the stage.  When he was walking through the crowd singing "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" a little girl of maybe 8 or 9 held up a sign that said "Can I sing Sunny Day with you?" - everyone knew this as he held her sign up so the cameras could shoot an image up on the big screens.  He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her up to the ramp and gave her the microphone.  She let loose with one of the most out of key renditions you could imagine, but when she didn't know any more words to the song Bruce whispered them in her ear so that she could keep singing.  People in the crowd bordering the stage would hold up signs with song names asking for them to be played.  Between songs he'd grab a sign, show it to his band, then prop it up on his microphone stand so everyone could see it - and play the song.  He did this probably a half dozen times. One woman held up a sign that had the words "will you dance with my mom?" above a picture of an ultrasound...yes, he also pulled her up on stage.  He even gave her a guitar to play with the band.

Another time he went out to the ramp and while signing simply fell back into the crowd.  They caught him and put him back on the ramp.  He pointed to the stage and then fell back into the crowed.  They passed him up the 150 feet or so over their heads and placed him on the stage.  All this time he was singing. Of course, Bruce is only 5'7" or so - not everyone could pull this off.  I'm afraid Clarence Clemons would have crashed to the floor (6'5" and 'solidly' built).  Clarence played the tenor sax for Bruce's E Street Band until he died from complications of a stroke in 2011.  The E Street Band has a few trumpets, a trombone, a tuba, violin, multiple guitars, bass, drums, kind of a bongo drum set, three backup singers, and Clarence's nephew on the sax - along with another sax player.

There were a few times where Bruce spoke to the crowd in Spanish and he performed a song in Spanish as well.  It is this attention to detail and ability to relate to people that makes him such a popular concert draw.  He has many great songs, but I personally like Bob Seger's catalog better.  A lot of the Springsteen songs have a familiar/similar rhythm to them, and many have a dark, political, or almost blues type lyric.  Bob and Bruce are good friends and both have been on stage as a guest performer at each other's shows (do some YouTube research if you want to see it).  Bob is 5'10" - so you can see Bruce never had a future in basketball as Bob looks comparatively large next to Bruce.  

Bruce saved a lot of the familiar songs to the encore - Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA, Born to Run, and so forth.  Unfortunately, this is when the sound system began to get tired and many of them were muddied up with feedback through the speakers.  I think to compensate for this he played even more songs than normal.

I mentioned that Bruce plays a long time...at somewhere between 1 and 1:30am we could tell things were winding down, but since the subway shuts down at 11pm we thought it best to get a jump on the crowd and grab a taxi before they were gone.  We were successful.  A friend that was also at the concert and stayed to the end had to walk about a third the way home before he found a taxi.

Erin had heard a few Bruce songs prior to the concert, and I could tell was genuinely impressed with the overall performance and particularly the effort Bruce puts into his shows.  Like Seger, he lets his musicians shine when it is their time to shine and neither has let the success go to their heads.  They have also learned to live with the fame graciously and not like the infamous flame out celebrities we so often have to bear.

911

Today, 9/11/13, is the 40th anniversary of the Pinochet military coup in Chile.  There is something about anniversaries that end in a zero or a five to bring about extra focus.  It has been pretty clear that there has been tension in Santiago recently.  Simply look at the massive student demonstrations that significantly delayed the academic calendar at many universities, the strikes at the postal service, civil registry, copper industry...   To top it off, it is an election year with elections in November and the leading two candidates have extensive experience on their respective sides of the Pinochet/Allende issue.

There are many different aspects of the whole situation.  Allende was elected, but only by 36% of the population.  He was a socialist, and clearly the US was not interested in more Soviet extensions in the Western Hemisphere.  The US certainly helped enable the coup and the conditions to help set it in motion.  Inflation in Chile at the time has been reported as high as 500%.  The coup was not a surprise and was for the most part expected.  What wasn't expected was the ruthlessness with which Pinochet operated.  More people were killed in Chile's 911 than in the 911 in the United States.  There were also about 40,000 people in Chile that were tortured.  Well over 1,000 people simply disappeared.  It took 17 years for Pinochet's rein of terror to end, but ironically he remained in the government for several more years.  As a close friend of Margaret Thatcher, for the most part he lived out his life securely in Britain and was never brought to trial before he died in Chile in 2006.

The feelings in Chile are quite mixed, and it depends on who you talk to as to how they feel about Pinochet.  From an economic standpoint, what was done set things in motion for the incredible Chilean economic engine that continues to run as the best in Latin America - with an unemployment rate nearly 50% lower than the unemployment rate in the United States.  On the other hand, his human rights abuses don't set well with anyone.  I have seen first hand some of the prison and torture facilities - some of which are off limits to the public.  They reminded me of the Gestapo prisons in Germany and I was told they in fact were designed after them.  Many Germans fled Germany as it was falling at the end of WWII for Chile.

Today we were told to be home by mid afternoon and not to go out at night.  There have been riots recently and tonight is supposed to be the flash point.  A map was published of expected trouble places, but even I can see obvious omissions such as Plaza de Italia. (red dot is potential flash point area)

I had class at 10:15am, so decided to go in about 9am.  Usually this is heavy rush hour and the subway is packed tight.  Not today.

On my walk from the subway to the Universidad de Chile there are many other universities.  Perhaps some day I'll make a blog of University Row.  It is typically packed with students similar to a shopping mall at Christmas.  Not today.

This is where it starts to get erie.  Should I turn around and go back?

The other universities clearly had canceled classes.  As I approached closer to the University of Chile there were papers stuck to the sidewalk with names and messages.

This went on for a few blocks.

These were difficult times (above)

I won't see you return (above).

I made it to class and 3 of my 18 students showed up.  Next week is the Independence holiday (from Spain) and I think a lot of people are ready for a change in focus.  It seems most of the violence and demonstrations are for the most part by young people that either weren't born or don't remember what happened.  The people that were directly impacted seem to have more somber and quiet events.  Sure, people want answers as to what happened and why, but to an extent it reminds me some of Vietnam.  For the most part the soldiers that returned rarely spoke of it.  Those that weren't there had more to say, but perhaps were ignorant.

end of post

Goooooaaaaaaalllllll................

Just about any sports fan even with the most modest of interest in world wide sports knows that the World Cup will be in Brasil in 2014.  (I've mentioned in the past that they don't spell it Brazil in Brasil).  There are two soccer (football) tournaments going on in South America right now.  One is the Copa Sudamericana, which is the second largest football tournament in South America.   The Universidad de Chile team (University of Chile) - known as La U - is one of two Chilean teams still in the Copa Sudamericana. La U is not really a university team, though it has historical roots to La U (The U - the first university in Chile). The other tournament is the World Cup qualifier.

I was in Europe during the 2010 World Cup, finding myself in The Netherlands and Germany when both were in the Final Four.  I was also in Europe during the 2012 European Cup.  Soccer is so much bigger in Europe and South America than any sport is in the US.  It is hard to describe how pubs and restaurants have tables and chairs that spill out into the streets and a few hundred people can be watching the game on a television outside in this type of setting.  When a goal is scored by "the right" team the sounds throughout the city confirm it.

Last night Chile played Venezuela in the World Cup qualifier.  We knew when goals were scored from within our apartment - didn't even need to have the game on.  Chile won 3 - 0, and is now guaranteed at least a playoff into the World Cup with more games remaining to guarantee the spot.  Once the game finished it was a scene much like what plays out in Europe.

People jump into their cars and start driving around honking their horns and waving flags.  There were busses with flags draped across the front and down the sides, people hanging out of side car windows, and kids younger than five standing up through sunroof's waving flags.  We even saw people several stories up waving large flags out their windows.  It is really quite an experience and certainly overshadows the petty rivalries we see so often in sports in the US.

end of post

Random things

At busy intersections it is common to see street performers during the red light cycle.  Usually it is jugglers, but not always.  Vendors often sell small items while the cars are stopped as well.  The other night was our first fire juggler - usually it is balls or batons.  BBC had an article on jugglers at this very intersection. click here

We had our first day where we had to have a fix of American food.  We settled on Pizza Hut.  The crust was frozen and there was almost no sauce, but the cheese and toppings were good.  There is only one style - frozen - no pan, hand tossed, etc.  We later tried KFC - it was nasty and we threw it out.

We ran into a Carabinero recruiting station.  It is a three year training program and some possible options to spend some time with police departments in the States.  They were very friendly.

This is what Chilean Pesos look like.  The first is a 2000 peso bill - dos mil - and the other is a shot of common currency and denominations.  The back side of the bills usually portray nature and the smaller bills have a clear plastic window on them (the dos mil bill has a guy's portrait in the clear plastic).

Like in Europe, water comes with different color caps.  The red is agua sin gas (water without gas), the blue is water with gas (carbonated).  In Hungary it was a pink cap for sin gas.

If you can't remember the caps code, just read the label.    Huesillos are a common Chilean desert.  It is a peach in some sort of syrup with a barley or corn mixture.  Not for me.

What is for me is this spicy catsup.  You can get regular catsup as well, but this is quite good.  Mayonnaise is on a lot of things as well - in prodigious quantities.

end of post