It started on Friday, the start of my crazy weekend. We had an excursion with ISA that was pretty intense. The theme was the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and human rights and justice. Pretty powerful stuff. So it started with us meeting at Casa Central which is one of the main buildings of the school at 8am. To get there on time that requires leaving my house around 730, so that was a pretty early morning. I took a nice little nap on the bus, and then jumped off and hopped right into the brutal torture during the dictator.
For those of you who don't know the history i'll give you a brief history.
Augusto Pinochet was given power as a military something back by Salvador Allende (the first elected communist president). So on September 11, 1973 Pinochet bombed the equivalent of the white house here in Santiago and took over while Allende supposedly committed suicide *although that is going to be looked into. They are exhuming the body of Salvador Allende on May 26th*. But anyways, Pinochet was the new dictator in town, and was known for torturing anyone who opposed him, or those who strongly supported Allende. It is a really interesting history, so i suggest looking up the whole history to get a closer idea of what it was really like. Pinochet was in power until 1990 when he willingly had elections because he thought he would be elected as the president, but he wasn't.
So, there's a brief background story, and our first stop was the Villa Grimaldi Park for Peace o *Parque por Paz*. This park was used as a torture site for Pinochet. Many people were tortured here. It is hard to see from this picture but they would keep men and women blindfolded with hands and feet tied in these shacks. They are one meter by one meter and 4 people would be in one shack. Super tiny!
They had an exposition on Victor Jara, a singer who was brutally tortured and assassinated because of his strong support of Allende, and his influence as a singer.
So the Villa Grimaldi was a pretty intense way to step off the bus and head straight into torture. This park is a way to remember all the these people who were tortured by Pinochet and his rule. It is common for mothers of those lost to have pictures of their children. Some of the bodies were never put to a name, making those people known as *desaparecidos* or missing.
Next we headed to the General Cemetery or *Cementerio General*. This is a HUGE cemetery for some of the most important people in the history of Chile. It is huge, I can't even say how huge it is, but at least 6 blocks. Just massive. In the beginning we were walking into the upper class section which each person basically had a little stone building built for it. Some of these were huge!
just an example. not the best picture but you get the idea!
We saw some pretty important people. Continuing along we passed some walls that looked like this. This cemetery was packed, i can't even imagine how many people have been buried here.
Continuing further we got to the place where Salvador Allende and his family lay. This was basically a massive monument in the middle of the park.
sorry the picture isn't great. we were being rushed through the cemetery because it was so huge and there was so much to see!
His body is underneath behind locked gates.
Salvador Allende and his wife lay here.
Although not for long. They exhume the body for investigation on May 26th...that should get some interesting reactions, and by that i mean protests. the chilean way.
As we got further into the cemetery the monuments got smaller and it was starting to look more like cemeteries that i am used to in the US, although way more packed tightly.
After being rushed through the cemetery we headed to a building where they had coffee and tea waiting for us. We talked to a woman who works for the organization that we were learning about. Honestly I cannot remember the name of the org, but it is there to help women make and sell homemade products. This is important when it comes to Pinochet because during his dictatorship many people were unemployed. Women used this as a way to get some money. This org was also known for smuggling products out Chile to sell over seas. (this is why i take photos of signs, to remember names! The name of the org was Toys for Peace o *Jugetes para la paz*.
By this point it was about 4pm and I was pretty exhausted...but we weren't done! Our last stop was a Human Rights and Justice Museum. This was pretty powerful stuff although once again, we were rushed through...so i don't think i got as much out of it as i could have.
The thing that stood out the most however was at the beginning when they put 16 of us in a pitch black room. We had no idea what was happening and then all of a sudden a wall lit up with profiles of people so that the whole wall was covered. There were mirrors on the other walls, so there were illuminated faces everywhere. This was supposed to represent being in a place and having no idea where you were or what was happening. Thats what it would have felt like to be a captive of Pinochet.
So that was a super powerful day, thinking and just remembering all of the things that happened back in the 70s and 80s in Chile. It is interesting to know the influence of the CIA of the US who supported Pinochet. That's something that I will be looking into further!
Wow, that was a long post. and I feel like there was much more that i could add, so just ask if you want to know about that day more. Time to head to bed and I will update on my weekend trip to La Serena when i get home from classes tomorrow!
Chao for now!
3 days until a bunch of wonderful seniors graduate from UNH :)
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