Santiago

So, it has been a ridiculously long time since I have posted an entry. I have been pretty busy. Since the last post, I had a prolonged stay in Santiago, went home to visit my family (thanks, Jimmy, for the buddy pass!), went to Termas de Chillan, coached a high school debate team, and started my second semester of classes. I intend to catch up on those things little by little, but I am working on my thesis, too, so I can't get too carried away with blogging. I'll start with Santiago:

Scott arrived on June 25 to do research on the Mapuche and finish Dr. Liz's research that he owed her. We spent a long weekend in Santiago, and although I didn't get to see the city very much, I did become familiar with the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library). It's one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen in Chile, but what goes on inside it is, well, very Chilean. One has to ask two or three different people to get what you want, most of the newspapers are not digitized but bound in hardcover, and you don't even have ot wear gloves to look at them! We were looking at newspapers from the '50s and '60s, and they were yellowing and easily ripped if one didn't use the utmost care. While we weren't able to take pictures of the papers (even without flash), the one old man at the copy machine could bend them every which way and photocopy them, which exposes them to much more light than a camera flash. I know I sound like a snob, but I was just a little shocked by how carelessly they treat their documents.

I went back to Concepción to finish my classes, and then I went home to see my family. It was sooooo nice to be in the warm July sun and soak in the bathwater-temperature swimming pool with my nieces. Madelyn had been taking swimming lessons and did very well. It was fun swimming with her. Makes me wish I were six again. We also went on a riverboat cruise on the Tennessee River. My sister had gotten us tickets. They show consisted of the boat being taken over by pirates whose boat of choice was a pontoon. Even though they obviously couldn't have been on a real pirate ship, we still thought it was funny that there were ''pirates'' on a pontoon boat.

I went back to Concepción, only to unpack and re-pack my bags to go back to Santiago. I got to see the actual city this time, and I like it. It's so much more interesting that Concepción. There are so many things to do and see. Some of my favorites include a trip to the countryside for a Mapuche ceremony, Pablo Neruda's house La Chascona, the Cerro Santa Lucía, the tribute to Allende on the bottom floor of La Moneda (the government palace), and the cute restaurants in Providencia. We stayed in a wonderful hostal there called Newen Kara, which is mapuzungun (the Mapuche language) for ''urban force''. Not only was the hostal clean and in a great area of town, but the owners were young, sweet, and very helpful.

There were two other places of interest that really affected me: Londres 38 and Parque Por la Paz (Ex-Villa Grimaldi). I was walking down one of the main streets one day, and I happened to see the calle Londres. I knew that Londres 38 was a torture and execution site during the Pinochet regime, but finding the actual place in a guide book or on a map was not happening. I walked down the street, and less than a block away was the facade. The building was closed down and eerie. It looked like it had been forgotten by everyone except those who had pasted pictures of disappeared people and graffittied things like, ''¿Dónde están?'' (Where are they?) and ''Aquí se torturaron y se asesinaron'' (Here people were tortured and murdered). My heart felt heavy.

The Parque Por la Paz is a little outside the city, and it is the site of the famous torture and execution complex Villa Grimaldi. The park is converting a closed-off space of detention and forgetting into a memorial and educational open space. There are placards telling which types of tortures took place where, and they have a replica of a cell in which 3-4 people were detained at once. It was 1m x 1m. It didn't even look big enough to be a closet.

The Tower is the one of the only original structures that remained. The Tower was basically the execution and body disposal site. How the hell can a large number of people in this country pretend this never happened?!

To end on a lighter note, I really enjoyed Santiago. Even though Scott and I broke up right after he got back to the U.S., I think I still have fond memories of the capital city. I especially enjoyed meeting another Rotary scholar named Justin and his friend Andrea. I plan to spend the week of the 18 de septiembre (Independence Day) hanging out with them and Diane in Santiago. Since I am going to be in Santiago for Election Day for a conference, we are going to get together to watch the results. Obama/Biden 2008!!! Yes, we can!!!