Blog Archives

 Museo de la Memoria Y Los Derechos Humanos (Museum Of Memory And Human Rights) Santiago, Chile

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Museo de la Memoria Y Los Derechos Humanos (Museum Of Memory And Human Rights),Santiago, Chile

“Dictatorships are never as strong as they think they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are. “Gene Sharp

I don’t get it. I never get things like this. Maybe I am just not that smart. From what I remember Salvador Allende was the first Communist president elected by a Democracy. The American government did not like this. They did everything in their power to get him out. It is beyond the realm of my knowledge as to why America needed to do this.

Chile started having big economic problems because of the actions by the American government.  They withdrew aid from Chile and trade was limited or refused. Chileans workers began strikes.

On September 11, 1973, an American backed coup lead by Augusto Pinochet took place. President Allende committed suicide in the presidential palace as opposed to surrendering and the seventeen year military reign of terror began under the dictatorship of August Pinochet. (poem about the memory of suffering)

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This Museum of Memory and Human Rights tells the story of the abuses and disappearances carried out during this time. It’s estimated that 40,000 people were tortured or executed during this period.

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I get the English Audio tour and walk through seventeen years of “ forced disappearance” murder and torture of anyone who was believed to be against Pinochet. Anyone includes women and children.

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I listen to Pinochet’s speech as he takes control of the country. It is oddly familiar. It sounds like Trump has been taking notes from Latin American dictators. It Is the Latin American cult of personality, rage against the elite, unbridled machismo, an acerbic disregard for the rules—coupled with an apparent willingness to break them at nearly any cost that characterizes their dictators. As we enabled Pinochet to create this reign of terror, Trump had enablers in America for his rise to power.

There are excerpts of newspaper headlines from the state-controlled media at the time, video, personal accounts, photographs and memorabilia. The museum increases cultural awareness of the thousands of residents impacted by persecutions, imprisonment and torture during Pinochet’s rule. The museum pays tribute to the thousands of lives lost between 1973 and 1990 through photographs of victims, video coverage of protesters and a host of legal documents, letters and artifacts .

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It was surprising to learn that not everyone in Chile believed that Pinochet was a dictator. In government documents and in schools, they call this era the “military government” rather than a“dictatorship”. When Pinochet died in 2006, he was not granted a state funeral (awarded to elected officials) but did have an official military funeral where 60,000 people turned out to pay their respects. The Chilean government has never come out and said that Pinochet’s government committed war crimes.  They admit that people were killed, but they don’t consider this to be more than was necessary to bring peace back to a divided country.

The glass and copper building that houses the museum was designed by acclaimed Brazilian architect Marcos Figueroa and is dedicated to all human rights abuses through out the world.

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As with all museums of horror and terror throughout the world, it is filled with the country’s teen age schoolchildren. The hope is that these frightening, chilling stories will enlighten these future adults and broaden their perspective of the world so it does not happen again. (We are unable to change the past,  It is our responsibility to learn from it)

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Fly safe,

JAZ

The Houses Of Pablo Neruda

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“Poetry came in search of me.” Pablo Neruda

The Chilean Nobel Laureate poet Pablo Neruda may be one of the greatest poets in the Spanish language. His poetry is hard to translate and there is only a small amount in English. It is difficult for me and also for many Chileans to disassociate his words from his intense political views and/or personal failings.


He wrote exquisite poems about love and human nature. Neruda has three houses—one on San Cristobal Hill in Santiago, another in Valparaiso and the third is in Isla Negra. I visited two of them. To decorate his houses he has scoured antique shops and junkyards for all kinds of objects. He has many collections. Each object reminds him of an anecdote. You can not photograph inside.

Riding the funicular to the top of Parque Metropolitano is the classic tourist activity in Santiago.

When we got to the bottom again, it deposited us a block away from La Chascona, the house the poet bought in 1951 for his then-secret lover, Matilde Urrutia.

La Chascona (the name refers to the wild tangle of Matilde’s hair, a recurring element in his poems) is a house filled with objects – not for their value or beauty, but as an expression of the person who assembled them. It was destroyed in a military coup after his death and has been rebuilt and restored. For a Communist, he is quite the shopper.


Isla Negra (Black Island) is neither black nor an island. It is an elegant beach resort forty kilometers south of Valparaíso. No one knows where the name comes from; Neruda speculates about black rocks vaguely shaped like an island which he sees from his terrace.

Thirty years ago, long before Isla Negra became fashionable, Neruda bought—with the royalties from his books—six thousand square meters of beachfront, which included a tiny stone house at the top of a steep slope.

“Then the house started growing, like the people, like the trees.” His collections of bottles, nautical things and odd objects grew as well.


l love these collections and I love this house with its magic light and expansive views.


It is at Isla Negra where Pablo Neruda and his third wife, Matilde have established their most permanent residence.


His most iconic works were written here. It is where he was happiest entertaining a constant stream of visitors with Chilean wine and food. The names of his dead friends are carved in the beam above the bar so he can always have a drink with them. There are seventeen names.

When he died, which was during the Pinochet reign of terror,  Neruda was given a pauper’s grave. Chile didn’t officially embrace its most famous writer until democracy was restored in 1990. Then he and Matilda were buried outside facing the sea according to his wishes.

“Bury me at Isla Negra, in front of the sea I know, in front of every wrinkled place, of rocks and waves that my lost eyes, will never see again.”

Fly safe,
JAZ