Exploring Chile’s Torres del Paine
National Park
Trip Newsletter #4 September 2005
SPANISH LESSON OF THE MONTH
This month’s lesson is about the weather.
Hace frío. Hace calor – It’s cold. It’s hot.
Está lloviendo – It’s raining
Está nublado – It’s cloudy
Está nevando– It’s snowing (ha, ha, we hope not!!)
Espero que brille el sol – I hope the sun shines (we will say that a lot!)
TRIP UPDATE
We will be buying the plane tickets very soon. Once they are purchased you cannot make
any changes, so if you want to stay on in Santiago please let Stacia know as soon as
possible.
For those of you commuting to New York from Boston, we have the vans rented. With the
exception of Chris, everyone has said they want to participate in the drive down. Please
make sure to let us know if you don’t plan to go with us so we can change the reservation. It
still stands at about $60-70 per person with gas and tolls. You won’t have to pay until we
actually pick up the cars.
PRE-TRIP BACKPACK
We are planning to do a backpack up Garfield the weekend of September 30-October 2. We
will be staying at the Garfield Ridge backcountry site. There are tent platforms, a composting
toilet and lovely views from nearby. There is a charge of $8 per person if the caretaker is still
there, so be prepared to pay it just in case. Anyone who wishes to stay at John’s cabin on
Friday night should let Reji know. He will be emailing you all with more details.
CHILEAN HISTORY AND POLITICS
A little bit of history and culture courtesy of LonelyPlanet.com.
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 1
Pre 20th Century History
Pre-Columbian Chile was peopled by a variety of
ancient cultures, many of them politically subject to
the Incas who they predated by many centuries. The
country's varied topography governed the character
of its population groups and the extent to which they
were subject to Inca aggression. Native groupings
included Aymara farmers in the desert north, who
cultivated maize and tended flocks of llamas and
alpacas; fisherfolk in the coastal areas; Diaguita
Indians in the mountainous interior; Araucarian Indians in the centre and south, whose
fishing and agricultural settlements were barely touched by Incan incursions; and numerous
groups of archipelagic hunters and fishers in the remote south.
All territory west of Brazil was granted to Spain by the 1494 Spanish-Portuguese treaty. The
Spanish assigned the task of conquering Chile to Pedro de Valdivia, whose expedition
reached Chile's fertile Mapocho Valley in 1541. Santiago was founded in the same year, with
the cities of La Serena, Valparaíso, Concepción, Valdivia and Villarrica following soon after.
The Río Biobío marked the southern extent of Spanish incursions, where they were barred by
the resistance of the fierce Mapuche tribes. Valdivia rewarded his followers with enormous
land grants, which resembled the great feudal estates of his Spanish homeland. Although
mining and business outstripped agriculture as Chile's merchant megaliths, it was the social
structure of the estates that shaped colonial Chile. The native population was devastated by
the unwitting introduction of infectious diseases, and the mestizo population, the offspring of
Spanish and Indian unions, were used as tenant laborers on these huge estates, many of
which were still intact in the 1960s.
By the 1820s, the cumbersome methods by which taxation was extracted by a stagnant and
complacent Spain allowed a flowering pan-American identity to blossom into a push for full
independence. Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín led armies of freedom fighters from
Venezuela to Peru, and from Argentina into Chile. Bernardo O'Higgins, son of an Irish
immigrant and erstwhile viceroy of Peru, became supreme director of the new Chilean
republic. The newly independent Chile was a fraction of its eventual size, consisting of
Santiago and Concepción, and had fuzzy borders with Bolivia and Argentina. The coming of
the railways and military triumphs over Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific (1879-83)
incorporated the mineral-rich Atacama desert to the north and the southern temperate
territories. Chile quickly achieved a degree of political stability and relative democracy,
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 2
enabling rapid agricultural development and the advancement of mining, industry and
commerce. The now empowered working class and the nouveau riche both challenged the
political power of the landowning oligarchy in a brief but bloody civil war in the 1890s.
Modern History
The first half of the 20th century saw the political climate swing between right and left with
no government having sufficient support to cement large-scale reform. Infrastructure
development was generally sluggish, leading to rural poverty and urbanization through
desperation. It was not until the 1960s that social reforms were successfully instituted by the
Christian Democrats, who targeted housing, education, health and social services. These
policies threatened the conservative elite's privileges and also offended the radical left.
Chile's politics were becoming increasingly militant, polarised and ideology-based when the
Marxist Allende's leftist coalition of Socialists, Communists and extremists snuck to victory in
1970. Allende introduced sweeping economic reforms, including the state takeover of many
private enterprises and the wholesale redistribution of income. The country was plunged into
economic chaos and the USA was miffed by the expropriation of US-controlled copper mines,
and also by Chile's conspicuously friendly relations with Castro's Cuba.
General Pinochet seized power in a bloody coup on 11 September 1973 using jets to bomb
the presidential palace. Allende died, apparently by his own hand, and thousands of his
supporters were murdered. Dark days followed,
with assassinations, purges and enforced exiles
commonplace. It is estimated that as many as
80,000 people were tortured or murdered.
Rumors of CIA involvement in the coup were given
credence by the US-instigated suspension of
credit from international finance organisations,
and the contemporaneous financial and moral
support given to Allende's opponents.
At the head of a four-man junta, Pinochet dissolved Congress, banned leftist parties and
suspended all opposition. Pinochet's monetarist economic policies brought stability and
relative prosperity, but in a 1988 referendum to approve his presidency, voters rejected him
by a majority of 12%. In the 1989 multiparty elections, Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin
beat Pinochet's candidate, Hernan Buchi, and power was peacefully transferred. Democracy
returned to Chile although many of the previous regime's power brokers wield a lingering
influence.
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 3
Eduardo Frei undertook the challenge of reconciling Chileans with their difficult past by
accelerating human rights tribunals and inquiries into the fate of Chile's 3000 disappeared.
Unfortunately, resistance from the political arm of the military machine severly hampered his
efforts. Frei also struggled in matters of constitutional reform, failing to eliminate eight
institutional senators appointed by Pinochet who are not subject to a popular vote. Frei's
economic reforms, however, did help alleviate crushing poverty to some degree.
Newly elected President Ricardo Lagos, formerly Frei's public works minister, is the first
Socialist to hold the highest office since Allende. He defeated his right-wing rival, Joaquin
Lavin, by a thin margin, securing 51.3% of the vote.
Recent History
Chile's copper-dependent economy is a regional leader, growing steadily through the 1990s
and riding recent bumps with confidence. Pinochet has continued to dominate recent
political history. His arrest in London in 1999 at the request of a Spanish judge investigating
human rights violations unleashed an international furore. In February 2000 the general was
pronounced too ill to stand trial and in early March he returned to Chile, where a court
stripped him of his immunity from prosecution and he was formally charged with kidnapping.
In July 2001, a Chilean Court ruled that Pinochet was unfit to stand trial. This setback for
those seeking judicial restitution also meant that Pinochet could no longer hold on to his
lifelong senatorial sinecure. Three years later, after a series of trials, the Supreme Court
upheld a lower court's decision to strip Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution.
CHILEAN CULTURE 101
A little bit of history and culture courtesy of the Chilean Information Project.
Art and Literature
Chile's most famous contributions to literature have come from Nobel Prize poets Pablo
Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, whose homes and birthplaces are now museums that attract
literary pilgrims to Chile. Neruda's Heights of Machu Picchu, Canto General and the
autobiographical Memoirs are widely available in English, however Mistral's works are harder
to
find.
Contemporary Chilean authors have earned an international reputation in the literary world.
The most famous is novelist Isabel Allende, whose House of the Spirits, Of Love and
Shadows, and Eva Luna have all been international bestsellers. The increasingly popular Luis
Sepúlveda has written stylish short novels like The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, and
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 4
combines travel writing with imaginative fiction in Full Circle: a South American Journey. José
Donoso's novel Curfew recalls the latter days of the recent military dictatorship, while Antonio
Skármeta's novel Burning Patience (drawing on Neruda's life as a Chilean icon) was the
inspiration for the Oscar-winning Italian film, Il Postino (The Postman). Ariel Dorfman is an
internationally known critic, novelist, and playwright who is also active in human rights
causes. His play, Death and the Maiden, was made into an English-language film. The most
successful play in the 1990s has been La Negra Ester - a dramatic adaptation of a poem
dealing with characters working at a seaport brothel, written by Roberto Parra. La Negra
Ester is revived yearly for audiences and is sold out weeks in advance. Santiago's Municipal
Theater, since its creation in 1857, has played a critical role in disseminating the arts: visits
by national and international celebrities entertain audiences with concerts, operas and
ballets.
Music
Chilean music, particularly folk music, has had international acclaim since the 1960s, when
Violeta Parra and her children Angel and Isabel made their names as politically committed
singers and songwriters. During the 1970's and later as exiles, folk groups like Quilapayún
and Inti Illimani regularly toured Europe and North America before returning to Violeta Parra.
Chile in the early 1990's, when democracy was restored. Today, Inti Illimani, Illapu and
Congreso are three well-known groups that have successfully combined past folk traditions
with their own contemporary sound. Jose Vasconcelos is another top artist whose music
reflects links with Chile's past. As for the contemporary rock scene, the group Los Tres
recently debuted in a live MTV concert, and other groups such as Lucybell, La Ley, and Los
Tetas are gaining international recognition.
Traditions
Today, when modernization has become the cornerstone of the Chilean economy, some
traditional customs still endure, particularly in the countryside. One of
them, the trilla a yegua, involves using horses to help separate wheat
from the chaff. In another, the rodeo, huasos on horseback rope and
bring down calves in a crescent-shaped barricade, la medialuna. The
island of Chiloé, meanwhile, is Chile's land of myths, and tradition.
Here local folklore is peppered with stories of La Pincoya, the goddess
of fertility, beaches and seas, and the Trauco, an ugly dwarf that lives
in the woods attacking men and seducing virgin women. A Minga is
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 5
any type traditional community task in Chiloé. For example, it is not uncommon to transport
entire houses to a new location. The houses are moved by placing it on tree trunks and
drawn to the new site by oxen. To aid in the community effort, the homeowners are required
to provide food and drink for all of those involved. A wide variety of handicrafts are produced
in Chile. These include traditional pottery, knitted and woven textiles, woven baskets, and
sculpture from the blue lapislázuli stone. Some of the towns in Chile that make their living
from handicraft work include Pomaire, Donihue, Quinchamali, Rari and La Ligua.
People
Chile's population of 14 million is relatively young. Nearly half the population is under 25
years of age and 72 percent is under 40. Women have an average of 2.4 children. Despite
the country's length, most of the population is concentrated in the southern and central
regions - Santiago alone accounting for 5.5 million. Chile as a whole has practically
eliminated illiteracy, and the average school attendance level has doubled in the last two
decades. In June 1996, President Eduardo Frei mandated an increase of classroom hours to
benefit students and bring new vigor to the educational enterprise, or at least that is the
hope.
The Chilean people and their culture is a mix of Spanish and indigenous groups native to the
region. Chile was the last country in the Americas to be occupied by the Spaniards. A later
dose of immigrant influence, particularly European, was added to the mix following the
second world war. The common religion is Roman Catholic. Although Chilean society is not
riddled by ethnic, religious or regional conflicts, certain class barriers and distinctions still
exist. Over the past 20 years, modernization in a vast array of fields has improved the quality
of life for many Chileans, yet great disparities in income are still apparent. The present
challenge is to overcome the growing gap between those with easiest access to a modern
Chile, and those left behind.
Origins
Spanish Conquistadors When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, the land known
today as Chile was inhabited by various indigenous societies. Estimates suggest that the
indigenous population exceeded a million, sprinkled irregularly from north to south. The
Mapuche ("Men of the Earth"), inhabited the central and southern regions. The most
outstanding of the Mapuche peoples were the Araucanians, renowned for their long-standing
resistance to both the Spaniards and, subsequently, to the Chileans. The so-called
"Pacification of Araucania" was achieved only in the second half of the 19th century.
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 6
Today, Chile's indigenous peoples include Aymara (some 35, 000) and Atacameños (about
4,000) in the north; Mapuche (approximately one million) in the south; Rapa Nui (3000) on
Easter Island; and a few Kawashkar and Yagan on the southernmost islands.
Foreign settlers began to arrive in Chile following independence, that is, during the l9th and
20th centuries. Seafarers and commercial agents were the first to take up residence,
followed by traders and administrators. In a short time, they adapted to the local lifestyle.
Many married Chilean women and became part of influential groups within society. As years
went by, their descendants assimilated with the local bourgeoisie. Some even played an
important role in the nation's economic and cultural development. However, immigration to
Chile never reached the enormous proportions it did in countries such as Brazil and
Argentina.
Chilean culture is a product of a cross-fertilization of European and indigenous influences.
Following the contributions of a new wave of Spanish immigrants, mostly from the Basque
region, French cultural norms gained popularity during the 19th century. The French
influence found expression among the intelligentsia and the artistic community, as well as in
the lifestyle of the upper classes. The arrival of silent films, at the beginning of this century,
brought new customs and fashions, and contributed to changing opinions and concepts of
culture and beauty among the well-to-do. The radio and written press were also influential.
Over time, culture moved beyond the realm of the elite, reaching out to the middle and lower
classes. The universities became important centers of cultural life: theater, music and ballet
could be appreciated by people from all walks of life.
More recently, North American culture has greatly influenced Chilean culture. Cinema,
broadcast and cable TV, the constant influx of the latest international advances and
innovations - from complex scientific concepts to small consumer items - have all contributed
to the homogenization of lifestyles. The United States customs and tastes are reflected in
everything from fashion to fast food. In Chilean urban areas, daily life runs its course with the
advantages and problems common to all large modern cities. However, the most notable
successes of recent years in Chile have been rooted deeply in Chile's past. The work of poets
Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, and the artistic efforts of various members of the Parra
family (Violeta, Roberto and Nicanor) continue to have a strong influence in popular culture.
Torres del Paine Newsletter #4 Sept ‘05
Page 7