The opposite of Death
God and the Miracle in the Andes
Sources:
Alive by Piers Paul Read (1974; 2002). Harper Perennial
Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado (2006). Three
Rivers Press.
Rugby not Soccer
• In the mid 1950’s Catholic parents in
Montevideo, Uruguay invite the Irish
Christian Brothers order to start a
boy’s school.
• Stella Maris College
• 3 manly lessons of rugby
• Hard work and determination
• Selfless individual sacrifice for the
greater good of the group or team
• Manly character: Self discipline and
the ability to repress selfish desires for
the greater moral good.
• “Football is a game which … requires
that every player of the team shall sink
his individuality and, like a part of a
machine, work in concert with the
other parts.” Quote from H. J. Wynyard
p. 83
The “Old Christians” Rugby Club
• In 1965, Stella Maris alumni form the “Old Christians” rugby
club, dedicated to playing rugby on Sunday afternoons.
• 1968, 1970: Old Christians are Uruguayan national
champions
• 1971: Old Christians travel to Santiago, Chile and split
games with the Chilean national team.
• 1972: plans were made for a rematch.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
• Oct. 12, 1972: 45
passengers and crew
board an American built
Fairchild F-227 in
Montevideo, Uruguay
bound for Santiago,
Childe. Most are members
of the Old Christians
Rugby Club, families,
friends, or supporters.
• Bad weather forces the
plane to land in Mendoza,
Argentina.
• Oct. 13, (Friday) the plane
takes off from Mendoza
and crashes in Andes
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
• Why did it crash?
• Crew miscalculated position.
• Did Colonel Farradas fail to
account for headwinds? (30th
Andes crossing)
• Was the plane at fault? Bad
safety record of Fairchild F-227,
but this plane almost new.
The crash
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Crew put the plane into an emergency climb
Right wing sheared off by mountain, contacted plan and cut off tail section.
Left wing sheared off, remaining fuselage hit a mountain side and tobogganed
down at 200 knots
Crash site: an unnamed peak (later called Cerro [Mt] Seler, also known as Glaciar
de las Lágrimas or Glacier of Tears), located between Cerro Sosneado (Chile) and
Tinguiririca Volcano (Argentina
Fatalities: 12 died in crash; 5 died by next morning; 1 more on day 8
8 more died in avalanche on Oct. 29; low level attrition over next weeks.
Crash
Site
Marcelo Perez: Team Captain
• Early leader: Organized rescue effort immediately after crash
• Organized “crews:” clean up crew, water making crew, medical crew,
devised rationing scheme
• Midday meal – cup of wine, taste of jam
• Evening meal – piece of chocolate
• Overcame early division between “Old Christians” and Jesuit Sacred Hart
alums.
Marcelo Perez: Demise
• Perez’s leadership waned
• Physical and spiritual reasons
• Parrado p. 111: “For Marcelo, the world was an orderly
place, watched over by a wise and loving God who had
promised to protect us. It was our job to follow his
commandments, to take the sacraments, to love God and
love others and Jesus had taught us.” … “When we heard
the news that the search had been canceled, it must have
felt to Marcelo like the earth beneath his feet had begun to
crumble. God had turned His back, the world had been
turned upside down...”
• Marcelo was killed in the avalanche on Oct. 29.
The “Cousins”
• As Perez leadership
faded, increasingly a
triumvirate of three
cousins took over
• Adolfo “Fito” Strauch
(first among equals)
• Eduardo Strauch
• Daniel Fernandez
• Parrado p. 117 “’The
cousins,’ as well
called them, gave us
a strong stable center
that prevented the
group from
disintegrating into
factions…”
The cousins
• Cousins were alums of Stella Maris, former Old Christians players. Fito
played for a rival rugby team in Montevido.
• Fito and Eduardo were knocked unconscious in initial crash and dazed for
first few days.
• Fito invented the water-making devices using reflected sun to melt snow
in large quantities. Marcelo assigned a team to tend and store water daily.
• Played important role in rescue efforts after avalanche.
• Parrado p. 67: “Fito would turn out to be one of the wisest and most
resourceful of all the survivors.”
The cousins
• Cousins modified Perez’s original
“social order”
• Cousins took responsibility for
initial “butchering” of dead
corpses
• A second team would cut large
scraps of meat into smaller
strips.
• Cousins supervised rationing of
food
• Other “teams” remained intact,
except for later “expeditionary”
teams created
The Medical Crew
• Roberto Canessa, 2nd year
medical student (19years old
– Canessa was never fully
reigned in by either Perez or
the cousins)
• Gustavo Zerbino (1 year med
school)
• Liliana Methol (35yrs. no
direct connection to Old
Christians. 12th wedding
anniversary trip to Chile with
husband Javier; killed in
avalanche).
Roberto Canessa
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Considered the “chief” doctor
Important role in initial hours after crash
Devised hammocks for injured
Made both medical and theological arguments for eating
human flesh; first to cut and eat.
Along with Nando Parrado was “expeditionary” trekked out
of mountains
Wielded considerable influence but was never considered a
leader. Why not? Roberto was something of a “head” case!
Parrado p. 120 “…the brightest, most difficult, most
complicated character on the mountain.”
Son of the most prominent cardiologist in Montevideo
Egotistical, rebellious, refused to give up his horse!
Disobeyed coaches, nicknamed “muscles,” tough-minded,
stubborn, impatient, but strong sense of responsibility.
Roberto could act like a bully, but was not a bully, he was the
real deal, a truly tough S.O.B.
The “Lieutenants”
• Second echelon of
power. Hung close to and
conveyed orders of the
cousins
• Carlitos Paez
• Pedro Algorta
• Gustavo Zerbino
• Paez also served as ritual
leader; nightly rosary.
Expeditionaries: A separate caste
• Fernando “Nando” Parrado
• Roberto Canessa
• Antonio Vizintin “tintin”
• Numa Turcatti
Excused from work crews, given extra rations, best sleeping spots, prayers
offered on their behalf.
Before final expedition Turcatti injured, then dies. Tintin sent back early in
final expedition. Then there were two: Parrado and Canessa.
Nando Parrado
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Knocked into a coma in crash, thought dead (putting him outside may have saved his
life!). Unconscious first three days.
Mother, sister, best friend died in crash (sister after a few days).
Most insistent on trekking out of mountains. Became leader of expeditionaries.
Most popular, well-liked, respected person among crash survivors.
Motivated by love of father.
P. 201 “In my despair, I felt a sharp and sudden longing for the softness of my mother
and my sister, and the warm strong embrace of my father. My love for my father
swelled in my heart, and I realized that, despite the hopelessness of my situation, the
memory of him filled me with joy. It staggered me: The mountains, for all their power,
were not stronger than my attachment to my father. The could not crush my ability to
love. … Death has an opposite, but the opposite is not mere living. It is not courage or
faith or human will. The opposite of death is love. “
Workers: sometimes parasites (“slackers”)
• Cleanup crew was lowest caste in social system, made up of the youngest
boys . Originally Marcelo put Gustavo “Coco” Nicolich in charge (note:
both Marcelo and Coco killed in avalanche).
• Slackers/workers; workers/slackers
• Roy Harley; Carlitos Paez, Jose “Coche” Inciarte; Diego Storm (killed in
avalanche)
• Bobby Francois; Alvaro Mangino
• Occasionally, resentments against parasites would flare up, but it never
went too far “we understood, intuitively, that no one in this awful place
could be judged by the standards of the ordinary world” (Parrado, p. 89)
The Hardest Choice
• Parrado p. 93:
• “One morning near the end of our first week in the
mountains, I found myself standing outside the
fuselage, looking down at the single chocolatecovered peanut I cradled in my palm. Our supplies
had been exhausted, this was the last morsel of
food I would be given, and with a sad, almost
miserly desperation I was determined to make it
last. On the first day, I slowly sucked the chocolate
off the peanut, then I slipped the peanut into the
pocket of my slacks. On the second day I carefully
separated the peanut halves, slipping one half
back into my pocket and placing the other half into
my mouth. I sucked gently on the peanut for
hours, allowing myself only a tiny nibble now and
then. I did the same on the third day, and when I’d
finally nibbled the peanut down to nothing, there
was no food left at all.”
The Hardest Choice
•
Late night conversation, Nando Parrado and Carlitos Paez (Parrado p.96)
NP: We are going to starve here. I don’t think the rescuers will find us in time.
CP: You don’t know that.
NP: I know it and you know it. But I will not die here. I will make it home.
CP: Are you still thinking about climbing out of here? Nando, you are too weak.
NP: I am weak because I haven’t eaten.
CP: But what can you do? There is no food here.
NP: There is food. You know what I mean.
Carlitos shifted in the darkness but said nothing.
NP: I will cut meat from the pilot. He’s the one who put us here, maybe he will
help us get out.
CP: [expletive] Nando.
NP: There is plenty of food here. But you must think of it only as meat. Our friends
don’t need their bodies anymore.
Carlitos sat silently for a moment before speaking
CP: God help us. I have been thinking the very same thing.
The Hardest Choice
• Oct. 22: Discussion before the decision (p. 79-81 Alive; 96-7
Miracle)
• Canessa: medical argument – our bodies are consuming ourselves
• Fito: high altitude increases energy demands
• Canessa, Fito, Zerbino: its our only hope. Theological argument –
the moral obligation to survive. Eating their friends was like
communion
• Marcelo: What have we done that God would now require us to eat
the dead bodies of our friends?
• Liliana Methol: As long as there is chance for rescue, I could not.
• Others: OK for others, but I can’t; Could God forgive us?
• Canessa: The souls of dead are gone. They are only meat.
• Zerbino: If I die and you do not use my body to help you live, I’m
gonna come back and kick your [expletive].
• Concludes with affirmation and pact: Any who die from here on
grant permission to survivors to consume them.
The Hardest Choice
p. 81 in Alive
At last a group of four – Canessa, Maspons, Zerbino and Fito Strauch –
rose and went out into the snow. … With no exchange of words, Canessa
knelt, bared the skin, and cut into the flesh with a piece of broken glass. …
he … cut away twenty slivers the size of matchsticks. He then stood up,
went back to the plane, and placed them on the roof.
Inside there was silence. The boys cowered in the Fairchild. Canessa told
them … the meat was … on the roof, drying in the sun, and … those who
wished … should come out and eat it. No one came… Canessa took it upon
himself to prove his resolution. He prayed to God to help him… [but] the
horror of the act paralyzed him. His hand would neither rise to his mouth
nor fall to his side while the revulsion which possessed him struggled with
his stubborn will. The will prevailed. The hand rose and push the meat into
his mouth. … He was going to survive.
The Church’s Judgment
• After their rescue, the survivors where taken to St. John of God hospital in
San Fernando, Chile. Upon hearing that the survivors had sustained
themselves on human flesh, the doctors called in Fr. Andres Rojas, from
the parish of nearby parish of San Fernando Rey.
• As the survivors explained to Fr. Rojas what they had done, a few asked for
the sacrament of reconciliation. Fr. Rojas rejected their request, not
because they could not be forgiven but because they had committed no
sin.
• Church doctrine affirms that anthropophagy in extremis (eating the bodies
of the dead under extreme circumstances) was permissible.
• A few days later a Uruguayan Jesuit theologian from Catholic University in
Santiago Chile (Fr. Rodriguez) affirmed this judgment to a gathering of
survivors and their families.
• He did however, disclaim any strict connection between communion and
anthropophagy. Eucharist is not equal to a dead, soulless body, even
though one might draw a connection between Christ sacrificing his body
for others and dead giving their bodies so others might live
• Fr. Andres Rubio (Aux. Archbishop of Montevideo), “communion” best
describes the inspiration behind their action, but not the action itself.
The last expedition
•
On the morning of Dec. 12, Parrado, Canessa, and Vizintin
set out to the west (they misunderstood their location) on
the final expedition.
• It was the 8th expedition, last only because it was
successful.
• In three days they neared the summit of Mt. Seler (named
by Parrado), over 15,000 ft high (note: Alive p. 395,
13,500)
• Canessa: road to the east
• Parrado: up over the summit
• Vizintin: whatever P&C decide
• Delay: Parrado to the summit and report back
• Parrado sees valley to summits not covered in snow
• Decision: send Vizintin back, but which way to go?
• The next morning Canessa relents: Parrado p. 203
“Roberto stood before me. I saw the fear in his eyes, but I
also saw courage and I instantly forgave him all the weeks of
arrogance and bullheadedness. …
“You and I are friends, Nando, he said. “We have been
through so much. Now let’s go die together. “
Last expedition: Day by day
• Day 7: descent into the valley
• Day 8: trees and soup can (Parrado p. 217)
Canessa: People have been here.
Parrado: …maybe it fell from a plane
Canessa: You stupid [expletive]. Airplane windows don’t open.
They find cow dung
Canessa: Do you want to explain how cow [expletive] might have fallen from a plane?
Parrado: Keep walking. When we find a farmer, then I’ll get excited.
Gallows humor – they are slowly dying of exhaustion.
Day 9: Canessa is overcome by exhaustion and diarrhea.
P. 219: “I took his pack and set off down the path, giving him no choice but to follow. He fell behind
quickly, but I kept an eye on him. He was hunched over, limping and in great discomfort and
suffering with every step. “Don’t give up muscles,” I whispered to myself… He was forcing himself
forward now though stubbornness and the sheer power of his will.
“I see a man”
• Day 9 early evening. Canessa spots a man on a horse in the
distance. Their shouts are drown out by the rushing of nearby
river. Parrado falls to his knees and begs the man for help.
• Sergio Catalan: “Tomorrow”
Postscript: March 2005
• Arturo Nogueira’s last
letter “… Life is hard, but it
is worth living. Even
suffering. Courage”
• “Excuse me, good man,” …
“but we are lost again. Can
you help us out one more
time?”