Chile's 9/11

This week Chile celebrates independence from Spain with three days of Fiestas Patrias, though there was evidence late last week that lots of folks got an early start.  Chilean flags are everywhere, and activities abound.  There was a little cognitive dissonance the week before because Fiestas Patrias comes right after the commemoration of their own 9/11.  In fact, Chile just commemorated the 40th anniversary of the overthrown of the Allende government by the Chilean military.

Poster for 9/11/13 Demonstration in Valparaíso

What followed was 17 years of the Pinochet dictatorship that was characterized by well-known oppression and less talked-about economic development.  That dichotomy marks the ambivalence that of the 9/11 commemoration.  As explained to me by the one person I go for explaining all thing Chilean, the Allende government was trying to do too much too fast without enough support.  While the overthrow was unjustified, there were serious issues that led to coup, so says my friend.  What happened as a result of the coup was unequivocally horrible: general oppression, detentions, torture, disappearances, and . . .  killings.  Then, in 1989, there was a vote, yes a VOTE ("forced" by  international pressure), which compelled Pinochet to step down even though he stayed in the government.

Photo from an exhibit at PUC-V on 9/10/13 showing
a  demonstration to encourage people tovote "NO"
on whether the Pinochet regime should be
given more years in power.  

Chile went the path of South Africa, and decided not to pursue war crimes perpetrators. Amnesty. And some of those "forgiven" are still in the government.  My friend, with evident pain on his face, asked me to imagine a grandfather sitting with his grandchild at a restaurant and seeing the man who detained and tortured him at the table across the room with his grandchild.  That's the residual pain that is at the heart, it seems to me, of the Chilean commendation of September 11, 1973.

Chileans are confronting their past.  As I have already mentioned, there is a very fine Museum of Memory in Santiago that is dedicated not only to the coup and its aftermath but also, more generally, to the topic of international human rights.  This balance of the general and the particular is just one of the things about the museum that it truly striking.  Another is the use of video from that day showing the coverage of the coup. Most inconceivable, at least to me, is the video of Chilean jets bombing the Chilean presidential building, La Moneda, in the center of Santiago.

Another picture from PUC-V exhibit.  The coup was televised.

At another station, a visitor can hear Salvador Allende's final message to the Chilean people as heard on the radio.  

One small detail from that day that I have since learned is that Allende ultimately shot himself with a gun that was a gift from Fidel Castro.  

Chile has come a long way since those dark days of 9/11/73 and the 17 years of Pinochet's facism, and they have come out the other side with a distinct and palpable national pride.   There seems to be a more clear-eyed and nuanced understanding of their past than we have in the States, but that may be because I admire the hard-working but graciously modest people whom I have encountered since arriving in mid-July.

From PUC-V exhibit, a poster reminding people of
the "disappeared" during Pinochet's reign. I learned
of Pinochet from the Sting song "The Dance Alone"

I hope I have not misrepresented Chile's past in this post, but I have found it very moving to be here during this time.  While the events of 9/11/73 and its aftermath still affect Chile, I find Chileans deeply proud of their country as evidenced by the preponderance of tri-color flags adorning the country.  So I end by saying "¡Vive Chile!"  y "Felices Fiestas Patrias!"