25 October, 2007

The x-pat

So today I got a chance to meet with a friend of a friend from NC who is here in Santiago. I am so thankful for this meeting. The xpat is working on a documentary about the radical youth movement here and is full of amazing knowledge on the subject. I got to learn about a whole other side of this country that I've been wanting to learn about for so long but didn't know how to access it.

As you can imagine, there is a thriving radical youth movement in this country... and it feels so different from the states. I had a similar feeling when I was living in Mexico. There's an explosiveness and radical energy that is absent in the US...at least the US that I'm a part of and see. Images of cultural resistance are part of the landscape, and I mean literally. We visited several universities today that are home to a lot of the radical youth movement. The energy on these campuses is so different to those I've been to in the US. First off, there was a small police presence at a corner nearby... as a reminder, I suppose, of who is in charge... Yet it hardly feels like they are in charge. Walking around the campuses I must've seen at least 30 murals and stencils depicting something of a radical nature. Most of these murals were painted during a student occupation of some sort of that area of the campus. I'm not quite sure exactly what the nature of these occupations were/are... I wish I knew more on that but at the moment I'll leave it at that. The thing that got me the most was the fact that these murals stayed up. I imagined a situation like that happening at UNCG or Guilford and if, IF, the occupation were to happen, and IF it were to happen long enough for a mural to go up, it certainly would not be left up by the institution for the future to see. Unfortunately, it's such a curious thought for me...

There were students milling about on their lunch break. Some, well many, were smooching on the benches and stretches of grass throughout campus. Others, who I got to meet, were selling vegan egg rolls, others were studying and the rest just sitting about talking. But there was something in the air: maybe an uneasyness...? And no wonder, I found out from my friend that quite frequently students set up blockades in front of the police to push the envelope; to remind themselves, the other students, and more importantly the cops that they will not be held under a police occupation, that they will not allow others to be held under an occupation. And then they get tear gassed. I dunno if they are victorious. I'm not sure I fully understand the reasoning... but how could I? I don't understand the political climate of this country that has not even seen a year without Pinochet in its landscape... I don't come from a class of people that is underpriviledged... And I haven't been here for even a month yet. But after today, I have so many questions.

What is the relationship with the non-Mapuche youth with the Mapuche youth? What is the objective of the frequent blockades? Is it effective? What other ways are those objectives being met or complimented? How does the youth movement here compare with the youth movement in Greensboro during the civil rights? When I was listening to my new friend tell the story about middle school, high school and college aged students all uniting about economic justice I couldn't help but think of Dudley and A&T students uniting about civil rights...

It's 2:30 am and I can't go to sleep cuz I'm so curious about all this... I wish all our rad friends and mentors could be here right now to experience this and discuss this stuff with us. It's hard to write it all down clearly and not get side tracked. There's like 5 different ways this could go and I'm stuck at the intersection. Writing is hard!

So I'll just let all you spanish speakers know what we're gonna be up to on Saturday and know that our heart is content with knowledge, experience, food, (gluten !eeck!), wine, challenges, and new friends:

REBELDE Y POPULAR!!!
HAGAMOS DE OCTUBRE UN MES DE HOMENAJE AL PUEBLO POBRE ORGANIZADO, RECORDANDO EN LA ACCION A LOS MEJORES HIJOS DEL PUEBLO, A LUIS ALBERTO "CHAQUITA", A PAINE A MIGUEL ENRIQUEZ, A RAUL Y CECILIA, AL COMANDANTE CHE GUEVARA, Y AL HEROICO PUEBLO MAPUCHE EN SU LUCHA POR AUTONOMIA Y TERRITORIO.
LOS INVITAMOS A PARTICIPAR EL DOMINGO 28 DE OCTUBRE DE UNA JORNADA POLITICO - CULTURAL (TODO EL DIA), EN LA POBLACION LA SANTIAGO, ESTA ACTIVIDAD SE DESARROLLARA EN LA CASA UKAMAU, UBICADA EN EL PASAJE 39 NÂȘ 4450 ESQUINA PASAJE 37, DESDE LAS 11:00 HORAS EN ADELANTE. (MICRO I - 16 DESDE EL METRO SAN ALBERTO HURTADO) 11:00 MURALES EN LA POBLACION 14:00 OLLA COMUN (TALLARINATA) 16:00 DOCUMANTAL Y TALLER SOBRE "MOVIMIENTO MAPUCHE" AGRUPACION KILAPAN TRAER ALIMENTOS NO PERECIBLES PARA ENVIAR A LAS COMUNIDADES MAPUCHE EN CONFLICTO. LIBERTAD A LOS PRESOS POLITICOS MAPUCHE... AHORA!!! CONVOCAN: AGRUPACION KILAPAN CASA UKAMAU MURALISTAS LA MATRAKA COLECTIVO POLITICO SOCIAL PUEBLO POBRE ORGANIZADO

Today is a quite a different side of the story, eh?

18 October, 2007

the driest desert in the world next to the most dramatic coast in the world


On the way to Vina del Mar from Maitencillo (the condo)

Se we´ve been hitting up the big countryside with my mom for the past couple of weeks. We first arrived to Marbella where my mom has her condo and well, I can´t say anything other than we´ve been living in complete luxury here. The condo is beautiful and cozy (important for those cold, foggy mornings) with an amazing view of the beach. The condo sits up on the jagged rocks that butt up against the coast here. The overlook is probably 2 football fields worth of distance. This morning after drinking an espresso (or as they say here un express) I walked outside onto the porch to be submerged in a cloud slowly rolling over the rocks. I´m so glad we´ve been able to spend so much time here before the high season. I can imagine that the mystical and magical feeling this place has would completely disappear with the throngs of vacationers that come here for the summer. Now, in the spring, there is a feeling of remoteness which more than compensates for the cold sharp wind.

Here is the view to the beach from our back deck!

We were very excited to explore the houses of Ochoalcubo. A project that my uncle dreamed up consisting of 8 houses built by well known contemporary architects. The idea behind the project is to create these houses in a way that compliments the land and each other; not one obstructing the others view or privacy. It's quite beautiful and literally, as we sat in my uncle's living room (which is one of the houses of Ochoalcubo) we saw the same living room in a architect/design magazine! This is quite a different world for us, eh?


My uncle, Eduardo in his picturesque house

We were so happy to meet Jose, an employee of my uncle who is also a gardener. Hidden behind large green wooden walls on the other side of the Ochoalcubo site there lies a huge massive garden of vegetables. The next day Jose delivered huge bags of aselga (chard), spinach and so much more. Micah and I were drooling and are excited to return with our gardening clothes to help!

Jose



Micah so excited for fresh organic greens!

We left Marbella to visit the North (not the extreme north, just the north). My mom has a sculpture made out of copper stationed in the La Silla observatory, close to La Serena. We went on a tour of the observatory and learned about very scientifically advanced instruments known as VLT and ELT. That stands for ¨Very Large Telescope¨and... can you guess...? "Extremely Large Telescope¨. I kid you not. All 3 of us were giggling during the movie when they uncloaked the names of these high tech instruments. Silly. But of course, the most fantastic moment of the day was not seeing the huge telescopes or learning about astronomy or even looking out at the sandy Andes mountains from our peak in the middle of the desert. It was finally seeing the panels I've only heard about all my life. There are 4 panels and each one represents the original astronomers of this land: Incas, Mayans, Aztecs (x2), and a local indigenous group from the North called Diaguitas.

Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries and so we don't have any photos. But hopefully our words can paint the picture for you.

After being in La Serena, we went to Valle Elqui which is this beautiful valley in the middle of the desert (but it turns out that we have yet to really enter the desert. The desert that earns the title "the driest desert in the world"). We drank Pisco Sours, admired the green plots of grapevines growing on the sides of the Andes Mountains, watched the festive Procession of the Virgin Rosario and bought homemade tinctures.

And now we're back in Santiago at my cousin's house. Micah had her first day of spanish classes today and will take them for 2 weeks.

There's so much more to write but that'll have to be it for now. Stay tuned cuz we'll have the access and time to write (or as they say, "blog") these next 2 weeks.




04 October, 2007

Photos of 01/10/07 - 04/10/07



"Are we there yet?"

"mmm...yummy!"

gig "enjoying" Nescafe @ tio Eduardo & tia Pit's house

tio Eduardo & tia Pit's house


We went shopping at Chile's version of Wal*Mart, Jumbo, and there is an aisle dedicated to clothing for la nana. In Chile, everyone has a nana unless you are a nana. She does the cleaning, cooking and babysitting. In some houses, she comes once a week and in others, every day.

this picture is for Larkin

Elisita chan


All of the houses we saw today had large fences and gates enclosing the most beautiful patios and gardens. The streets here are filled with orange trees, jasmine, willows and so many other beautiful aromatic plants I feel like I'm in the tropics--not a huge metropolitan city!

The park behind mi primas house.
We are excited to do yoga with the virgin who spends her days protecting everyone in Santiago.

This is probably 1/16 of the city...!

Here is our pal Gaucho (cowboy) peeking through our bedroom window... he is so cute and wiggly and playful (but don't worry Sunday & Mason, not as cute as y'all)

Elisa and her papa, Sebastian

the gang at lunch our first day


I mean come on, isn't she the cutest?!
Hey Larkin and Scott: how's Henrille coming along?

03 October, 2007

we're here!

we made it to santiago safe and sound yesterday morning. gigi's cousin, phillip, picked us up from the airport at 7:30 in the morning sleepy-eyed and ready to stretch our legs. we all went to caroline, sebastian, and elisa's house (caroline is another cousin and phillip's sister). gigi's mom, eliana, surprised us by coming over in the morning and we all made pastel de choclo together (micah's first cooking lesson!).

pastel de choclo is a typical chilean dish with ground beef, onions, pieces of chicken, golden raisins and black olives covered with a corn mush (liquidy & less gritty grits) sauted and then baked all together in chilean pottery called greda. these dishes are famous and we are so excited about them. tio eduardo, tia pit, tia marcela & prima isabel all came over for lunch. it was so so good and everyone was happy to see gigi again.



after lunch eliana, caro & elisita (almost 7 months old) joined us in exploring the neighborhood a little bit. we walked to a nearby park and took a ride on a little enclosed ski lift chair to see a great view of this enormous city. we can rent bikes here and apparently they have free yoga classes on the weekends! santiago is bigger than we imagined and we will never even put a dent in it.



today we went with caro and eliana to see eliana's old houses and the neighborhood where gigi's siblings lived. we saw the courtyard where gigi's parents met for the first time...micah shed a tear.

it feels great to be here. everyone is taking such good care of us and showing us a great time... even elisa, who is so cute, but prefers to be around her mama (we are working hard to win her over)

and now it's time to help with dinner (we can't let others do our lettuce washing for us! step 1: find grocery store and find disenfectante. step 2: soak lettuce in water and 1 teaspoon of disenfectante. step 3: rinse lettuce with bottled water. step 4: find the energy to eat after spending so much time preparing lettuce. will we have to do this for 6 months!?). so we don't have time to post more pics on this blog... maybe after dinner there will be some more for you to see.