April 30th, 2015
It’s easy to forget as you wander through the cosmopolitan streets of Chile’s uber modern capital city that only 40 years ago this country was a very different place. Pedestrians wandering through beautiful parks, Children playing with soccer balls, and everyone happily going about their business was largely replaced by tanks streaming through the streets on September 11th 1973, as the military seized control of the state, eliminating Salvador Allende and ending his attempt at a true socialist state. Today is a day dedicated to learning more about that, and to visiting some historical places connected to the sad day, when Augusto Pinochet seized control of Chile and plunged it into a reign of authoritarian terror which lasted almost 20 years.
The day begins climbing the stairs down to Santiago’s expansive metro system and heading out of the Providencia neighbourhood towards the Plaza Egana stop, where I climb back up to the surface and immediately hop on the waiting D09 bus just outside the metro stop. I ignore the do not talk to the driver signs and ask him to let me know when we get to Villa Grimaldi which is my first stop on this historical tour of Santiago.
Maybe 15 minutes later we pass a big sign and the driver pulls over, letting me climb down and walk back the short distance to the entrance of what is now actually quite a beautiful park. But like many places in Santiago and indeed in South America in general, this beautiful place has a dark history. Villa Grimaldi was one of many secret torture prisons run by the Pinochet government during the 70’s and 80’s, where citizens who did not believe in his government were often detained, tortured, and even killed. Hard to imagine all that happening as I step inside the tree lined park and enjoy some parakeets playing in the trees above me.
After observing the loud and plentiful parakeet population I head into the office and deposit my license for a audio guide which, like the park entry is free. For the first half of my visit I have the par entirely alone and I wander through listening to the audio guide shaking my head more and more the air suddenly feeling heavy. I’m reminded of my day spent wandering through the strangely calm killing fields just outside of Phnom Penh Cambodia. There too, despite the seemingly serene surroundings, great violence was once carried out, and in both places the air seems thick with it.
After wandering past a tiny box of a restored cell, and a metal wall engraved with the names of many of those who came through the Grimaldi facility, which before Pinochet was a luxurious villa owned by some of Santiago’s most influential families, my legs feel leaden and I take a seat to digest some of terror delivered to my ears with a stark monotone voice, though it does not take away the horror of all that happened.
Eventually I force myself to get up and continue exploring, wandering into the rose garden with roses planted to commemorate many of the women who spent time or even lost their life in Villa Grimaldi. It’s a hauntingly beautiful memorial with a small fountain in the middle. I then follow the path to the tower where prisoners were taken and often killed. Like most of the actual facilities, the tower was torn down after the operations of Villa Grimaldi were discovered and the Pinochet leadership overcome, but this particular building has been rebuilt based on the accounts of the survivors. It looms over me and sends a few shivers down my spine before I continue to the pool, a place of leisure for the guards, and a place of torture for the prisoners.
After maybe 90 minutes wandering in this beautiful park that was once so full of human suffering I head out and decide to walk back towards the subway stop through a huge street side market I noticed on the way thee. I buy some delicious green beans and raspberries from a few friendly locals, who are quite pleased to chat with me, as in this market, a gringo is a rare thing.
Eventually I get a little lost, and eventually find a bus stop to get back to the metro which will take me to El Museo de Memoria y Derechos Humanos. Which ends up being one of the best put together museums I’ve ever visited.
Before getting there though I climb out of the Quinta Normal Metro Station and find myself wandering through yet another huge park, this one full of fountains, a small lake, and several museums including the museum of Natural history. Sadly I don’t have time to go inside but I do wander through the park and even col off in one of the fountains briefly before heading out of the park and across the road to my next destination.
Outside the strange box of a building that holds this monument to some of their darkest days in Chilean history I am greeted with a quote, a great idealistic view of what a museum should be. Here it is.
And once I step inside this museum, another great free attraction in Chile’s capital, I snap a picture of another quote and a huge map of the world made of photos taken by other human rights organizations all around the world before surrendering my bag and my camera alike to enter.
The next few hours are hard to explain. Obviously it’s impossible to learn a countries 30 year history in a day, obviously it’s not possible to fully understand what happened just by visiting a museum, and obviously no combination of photo’s text and videos can fully explain the horror of Allende’s fall and Pinochet’s reign, but the museum does it’s best to show you what it can, and I do my best to absorb it all, and try to understand how this incredibly modern, organized and free country could have been so different all the way up to the late 80’s, right around the time of my birth.
To be honest the museum needs at least a full day if not two in order to be fully digested but I don’t have that time. Still, as I walk out a few hours later I feel immersed in a different time, having walked through a myriad of tv reports, documentaries, photos and artifacts from Allende’s death and Pinochet’s Regime. It takes a while to shake the feeling and even the crowded metro ride up to the Cementarios stop feels strange, almost like I’m not really there, still thinking about how surreal and terrifying the streets of Santiago must have been during the coup and the many years that followed under Pinochet’s rule.
Eventually I climb out of the metro and revisit the General Cemetery, another visit to the grave of Allende to cap off this sad but fascinating day.
For those who don’t know, Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was the elected leader in Chile from the 4th of November 1970 until the day he died with a bullet to the head on September 11th 1973, surrounded by the military coming to take power from him and destroy what he had worked for. While he did many things for his Chilean people, perhaps the biggest was the unionization of Chile’s massive copper minds, giving Chile’s numerous poor a new hope for a better life, and helping them escape desperate poverty. Allende was a socialist and as such was hated by the American government and much of the western world, his refusal to budge on issues involving his countries poor made him a dangerous man, and many suspect the coup led by Pinochet was aided by the American government.
Either way, On September 11th 1973 Allende supposedly shot himself (It seems likely he did in fact do that, if only because he knew what waited for him in Pinochet’s hands as the capital was seized along with the cities main port of Valparaiso were seized by the army and Police, Allende surrounded and told to come out and give up his power. He refused, giving a passionate speech over the radio before the army stormed the building and he chose to end it himself. From that day Pinochet took control, heading a fearsome autocratic regime until 1988 and only relinquishing his title as President in 1990 after much international pressure including a visit from Pope John Paul. That said he remained the head of Chile’s military until 1998.
At any rate, back to the cemetery where I wander through a city of itself, retracing the steps I took with my father almost 2 months ago. The cemetery is a sprawling quiet space full of beautiful monuments to the dead of the city, including all but two presidents. It’s an oddly picturesque place and I snap quite a few photos on the way to the end of my journey for the day, Allende’s grave.
There I spend a few quiet moments paying my respects with a much deeper understanding of all that happened, and all he stood for before snapping a few photos and then heading back to Castillo Surfista Hostel to get ready to my flight to Easter Island the next day. (Spoiler: It was amazing as you’ll soon see on this blog.)
