Last Wednesday was the all important Chile vs. Colombia World Cup qualifier match, but something more important happened earlier in the morning that I had not expected. I woke up to a rare early morning phone call on the main house line and it turned out to be a family relative sending the news that my host parents had become grandparents following the birth of their first grandson. While it was known that on of their daughter's was pregnant, she was expected later in September. Regardless, Elias was born the morning of Sept 10th fully healthy and the family is overjoyed. It appeared to be a good omen.
With painted faces again, I went to the stadium with incredible nervousness and anticipation: Chile loses, kiss the World Cup 2010 dream goodbye. Stadium completely sold out once again with flags waving everywhere and chants of Chi-Chi-Chi...le, le, le...Viva Chile every 30 seconds or so, Chile jumped out to an early 2-0 in the first half, and ended the match with a 4-0 wipeout. The other teams in the South American group all tied their opponents that night, putting Chile near the top of the group for qualifying.
Thursday was the other 11th of September, the anniversary of Pinochet's march on La Moneda to begin his coup in Chile. Usually there are riots and protests all day, but the heavy mount of police all around the city and the fact that a violence plot had been discovered the night before which involved about 500 people, the day was much more low key than expected. Early that evening I said goodbye to my Santa Cruz friend Lydia and wished her good luck and good times for her program in Concepcion in a more southern part of Chile. While there was not much during the day, I specifically tried not to be out late that night and with good reason. I heard gunshots, bottle breaking, and much more as I went to sleep that night. The power to our complex flickered often, while my parents expected it to be entirely cut by activists at some point.
The power luckily stayed on, but other barrios weren't so lucky. 15 police were injured, and numerous activists detained for the violence that night. Luckily, they're weren't too many deaths if any at all. It seemed pretty hypocritical that Chileans protests the terrorism of the state that took place back in '73 by inciting more violence, but I am not one to judge a cultural phenomenon I guess. Friday morning I traveled to the nearby farmer's market (feria) near my house with my mother to pickup fruits, vegetables, and checkout the scene. There are loads of vendors, everyone calling my mother reina (queen) when she passed by the booth to encourage business. It is very convenient for my mother to walk a couple blocks to pickup cooking supplies that are fresh, cheap, and straight from the farms. In the afternoon, my host parents got to video Skype with their daughter and son-in-law with the new baby Elias: they were very happy.
Saturday was the annual cleaning day in our house, with every inch of the condominium cleaned. This took most of the day to take care of, and at night my host parents and I went out to the movies to see a Chilean film called Tony Manero, which is a disturbing story that takes place during the coup about a older man obsessed with the character Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever and dreams of dancing on a television program in the same way. There is tons of symbolism and shows the desperation the protagonist in achieving his Americanized fantasy while portraying the unlivable times of the coup.
Football Sunday I went back to my favorite bar in Santiago to catch all the games that day. I have made good friends with most of the people there, just wish there would be some Chileans who like American football that would come in, but that might be asking too much. It is a new bar, so we shall see. I did however run into an Economist/Political officer of the U.S. Embassy here in Santiago. I had unsuccessfully tried to explore the embassy last week, but with no luck due to specific hours and lack of action in part of the national holidays and fiestas going on. Hopefully I can checkout the the scene at the embassy a bit more with the help of this new contact.
Following the extensive violence that is going on in Bolivia over president Evo Morales's attempt to distribute privately owned natural gas amongst all citizens of the country, an emergency conference was called on behalf of Chilean President and current head of UnaSur, a young organization of all the Latin American countries to work together during times of problems. The meeting took place at La Moneda on Monday afternoon, with presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, and Colombia in attendance (Peru declined to participate because of the tense relations with Bolivia). After 5 hours, a Declaration of La Moneda was created to be used as a guide for resolving the crisis, but I am not sure how much can be changed without the participation of the opposition in international discussions. Following the meeting, Bolivia arrested a mayor of the one of the rich territories controlling the natural gas in Bolivia and for now the violence has subsided but the resolution has not been achieved. More will become clear once Evo Morales's newly constructed constitution is voted upon in a referendum scheduled to take place in December.
I spent my Tuesday planning my surprise visit to the airport to see my grandmother as she arrived. She expected to meet me at the hotel for dinner that night, but I bought a bouquet of flowers and arranged for a transport to take me on a one-way route to the airport. The plan worked perfectly and she was so happy to see me right away. We had a late dinner at an Italian restaurant near her hotel that night.
I came back to her Hotel the next morning for breakfast. Afterward we went on a full tour of the city to see all the sight and had outdoor lunch in downtown. She picked up some gifts for her secretaries at the office from an artisan market as well as a beautiful watercolor of the Aconcagua for my grandfather. After returning to her hotel to take care of some work and give a call back home to checkup on my grandfather, and a nap for me, we went to my house to introduce her to my host parents. For transportation, we took a bus, which she said was the first she had used other than one briefly in New York, in 40 years back in Argentina. My host parents had a nice chat with her over tea, and after we went to the National Stadium for a early celebration for the Chilean independence holiday. We watched traditional cueca dancing and music with the mayor of the community in attendance. My grandmother confidently went over to the mayor and got a picture with him. I'll be sure to post it next time.
We are about to sit down for an Independence day lunch at my place and I am not even presentable. I'll post sometime on Sunday night after my grandmother heads home from her vacation to visit me. Cheers and Happy Dieciocherra!
