By Fernando Torres ©
After many years in exile I decided to go back to Chile for sabbatical. In 1999, I spent 10 months in Chile. I went there to see my family, but also as a way of proving to myself to what extent I could deal with the past in today's Chile. I went there also to see If I could find the footprints of the dreamer I was once, the young adult, inspired by Che Guevara.
I revisited the prison in Antofagasta, the concentration camp in Santiago, and the place were I was tortured by the fascist government of Augusto Pinochet. Despite my efforts, I just found vague traces of my many dreams. And I asked myself: was it worth it? Then, getting into the bus to the airport, I saw the faces of children, many of them living in poverty, and I realized that there still are many things to do, many dreams to dream, so much work to do, and that I can never really leave Chile.
I'm remembering now Salvador Allende. He fought to defend Chile's democracy to the end. He really was a fighter. Allende was much more than a hero because, at the end, he killed himself rather than give Pinochet the honor of killing him! In this case, suicide was the ultimate weapon, the signature, the message, the last and most powerful wound you can inflict on your enemy.
I did not write that much while in Chile. I pretty much felt left out of the process. Nevertheless, I had a wonderful time trying to "desexiliarme," (set myself away from exile). I spent ten months between Santiago and Antofagasta. It was truly my re-encuentro (re-encounter) with a country I was forced to leave 23 years ago.
Things are very different now. The political center is much bigger, the left is small, the military and the church still alternative powers in society, Pinochet and the Constitution still the same.
The unions are divided, the economic private sector with no responsibility what-so-ever with the nation: They only clamor for government protection and all kinds of subsidies. But there is still zero decency when the needs of the nation are concerned. This sector is called the "nuevo empresario," (new businessman). They are clean-cut americanized VIP CEOs, but in the purest Chilean style, avaros, groseros (greedy and rude) without any historical responsibility.
I could not believe that Chile was once one of the main exporters of world fruit and wine. They keep the temporeros (those who pick the fruit,like here in Califas) in the most sub-human labor conditions imaginable (child labor, for instance). What a shame for the world it is for those who enjoy sweet Chilean grapes bought at Safeway, and for those that enjoy Chilean red wine when dating!
There has been a great "americanization" of politics, now only two great parties or coalitions, just like in the United States. Families of disappeared political prisoners and victims of the military regime continue to search fortruth and justice while struggling to prevent societal amnesia. Like the victims of the holocaust, they are trying to tell the world what happened in a constant process--a process that will probably never end.
We are running against time in Chile. Leaders are dying, the generation of the Allende-Pinochet era are getting old. Young people in Chile have not been educated about what happened during the terrible days of the fascist coup. And it seems that everybody is trying to avoid the issue of human rights because it is too hot, and because at times it seems just like another flag of the left.
(In 1975, Chilean General Augusto Pinochet.overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Salvador Allende. The coup, actively supported by U.S. corporations, organized by the CIA, and coordinated by Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, brought a fascist regime into power, one that ruled for decades. When the U.S.-backed regime seized power, they arrested, tortured, and in thousands of cases, executed anyone considered a leftist, a supporter of Allende, or a potential critic of the new military government. Fernando Torres, a supporter of Allende, was one of those arrested during that period. When released, he came to the United States, ironically as a political exile. Torres returned to his homeland in 1999.)
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