La Toma Peñalolen

I´ve recently been volunteering at the Toma Peñalolen - which is a shanty-town of sorts for lack of an indepth explanation at the moment. We entertain kids out of a small library right in the heart of the Toma.

The Toma, from the verb tomar - to take - is an area of land that was illegally seized and occupied (this particular one in 1999). At the core it was a group of radically leftist individuals. There still remain many political groups within the Toma, mainly because one requirement of living there is membership on multiple committees. There are many Tomas with a variety of structures, reasons for existence, etc. both in Santiago and Latin America.

The people are wonderful. Many are extremely poor, but they are amazingly welcoming. The land was split into a grid and each family has the same, tiny amount of space. Most houses are easily viewed from the small dirt roads because pallet-esque boarding is one of the main sidings materials. The summer is unbearably hot, and the winter cold.

The interesting thing about Toma Peñalolen is that it will be destroyed at the end of April. Destroyed in the sense that the government is coming through and bulldozing it. Residents have been offered housing vouchers to move to other areas of the city (most being much further from the center where the majority of them work). Tons of the nearly 2,000 families have already left and many others are in the process. It´s amazing to watch as a small truck can be used to transport all of an entire family´s possessions. However, there remains a contingency that plans to re-toma the spot, which could prove to be very interesting, especially because children have been used as the first line of defense against police in the past. We´ll see what happens.

Summer Fun

Not too long ago I wandered around and found this fountain exploding with kids. So here are a few shots. The sign below prohibits swimming!

Reality smacks you right in the face!

I often receive comments about how great it must be to live abroad. True. I have no complaints about my experience. I´m afraid that there is a slightly warped perception that the rivers are sweet like honey, though. I live with a family and there are trials and tribulations just as with any home. I don´t want to paint a horrid picture of some elements, but things aren´t always pretty. The largest headache for the family, mainly for my mom Marí, has been the deterioration of her father. He is almost 90 and is currently in a "test period" of an old-folks home of sorts. I often forget that some of the older members of my family are in some excellent settings, where emergency nurses are near at hand if need be. There isn´t extra help available there, so Marí has already spent several nights at his bedside. It has been painful to watch the family struggle to move the grandmother into an extra room in one of their houses so that the grandparents´ former house can be rented out to pay for the bills of moving their father to a different home. It´s complicated and hasn´t been going smoothly. On another note, my brother Nico accidently stabbed himself in the leg while playing around with a kitchen knife. I was luckily out of town for this one. The knife went very deep and Nico has been bed-ridden for several weeks while trying not to aggrevate the stitches that seem to begin bleeding every few days just when we all think things are getting better. He calls it his moment of "pure stupidity," which I won´t disagree with! My eldest brother Dino has been struggling with unemployment for months and the relationships with his wife and daughters have suffered due to it. I feel guilty having the flexibility to come and go as I please to our beach house, where Dino lives. And somehow Marí finds ways to pay for almost everything. With Dino out of work, Marí pays for 2 houses, and while I pay what is comparable to rent in the US, it´s not enough to supplement too much when I think about all of the things that are occuring. Outside of the house things are difficult, too. Beef prices are expected to rise dramatically because Chile will not buy Argentine products for at least 6 months because mad cow was discovered in some areas of our neighboring country. While that has little impact on us, the impact in Argentina could be absolutely devastating the an economy where cattle is the largest export. Imagine the consequences if many countries react the way that Chile has. Everyday I see kids as young as 3 to 5 begging. Chile, Latin America´s most stable country at the moment, has 5-year-olds juggling while standing on one another´s shoulders in the middle of busy streets. Although the spectacle is very impressive, it´s a horribly sad existence. Once while driving with Marí, a young boy begged at our window. She gave him a little money and then scolded him for being on the street and asked where his mother was -- He pointed about a block away to where she was begging at other cars.

The Things You Learn

About what I´ve been doing with my spare time...

I currently have 3 classes: Latin American Poetry, Stylistics, and Modern Latin America. They luckily offer a wide variety of material and views.

Poetry, taught by the director of my program, is quirky and fun. He´s essentially has an english major´s often frightening love for the craft - except for that this is all in Spanish...or Castellano. Spanish isn´t an actual language. What we refer to as spanish is actually Castellano, one of the rouhgly 20 dialects that came out of Spain over 1500 years ago. We read and critique a different poet every week, while writing some of our own based on the style of the poets. It is intersting to interpret and learn about the wide backgrounds and mysticisms that build much of Latin American poetry and prose. And often times my teacher just goes overboard with stuff, leaving me as the unappreciative rational one in the class who just can´t understand where the hell he is coming up with some of his ideas. It makes it interesting!

Stylistics, not too surprisingly, looks at styles of writing. Because it is a major Latin American theme in all aspects of literature, we are concentrating on fantasy, or Los Cuentos Fantasticos. We are reading a variety of short stories, which are akin to some well-known artists such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Frida Kahlo, Huidobro, etc. My teacher Marcella always keeps it interesting by taking field trips and having odd conversation topics.

Modern Latin America is probably my favorite class. Althuogh pretty much only a lecture, the information is astounding. We started with the Cuban Revolution of ´59 and have been moving forward since. Latin America really has some amazing history, lots of which cannot be understood in the US simply because the cultures are so different. Military coupes wouldn´t work in the US, but under-the-table coupes like with that of Nixon wouldn´t work very well down here. There are just different approaches to government, with almost all having heavy influences from largely different areas: US, France, Germany, Russia, etc.

Haunting
My professor was a political prisoner for 1.5 years during Allende´s rule. The different sections of military at the time were both very strong and opposed one another, and my professor was caught in the middle. Although he didn´t go into full details and said that he would more in the future, he was a bit of a child-genius (he was 16 and 17 while imprisoned) and for that reason he was under observation. He was tortured and spent most of his imprisoned time chained to a single chair. He was most scared when the torturing ended...he didn´t know what would come next. The torture itself he could take - testicles are bad he said, but the eyes are even worse.

To this day he still is in a court process against one of his captors - the man shot a girl in front of my professor. Living in an area (all of Latin America more than simply Chile) with a dark history of military coupes and disappearances, this has been an amazing and horrifying few weeks thus far learning from someone with first-hand experiences.

Gas and Its Revelations

My eyes were surprisingly opened up to many things while my friend Marybeth was in visiting from Mizzou during the beginning of February.
We spent the first few days hopping around Santiago - with her reading, drinking coffee, and writing while I was in classes.

But we needed to copy the mass exodus from Santiago summers that the rest of the city has undertaken - so we hopped on a bus to Viña del Mar. Under 2 hours away, I had somehow not yet made it to this popular beach destination after 6 months in Chile.

So we lugged our few bags around the city looking for a place to stay. The first place pretty much laughed at me when I came without a reservation. He said it would be impossible to find annything at the last minute like this. I was disheartened and I think MB was going to die. However, we beat the odds and found a lovely little hotel about 4 blocks from the beach. Oh, and this was a venture into high-class traveling for me. We stayed at a legitimate hotel and Marybeth sidestepped around my pleas for cheap hostels in which you share a room with 8 other people on bunkbeds! It was nice to feel that our things were safe.



Marybeth being excited about something - probably her sweater (a chile purchase) almost matching the wall. Actually, I think I made her get up there for a picture of the similar hues.

Then it was several days on the Viña beaches, which are not the best for swimming due to strong currents and waves that crash right on the shore - but we still enjoyed them. The mornings are generally cloudy and the sun comes out ever afternoon between 12 and 2, leaving at least 7 hours of sunlight to enjoy the huge crowds. In addition the the beach we enjoyed Chile´s largest Casino by losing a few bucks to slot machines, roulette, and over-priced drinks!



I introduced MB to many different foods and she made some very good observations:
- Palta (what they call the wonderful avocado here in Chile)((On a side note, I once lost a spelling bee on the word avocado and my family will never let me forget it!)) - It is put on sandwiches in quantities that could feed small armies. If you order something with palta, you had better bring along an extra loaf of bread to fully enjoy all the avocado coming your way.
- Gasified Water - In the states we have almost zero water with gas. We just don´t do it back at home. Well, it´s everywhere down here. And the business idea behind it is brilliant: Water that does not quench thirst! Seriously, you´re always still thirsty after this stuff. And it´s not very good, but you sometimes have to buy it because that´s all there is. The way around this, is that they recently introduced lemon/lime flavored waters...or a Sprite. It´s amazing the difference that a little flavor can do for the water. And the stuff is cheaper and healthier than Sprite.
But I still go with Sin Gas if it´s available.
- Chilean foods - Apart from the excellent avocado, it´s hard to pinpoint a Chilean food. Argentina has beef, Mexico has tacos, Peru has roasted guinea pigs.......and Chile finally has its own. While eating a Chorillana, a dish which includes a base of french fries with sausage, beef, and onions all spread out on top, MB notes that a lot of Chilean dishes have fries with lots of stuff piled up on top. ´Tis True! We were eating the Chorillana at its claimed birthplace in Valparaiso (photo below). And just about anything under the sun can be ordered "a lo pobre," or with onions and 2 eggs (sun-side-up) on top of fries.



There were many other revelations, such as Marybeth thinking the Micros are great workouts for the legs just so that one doesn´t fall out of the seat as the "aspiring racecar drivers" (as MB put it) swerve in and out of traffic.

We spent another day in and around the hills of Valparaiso, Viña´s neighbor and principal Chilean port, in awe of the huge amount of both VW Beetles and dog crap. They are both everywhere - seriously. And I would probably rather be hit be a Bug than the doo-doo.



Some views around Valpo. Notice where someone stores the bike in the photo below!



I finally get to check all of Neruda´s houses off after we stopped by La Sebastiana to see yet another side of the quirky communist, who also happened to write some good poetry. Marybeth couldn´t pass up the opportunity to read to Neruda´s profile.



On Marybeth´s last day we hopped around Santiago again and celebrated her birthday by going a long way to a winery just to be sorely disappointed by not making it to the tour and discovering that there is no tasting room aside from being on the tour.



MB gets a picture of me taking the below picture.



MB then grabbed a plane and left 90 degree weather behind for Columbia´s snow - taking with her many stories, a few gifts, and tan to draw attention in the middle of winter.