Chile Forum

I'm posting the second part in Castellano, but if anyone wants it in English, glad to oblige. The second part is about locating just one of my friends in Chile from 45 years ago. The first part is just memories, mostly.

This is Chile for me.

Words, including those below, cannot express what my experiences in this country mean to me, nor their affect on my life. Suffice it to say, if we are fortunate, we have one experience in our lives that acts like a catalyst, that turns us just one degree off kilter and allows us to have clear sight, to see oneself through other eyes. Sorta like a mirror. A bit like Snow White and even the Witch. I long to return to Vina. I was 14-16 and traveled in those times by myself, to Santiago, to Quintero, etc. I had, and have good people for parents, but that was not the question. I thumbed my way to Quintero. Traveled by bus with a friend to Santiago, where I attempted, in 1963, to get a hamburger. Failed attempt. Dismal. A squirrely mound of something resembling ground beef. No TV, well, yes but not like we had it then in this country. I made friends within my first year who can only be called picaresque, in the true sense of this word, that kind of life, living a bit hand to mouth, but always with class. In fact they were very classy guys who lived rather well and dressed in the Italian style of the day, despite no money, and who taught me how to enjoy life a bit more than I knew, who were kind to me, outside of the macho image we have of Latins. Perhaps that is why I was there? They called me always the "gringo." Famous in my own time. This was 1962-64. When Kennedy died, every, I do mean every theater was filled, to see the newsreels, and people were crying in the streets.

This is Chile for me. Truly.

We had a gardner, and I happened to go one afternoon to a second floor window in our house on a corner, and witnessed the gardner in our yard, watch while his brother on a motorcycle met a car at the intersection and was thrown against an iron fence, and died in his arms in the back seat of the car that hit him.

Yes, this is Chile for me.

I visited, with my friends, brothels that were so benevolent, probably because what we call "prostitution" was legalized in Chile back in 1962 and before. Prostitutes carried an ID that showed that they had been to the doctor for their monthly checkup. I never partook of the services, but remember one evening when a rather charming and innocent (really, for it takes one to know one) 16-year-old was sitting on my lap and asked (at least for me) the big question, in oriental english, no less, if you know what I mean. Subsequently, I stood in the house of the great poet, Gabriela Mistral. A very small abode. Very slight digs. Huge spirit.

So, Chile for me.

Sausalito, up in the hills above Vina. A place hollowed out of the hills, amidst eucalyptus trees, for big events, concerts and such. Famous singers. Coming back from a concert, traveling down a path, we encountered a scorpian. I had never seen one before. They showed me that if you surround it with fire, it commits suicide. I'm not sure if it was that evening I met this Russian girl, Tatiana. Later, I ate a most savory chicken, with 3 bottles of wine, in a restaurant with a dirt floor up in the hills above Vina. Certainly one of the best meals I have ever had. And we all know about the Germans who traveled to South America after the war. Some of them evidently went to Chile. The upside, at least for me at 15, was that the nordic/latin mix created some of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. And they had, every Fall, I believe, the grand kermesse parties.

Chile is this for me.

One block up from our fairly ritzie house, lived a girl whose name was, this is true, Lolita. We all called her Lolly, but Lolita was her true name. She became briefly my girlfriend. Her family lived in a small, one floor house. Her father worked in the Vina casino. I was 15, or at least approaching the big 15, and one night, with the only American kid I knew in Chile, went to her father's casino. We snuck out from the apartment where he lived, in a jar, the only booze his alcoholic dad didn't monitor, Creme de Menthe, and took off for the casino. Never drink too much of anything that is both alcoholic and sweet.

Chile is my experience there.

Since life is a dialogue, Chile, its people, my very dear long lost friends, all are only the one side. I am the other. Perhaps I should write a book, short story, like Isabel Allende. When I was there, they were painting huge murals advertising Allende and socialism, or at least change. I am not being critical, just reminiscing. The great irony here is that Chile, for several decades, was the most democratic country in South America, The second irony is that the United States interfered with this democracy, or at least with the country's process of working things through. See the film "Missing." It's rather truthful, from my experience. So finally, in some sense, Chile has helped me become a citizen of the world.

Chile is finally and ultimately about this. For me.

The Chilean hero is Bernardo O'Higgins. Go figure!!! I am the Gringo. My apellido is McCormick. My father took us on a trip once, from Vina all the way to Punta Arenas in southern Chile. Many special experiences. But get this. He had purchased many books for our trip down and back. On our trip to southern Chile, I was reading one of these books, Saturn Over the Water by J.B. Priestley. I happened to be reading a story about a man who was traveling the same route in Chile that we were at that time, and who was going to stay at our destination, a lodge that had to be reached by boat across the lake, below volcanoes, toward the end of the world near the Argentine border. This is not deja vu. This is be here now. And I was there then, and have absolutely no place to file this experience, Can you imagine reading a book whose story you are living at the same time?

Thanks for listening. What I am really interested in lies below. Forgive some of the repetition.


Perdona mi castellano! No tengo mucha oportunidad de practicarlo. Necesito tu ayuda.

Mi padre fue mandado a Chile para ayudarles a establecer un programa de ingenieria electrica en la Universidad Federico Technica de Santa Maria (si mi memoria sirve!). Vivi en Chile por mas de dos anos, en Vina, hace 45 anos en 1962. Fue una experiencia quizas lo mas importante de mi vida. Chile es como mi segunda patria, o considerando la clima politica en este pais, mi primera. En todo caso, tengo una pregunta. Poco despues de llegar en Chile, hice unos amigos, muy buenas personas, bondadosas conmigo, un innocente de una cultura tan distincta, y quienes me ensenaron mas de poco como vivir la vida. Es dificil explicar la influencia que estos tipos tenian en mi vida despues de ese tiempo, y hasta ahora. Te puedo contar muchas historias! Claro que todo esto paso antes de 1973, y por eso me preocupo de que si mis amigos estan vivos o muertos, especialmente desde que todos de ellos tenian mas anos que yo (yo tenia quince anos, y lo mas joven de mis amigos tenia 19, y los demas tenian en los veintes o mas).

Espero que vos comprenden esta situacion y mi sentimiento. Me enamore del pais, y la gente. Pero mas importante, quiero comunicarme con mis amigos. Como deciamos antes, tantos anos pasados, eramos “los viejos.”

El problema es que no me acuerdo del apellido de mas que uno de mis amigos. Asi que me imagino que no voy a tener exito en averiguar donde estan, vivo o muerto, o comunicarme con ellos, aunque tengo cierta esperanza.

Hay un network/red Chileno, otro que esto, donde podria investigar donde estan estos amigos/tipos/viejos?

Muchas gracias por cualquiera ayuda,

Greg McCormick
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA

El Gringo wrote:Hay un network/red Chileno, otro que esto, donde podria investigar donde estan estos amigos/tipos/viejos?

Podrías tratar en http://www.blancas.cl donde yo encontré algunos de mis familiares pero es necesario tener los apellidos de las personas, sin ellos será imposible. Chile ha cambiado muchísimo, sobretodo en la Quinta Región y es posible que donde esas personas vivían en los 60´s ya no existe.Es una pena que hayas demorado tanto, amigo.Ha pasado muchísimo tiempo. Buena suerte!

Gracias por el aviso, Gloria. Despues de volver a los EEUU, en los años siguientes, sí que me comunicaba con ciertas personas, con mi ex “polola” Loly/Yolanda y su amiga, y un otro amigo, Julio, por ejemplo. El problema fue que mis amigos mas íntimos (éramos todos los "gallos") eran de la “clase media pero baja.” O sea que no habia en ése tiempo una verdadera clase media en Chile. Esto fue el problema que Allende trató de solver. Como decí antes, los gallos vivían la vida picaresca, a veces casí de mano a boca (muy a menudo, cuando teniamos hambre, gastabamos unos dos o tres centavos en un pan redondo, lo que no he comido desde entonces – todavia los cocen? Y de vez en cuando, una empanada). Así que, aunque se vestían muy a la moda de ésa era, al estilo Italiano, mis companeros no tenían mucha ropa, y cuidaban bien la poca que tenían. Y además, no eran autores de la palabra, solamente de sus propias vidas de aventura y sobrevivencia con estilo. Si les hubieran escrito, probablamente no hubiera tenido una respuesta. En realidad, no sé cuanta educación tenian. No era importante. La vida fue su escuela. Bueno, tengo un solo nombre, Pedro Gonzalez, y él fue uno de lo más joven entre nosotros. Quizás el Universo me ayuderá? Espero que sí.

Hasta la proxima,
Gregorio

Gloria,

Que significa "la Quinta Region"? Es como un estado?

Gregorio

El Gringo wrote:Gloria,

Que significa "la Quinta Region"? Es como un estado?

Gregorio

Chile is divided in regions as follows........


List of regions

Key Name Spanish Capital
XV Arica and Parinacota Región de Arica y Parinacota Arica
I Tarapacá Región de Tarapacá Iquique
II Antofagasta Región de Antofagasta Antofagasta
III Atacama Región de Atacama Copiapo
IV Coquimbo Región de Coquimbo La Serena
V Valparaíso Región de Valparaíso Valparaiso
VI O'Higgins Región del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Rancagua
VII Maule Región del Maule Talca
VIII Biobío Región del Biobío Concepción
IX Araucanía Región de la Araucanía Temuco
XIV Los Ríos Región de Los Ríos Valdivia
X Los Lagos Región de Los Lagos Puerto Montt
XI Aisén Región Aisén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Coihaique
XII Magallanes and Antártica Chilena Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena Punta Arenas
RM Santiago Metropolitan Región Metropolitana de Santiago Santiago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Chile
"If you believe, it will happen".

Gracias, Gloria.

Greg

Wow, it is (finally) amazing to me to find someone who shares such a similar experience like me. I lived in Chile from 1986 to 1993 and they were the best experiences I ever had! To such a point, that it reshaped my life. My goal is to return there (just have to convince my wife.. working on that) I wake up every morning thinking that one day I will be home.. again.

Chile is more about people, relationships with other human being (more than what you do, what job you hold, or what you have accomplished), its more about enjoying pollo al conac for 4 hours with incredible wine. Its more about little day trips, going to "silly" places, (c'mon, Con-Con is silly), its more about waiting for the 1-2 days of snow in Stgo so everything closes and everyone thinks the snow is the most incredible phenomena.. ! (and well, get a week vacation).

I went to Nido de Aguila in Lo Barnechea and lived in Las Condes. I love Santiago, although do not admire the smog! (one day it will go away!) and love the country, where you can go and experience "culture, tradition!" That is missing so much!

I miss it so much, that I realize I have to do something about it, I need to go back! (Easier said than done). But gosh, it changes a person, living there really will change you forever.

Hello gizmokaka,

Well, we're certainly on the same wavelength. Nice hearing your kudos for Chile. Just for the fun of, I priced flights to Santiago. $1200 or so will do it. Everything is possible with persistence and imagination! I must ask my father to lend me the slides he took (some 2,000) while we lived there. We lived in Vina del Mar while there, and I could walk to the beach in about 10 minutes. After a year or so, I had become such a local, sort of a "street person," that I was showing U.S. sailors where all the good bars were, and introducing them to the pleasures of Agua Ardiente and the pisco sour. By that time, when I spoke English, they told me that I had a heavy Spanish accent (that I couldn't hear). When you were there, did they still have the bars with dance floors that we used to call "boites" a la French? I used to occasionally slip out at night over the second floor balcony to visit a boite where they had strippers, and the middle-aged and older crowd would dance to a small tango band. Great fun!

Greg

It would be wonderful if you get the slides your father has, and found a way to post some to the photo gallery here. Wonderful! So, let us know.

This really touched me, I know what you mean when you say friends, in Chile a friends is something real