Saturday, Nov. 17
I had a lot of things in Santiago that I wanted to do, but hadn’t gotten around to – so I spent this day checking those things off of my list and, doing my favorite activity, wandering around the city solo.
I took a combination of buses and the metro to get to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights). It was a green-blue block that sat atop a concrete courtyard. The contents of the museum were sobering – it recounts the torture and human rights abuses that occurred in Chile during the years of the military dictatorship – September 11, 1973-1990. (The coup was US backed) I was amazed the same streets that I had walked down, that the same city that I walked every day had seen much darker times. On these same streets, people “disappeared”, taken as political prisoners and not seen again. It blew my mind. It wasn’t that long ago – the effects of the dictatorship can still be seen today – in the culture and attitudes of the people. There is a generational rift between those that lived through the military dictatorship and those that came after. After seeing all of the things that occurred Pinochet’s rule, I was absolutely shocked that he had never been brought to justice – he, and many of his accomplices, continued to live comfortable lives despite the crimes that they had committed and overseen. Crazy.
After the Museo de la Memoria, I went to Bellavista – a neighborhood at the foot of Cerro San Cristobal. I wandered around, went to a market, and found myself at a falafel shop for lunch (Where else would I go?)
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I checked out the MAVI – Museo de Artes Visuales, and was blown away their installation El Autodidacta by a Chilean artist. These paintings were not only well done – but had an interesting flair to them.
I exited the museum and wandered around Lastarria, another neighborhood in the center of the city. I wandered around until I came across the GAM – a cultural center named after Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral.
After a long day out, I made my way back to the house. It was time to pack (see next entry).
