Miracle

When Filomena learned about the arrest of Antonio in Paris she immediately went to his room and found the smallest piece of clothes that belonged to him. It happened to be an old pair of brief underpants. It was used to cover his sinful parts that got him in trouble, she thought, so it was […]

The blessing reversed?

When Antonio grew up and finished high school, the only thing he wanted to do was to travel. He had developed a big interest in art, particularly sculptures. He use to spend hours just studying the statues at the Palace of Bellas Artes at the Forestal Park. He insisted so much in doing a trip […]

Dreams

One of my favorite toys was a Meccano (erector set). I guess building machines, cars, cranes was my favorite pastime. I also had a doll that was a rabbit made out of fabric. It was light blue and had a square body with arms and legs attached to it and long ears. His name was […]

The watermelon

My paternal grandfather was the son of two cousins. That was an arranged marriage and both were 14 years old when they married. My grandfather used to tell, with a smile, that it took his parents a long time to realize what marriage was about. After the wedding they were seen playing with a ball […]

Personalities

When Louis Armstrong came to Santiago Chile, he wanted to walk in downtown. It was summer 1957. In fact, he adventured out of the hotel with other members of his “All Stars” band. I was still a high school student and I had gone to downtown with my mother. We were near the main square […]

French School

As soon as I was sent to the French School for girls I learned that I was “different”. The girls in my classroom obviously had a problem accepting me. I felt like a new hen brought to the corral where the other chickens pick on her. At first I did not realize what it was […]

Mariposa, the Cow

There I was, holding my paternal grandmother’s left hand and on my way to the stable. In my left hand, very tightly by the neck, a bottle of pisco, which was getting heavier and heavier. The road seemed so long to me and my grandmother so tall. In her right hand my grandmother carried a […]

Radio journalism

Once I finished my internship in the south, I came back to Santiago. As a graduate I started to work in a radio station. I was assigned to a desk with a very noisy typewriter. I was supposed to write in no more than 200 words each item of news that the radio reporters in […]

Learning about Mapuches

After I did the journalism internship in Santiago, I went to a town in the south of Chile to be an apprentice at the town’s newspaper, El Austral de Temuco. I learned a lot about our native Mapuches in that town, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I realized how unjustly they had been treated […]

Second World War

When I was born in February, 1942, the Second World War was facing a very special moment. Pearl Harbor attack had happened just two months before. The Soviet Union was going to defeat Germany at Stalingrad three months later, marking the turning point of the war in Eastern Europe. In June, 1944, American and Allied […]