While I was still in high school, I asked my father to buy me a Vespa. I was using a bike to ride about 12 blocks to school and many of the boys that I had met during our “malones” (parties) had Vespas. My best friend, Patricio, also encouraged me to get a scooter. My […]

I started my studies in 1959 at the first School of Journalism in Chile affiliated with the University of Chile. I had really great professors. People that have been and were journalists and had practiced what they were teaching. The only condition that should be obligatory for a University professor is “never teach something that […]

During that earthquake and maremoto (tsunami) in 1960, some friends of our family were in their cabin at a beach not far from Valdivia, the epicenter. Since it was a Sunday, they were preparing to go back to the city that afternoon. To do that they have to load their boat, navigate up the river […]

It was 1960 and the political scene in Chile was unstable, after the biggest earthquake ever recorded, hit the city of Valdivia, in the south of Chile, on May 22. The earthquake reached 9.5 in magnitude. The tsunami that accompanied the main tremor and the aftershocks left more than 5,000 dead and millions without homes. […]

I returned to my paternal family’s town a year later, same date. My aunt had learned that Filomena had dropped the Saint Antony figure when trying to straightening him up from standing on his head position. Filomena’s daughter, Clarita, was 22 and already considered a spinster. To stand Saint Anthony on his head and burn […]

The family gathered by the entrance of the cemetery. Then casually formed in groups and started a procession. They marched toward the Christ that hangs trapped from his wrists from an arch made out of cement. They were all dressed in black. One of the women in front carried a small item wrapped in a […]