Adventure's Eve

Stationed in Illapel at the moment, I'm making my final preparations before I launch on a two- to three-week journey. While packing my bags and preparing to leave this place, I thought I might give it a final send off with a few more notes on the local culture (though I will return for one last week or two of volunteer work in August).

This morning upon leaving my bedroom door, I found the world outside the large dining room window to be glowing a heavenly shade of brilliant white. But no, I couldn't have died in my sleep; I was far too acutely, painfully aware of the temperature in the room to no longer be a part of this world. In fact, what I was observing was the reflection of the early morning sun against a mountainside covered in frost. In school today, many students were missing or arrived late. As a teacher explained to me, students here simply don't own the appropriate attire to be able to get up and ready for school on the coldest of days. The schools, after all, are open air: each classroom opens out onto a corridor, if it might be called that, which only offers slight protection from rainfall which this region rarely sees anyway. Witnessing this made me understand so much better my Mémé (Canadian grandmother)'s stories of winters when she simply didn't attend school because she didn't own a pair of shoes. (She was the tenth of fourteen children, so I imagine the hand-me-downs were quite worn by the time they reached her.)

The schools also do a number to reflect Chilean culture. Bells may ring to signal the start of a new class session, but teachers decide whether they feel that bell applies to them based upon their mood, the time of day, and any other unforeseen obstacles that may delay their arrival in class. Both in and out of the schools, there is a greater acceptance of the objectification of women, including whistling, cat calls, and comments one wouldn't hear in the US. In short, Chile often feels to me like a poorer version of Italy with less (publicly perceived, at least) corruption and poorer cuisine. In a reference to the poverty, making purchases on credit seems to be an accepted practice in Illapel. By this, I do not mean that you use a credit card but that you simply promise a store owner that you'll pay as soon as you have the money on hand, and the store owner nods and jots it down on your account in a notebook. Furthermore, even many small purchases can be made in monthly payments. When using a credit card, cashiers will ask you how many installments you'd like your payment to be in, even when buying a small electronic device or the week's groceries.

In the schools, the students are also quite an interesting bunch to watch. On occasion you find a bright crayon who might seem to be striving for something more, but most of these kids, especially the older ones, seem to be biding their time during these final years in classes, with little intention of pursuing a university education nor even anything remotely academic. From Amy's reports, many kids start having children before they even graduate high school. I have noticed a greater openness to sexuality here than in the US: AIDS prevention posters in the town actually show pictures of condoms and couples embracing, and drug stores will advertize sales on contraceptives in their storefront windows.

With regards to dating, I have noticed at least one positive of this culture: young people don't tend to distinguish between those who appear to have more indigenous heritage and those of more European descendance, though there is clearly a spectrum of heritages in the classes. While the differences aren't as visibly clear to me as those between Blacks and Whites in the US, you still see far less interracial mixing in the US than here. In fact, many people here are of mixed backgrounds. And considering those who aren't as mixed, there doesn't seem to be a cultural divide between the students of more indigenous and more European descendance. Students don't dress differently, talk differently, or carry themselves in a certain manner based upon their appearance.

While on the topic of race and racially charged issues, I'd like to stop to consider a certain word: gringa. This term is used to refer to North American (or European?) whites. I'm a bit afraid to ask for a clarification. In my mind, it's the type of person these people regard as wealthy and elitist. However, this term is thrown around quite freely. I smiled and awkwardly thanked someone at my hostel when I was told, after switching between several languages, that I wasn't born to be a gringa. However, I nearly spit out my tea when a television commercial came on one evening advertising the Gringa Plan for calls to the US and Canada. Way to be comfortable in your use of racial terms here! The only way I can understand it is that words used to refer to race simply do not carry the same emotional and political charge as they do in the US, perhaps because here there is much less national history of struggle between and oppression of specific ethnic groups.

Looking into the matter a bit more, I was reminded that for all our elitism in viewing the US as the ultimate world leader, there really are lots of ways in which other countries have been way ahead of us. Case in point: Chile banned slavery in 1823, before they’d even finished expelling the Spanish from their entire country. (That was done in 1826.) Chile, without major uprisings or bloodshed, outlawed slavery only 13 years into its country's history. The Chilean war of independence began in 1810 and thus that year is marked as the year of their nation's birth. Incidentally, there are all sorts of campaigns across Chile right now in preparation for next year's bicentennial. (For a second case in point, I would like to note that the current Chilean president happens to be Michelle Bachelet, a woman.)

Actually, I find it incredibly interesting after having spent last year exploring the old centers of European culture and history to now check out the places which have national histories a bit more in line with my own, the old world's former colonies. I have started looking a little further into US-Chilean relations. Suprisingly, I never hear any references that might indicate bitterness towards the US despite the CIA's publicly acknowledged involvement in the rise of Pinochet, a brutal dictator and President of Chile from 1974 to 1990. In fact, I haven't heard Chileans make any references to this brutal era. I gather that most of them would rather forget it and simply leave that in the past. It seems US-Chilean relations are only further improving: the US is Chile's top foreign investor, it's been five years since a very successful US-Chile free trade agreement was launched, and this past June (on the 23rd, according to the Associated Press) Obama and Bachelet announced a new US-Chile joint science and technology initiative to focus on clean energy, flu prevention, and cancer research. In this vein, the MIT Biological Engineering Head of Department had mentioned to me about a month ago that he was headed down to Chile to help set up some new life science research programs.

I suppose what I'm trying to demonstrate is that as much as Chile may seem like another world, it is by no means a place to be scoffed at or ignored. Obama has been quoted last month as describing Bachelet as "one of the most compelling leaders that we have, not just in the hemisphere but around the world." There is a lot of potential in this country that the US travel.state.gov website describes as "rapidly developing country with a large, educated middle class and a robust free-market economy." The fact that I am only learning now to consider this country as truly having something to offer my own, the "greatest nation on earth" as we often consider it, makes me a bit embarrassed. Chile may have a very different culture, but it has its eyes on the future and is making serious efforts in a non-violent and capitalist way to earn a place in the international economic, political, and scientific communities. And as Chile has already earned the attention of the White House and MIT, perhaps credit should be given where it is due.