The week began with a visit to the National cemetery. The cemetery was much bigger than I expected, and so were the mausoleums and tombs that line the main and side streets running through it. All major families in Chile have mausoleums here I think, some are more modest and others are ornate and have stained glass or statues. There were so many different kinds, and some beautiful tombstones and statues too, many by important Chilean artists. At the edge of the cemetery is Salvador Allende's tomb and a large monument honoring all of the murdered or "disappeared" from the reign of the military dictatorship. Although somewhat eerie, the visit was really interesting and I could have spent a whole day wandering around and exploring the expansive grounds. Linda didn't think that sounded like fun, but it's ideal for a girl who loves to make up other people's stories and imagine other times!
On Tuesday, Linda and I ventured into a part of the city we hadn't seen yet to visit El Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende. This is a museum that Allende started as the first Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago (and maybe in Chile) to honor the relationship between freedom, democracy and the arts. He solicited donations from well known artists around the world, and the museum has an interesting collection. It includes paintings from artists like Miro and Picasso, as well as an entire floor dedicated to Italian artists who were apparently particularly receptive to Allende's request for art. It also houses contemporary art from working artists today that was neat. There were some cool installations and interesting sculptures. Maybe most interesting was the small exhibit of the Allende's affects from the day of the military coup on September 11, 1973. His wife's suit is hung in a glass case, along with a letter she wrote to her daughter (I think) while the events were occurring. It was chilling to read. They also have some of Allende's things, like his membership to the Socialist Party and a wallet among other artifacts. What I think is most important, and what I think would make Allende happy, is that Santiago has grown into a city devoted to art, with a huge number of galleries, art exhibits, art museums, and contemporary artists. This commitment to visual art and the honor and respect Allende started for it with his museum has really become part of the culture. From graffiti (like the murals done by art students in Valparaiso) to the sheer number of galleries, art plays an important role in public expression and public discussion here.
Wednesday was all about Fashion! Our school trip was a visit to El Museo de la Moda, and the current exhibit was fashion from the 80s!
I'm not a huge fan of fashion from the 80s, but after my visit I have to say I have a lot more respect for it! We walked in to a Back to the Future exhibit with a replica of the time-traveling car and the jacket Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future 2. All proceeds from that exhibit (or something like that) go to the Michael J. Fox foundation apparently. It was pretty cool, and they were playing clips from the movies on screens behind the car.
We had an excellent tour through the exhibit which really discussed fashion as an extension of the culture of the 80s and it's imperative to break fashion rules and ignore the restrictions of "good taste." It was interesting to see the different designers collections from the decade, and the incredible impact the importance of physical fitness and health had on fashion design. Perhaps the most interesting part about the museum was how it tied global fashion into Chile's experience in the 80s, at which time they were still under the military dictatorship. There was limited material and resources to create clothes that were up to par in the 80s, but Chileans got creative and many were able to follow the trends. However, fashion was generally more muted here because information and exposure to what was happening in the rest of the world was limited and Chile was very conservative. The contrast between the role of fashion to Chileans living under dictatorial rule and the role of fashion in the rest of the world was a fascinating way to learn more about living under the dictatorship.
Thursday was shopping at Los Dominicos, an artisan market, and then cooking for all the people in my apartment which I will write about in another post. Friday was another jam packed day as I tried to fit everything into my last few days here! I had class early in the morning and was done by 10:30, so I went to see the rest of the things on my list. Most importantly, I went and saw the Supreme Court which is beautiful inside! It's a big colonial building with lots of sun and yellow walls, with lawyers and all kinds of people scurrying through the halls or studying cases on benches outside different court rooms.
I wandered around for a while, and then went looking for the Supreme Court library which was supposed to house some really old books. It did! In the basement, I slipped through the door and walked by a couple of confused librarians like I knew where I was going. I made my way to the back of the library where I saw some incredibly old law books on civil law, Spanish law, French law, old Chilean laws, everything! It was so cool! I couldn't take them out to look at them (they were in a glass case) but it was neat to read the titles and to think that some of them had been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was really cool!
I also saw another antiquated treasure - the library had a card catalog!
After my trip through the center of Santiago, I made my way back to school for our last school excursion to Quinta Normal, a "park" of sorts that houses many museums and exhibits. To our disapointment, the natural history museum was closed, but we did go see an art museum for kids in a building that had been built for a worlds' fair in the 1800s and a train park filled with old-fashioned locomotives. We ended our visit with el Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, a relatively new museum built to honor the people killed or "disappeared" during the military dictatorship and to inform the public about the atrocities that occurred during the regime in order to continue discussion about how to prevent future human rights tragedies. The museum was a sobering look at the prevalence of human rights abuses all over the world and still occurring today. It explained the history of the military coup and dictatorship, and exhibited photographs by artists living through it. Our guide was on of the teachers from the school and he explained his own experiences and what he knew about that period with such eloquence. He told me stories of different towns and how they lived under the dictatorship, including the first town to discover a mass grave of 15 people who had been killed and buried in an abandoned mining pit. This discovery was the first actual proof of the government's abuses and the first step towards taking action against them. They also showed needlework done by village women throughout the military dictatorship that portrayed the small town experience of the oppressive regime. The craft was a way to speak out and talk about what was happening, especially among a semi-literate and only partially educated population. They were eerie and touching, showing the discovery of mass graves, a funeral for a beloved priest killed by the military, communities coming together to help each other - they were all different and very much the same.
At one point, our guide asked us what we thought about the museum. He then told us a story of his own, when he traveled to Germany in the early 80s. He went to visit Dachau, and was struck by a statue of a man with the words "So it will never happen again" inscribed on it. He remembered thinking, "But it is happening again, right now." He was living under a repressive regime full of human rights abuses including torture, detention and murder of political prisoners who were mostly just students who belonged to political parties that did not support Pinochet. But they were taken without warning from their homes, their work, or the street and many never returned. He talked about how twenty years later that period is still fresh in Chile's memory, and how each abduction is not only a trauma for the person and his/her family but for the entire community. He said that Chile is still dealing with this trauma today. When he said that, I got chills. Even today, with so many reasons to remember past abuses and prevent violence against humanity from happening again, people still live in fear and repression.
I'll leave it at that for now, but the next post will be about lighter subjects (and may be after I get back...hooray!)
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