Cultural Miscommunication

      When I was with my host family, I told them where I was planning on meeting up with my friends for the night.  Granted I know no Spanish and they knew no English so it was all in Google Translate.  They started speaking a lot of Spanish and trying to talk to me.  I had no idea what was going on.  The google translate ended up causing more confusion than it did helping.  They then pulled up a map of the city and tried to talk to me again.  They were pointing to places on the map which just confused me more.  Then my host mom started calling people on the phone and I was even more bewildered.

     My host family was trying to figure out where I was going and where I was meeting up with my friends.  They were worried about me and my plans since it was New Years Eve.  Also, I had just arrived in Viña Del Mar so I was not situated with the city yet.  They were trying to figure out my plans for the night.

      The problem was the language barrier in this situation.  I figured out later what they were trying to say.  The club we wanted to go to was close to my house and where I was going to meet my friends was in the opposite direction.  They were trying to protect me and make me do less walking alone.  I did not want to change my plans with my friends at the last minute.  It would be confusing and stress me out.  This situation made me realize how important communication is and understanding people.  This was my first situation in which I couldn't understand someone speaking at all.

Pre-Departure!!!

I am super excited to go to Chile! I can't wait to eat all of the amazing food and try their fantastic wine!  I'm really excited to see the art in Chile and hear their popular songs hopefully in restaurants or out on the streets.  I also really want to hear the Chilean Spanish and see how different it sounds than normal Spanish even though I don't know a lot of that either.  I'm also super excited to meet my host family and see the beautiful geography of Chile.  It is going to be so amazing to be in the warm weather which I am so looking forward to!  I'm ready to escape the cold and see the beautiful beaches.  Packing was pretty hard because I wanted to bring a lot but I downsized so there isn’t so much.  Plus it's odd packing for such warm weather when it is freezing out right now! I also made sure I brought sunscreen and sunglasses as I've heard the sun is very strong in Chile.  I tried to pack lightly but it was pretty hard for me as I want to bring many different outfits!  I really hope I get to see some traditional Chilean dancers because I love watching people dance! It would be really cool to see people doing the cueca since it is so essential to Chilean culture!  Looking forward to meeting everyone and can’t wait to be in Chile!!!

Chilean Dance

               The cueca is a traditional Chilean dance and Chile's national dance although not as popular as others nowadays.  It is danced with a man and a woman and they hold a handkerchief which they dance with.  The handkerchief is a way that they communicate without touching and leads to the intensity at the end of the song when they finally link arms.  They dance around one another in a circle and use their handkerchiefs as they dance.
               The cueca became the national dance of Chile under Pinochet because he was trying to use it to his advantage.  However, Chilean women turned it into a form of protest for their murdered loved ones.  They hung pictures of their missing or murdered loved ones around their necks or pinned onto their clothes and did the dance in the streets.  Another example of Chileans using art forms for political protest.  There wasn't much Chileans could do to protest Pinochet without getting killed so this was their solution.
                I thought that this was just a typical dance in Chile.  I did not think that it would be turned into a resistance symbol.  I think that it's amazing how the Chileans turned a simple dance into something that holds such meaning for them and their history.   It was also interesting to learn that salsa is more popular nowadays than the cueca.  The cueca is mainly danced in traditional settings like birthdays and weddings.  It was really cool seeing this dance but I hope I can see it in person in Chile!

Chilean Art

          Chilean art seems like it has always had a message behind it.  It has been a way for Chilean artists to express their struggles and lives artistically.  Due to Chile's political history, a lot of art has a political message embedded in it.  Arpilleras are fabrics sewn together that were used during the '70s in Chile to represent what was going on during Pinochet's time of power.  Art is a way for people to express their moods and allows them to say more than sometimes even words can express.  Chileans use art to protest in their country.  One artist, Papa Fritas, stole debt documents of students at a university and set them on fire.  The University del Mar, has been having financial irregularities and students are in so much debt for trying to seek a higher education.  That is just like here in the United States.  People are making money off of students for trying to make a better life for themselves.  It is wrong and unjust.  I commend Fritas for burning those documents in protest.  Things need to change.  Students shouldn't be punished or taken advantage of for trying to go to school.  Countries should encourage and help their citizens be educated people.  This also just creates more of a gap between the rich and poor because only rich people can afford college.  It is very hard for poorer people to go because of financial issues.  Chilean art seems to change and reflect the time that it is made in.  It shows what is happening and important to the people of the time.
            I really hope to see the street art that was shown in the last video.  I think it's beautiful and I love graffiti because it comes from everyday artists.  I also think it just livens up the places it is painted in and gives it such character.  I thought Valparaiso was just breathtaking with all of the graffiti everywhere.

Chilean Music

Violeta Parra:
           Violeta was an artist, singer, poet, and musician.  She sang Chilean folk songs that represented her country and she also sang about her life.  She had a horrible upbringing and her life never really got better.  Her father was a drunk and died which left Violeta on her own.  She seemed to suffer with depression as well which contributed to her decision to commit suicide.  Her art was a way for her to try and cope with the hardships in her life but that wasn't enough.  She was an amazing artist and her songs are so emotional and deep.  Violeta was a rebel and did not like to listen to authority.  She did her own thing and did not live in a conservative setting.  She escaped the realities of her time by being practically a nomad and never staying in one place.  She lived in different countries and left Chile instead of dealing with the hardships in her country.

Victor Jara:
          He was a singer and was very political.  He sang about better times and not having hatred.  He worked at the Technical University in Chile and gave talks about how horrible civil wars were.  He was against violence and included his ideals into his songs.  He had a family and lived in Santiago.  Him and his family were in Santiago on September 11th and Victor was killed by the military men because they recognized his face and hated him because of his political ideals.  He was a symbol for the people and his students and helped them keep their hope while they were imprisoned.

Los Prisioneros:
           They are a rock band and one of the pioneers of Spanish rock.  They changed the music of Chile from folk songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra to the rock/punk music and mainstream music.  Their songs were political and talked about social problems in Chile.  During Pinochet's reign, the music was banned because of its political messages and young people used it to protest Pinochet's rule.  The band broke apart many times and added new members.  They played their last concert in 2006 but their music continues to be popular.

Ana Tijoux:
           She is a hip hop singer who is very politically involved.  She was born in France to Chilean parents who fled Chile because of Pinochet at the time.  They were imprisoned and escaped to France.  Her parents taught her about Chile and politics from a young age.  She thinks politics allows people to reflect on the world and she thinks of it as a good thing.  Her music talks about a lot of political subjects including education equality.  She uses her music as a communication method because she believes it's better than writing.

Each of these artists are important to Chilean culture because they respect and love Chile.  They have so much passion for their country and they want it to improve.  That's what their music is about.  Envisioning a better more accepting Chile.  They want the best for their people and to be proud of where they are from.

Questions: Why was Violeta Parra so poor?  I thought she got really famous and her paintings were in the Louvre but she struggled throught the whole film with money?  Did she never make any money?

Chile's Indigenous Cultures

       The Mapuche in Chile are the largest indigenous group who live there.  They have lived in the southern part of Chile and trace their ancestors back there.  The Spaniards and English and French eventually tried to colonize Chile and got into a super long territorial war with the Mapuche.  Mapuche means "people of the Earth" and they worship and honor the Earth for all that it has given them.  They understand that the Earth provides everything for them and they use everything in its natural form.  They have healers who use herbs for their medicine.  They respect other's religions and for their own, they have ceremonies to show their appreciation to God and the Earth.  Even thought they are the largest indigenous group in Chile, they are not respected.  People make fun of them and they are very poor because their land keeps getting taken by lumber corporations.  These corporations have cut down the native trees that the Mapuche used for lumber.  Chile does not recognize that land as belonging to the Mapuche so the Mapuche are continuing to fight to claim it.
       The Dakota Access pipeline is an oil pipeline that goes through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.  It was announced in 2014 and was very controversial because of its environmental impact.  Oil pipelines crack all of the time and spill oil which is horrible for the environment.  Native Americans who live in the Dakotas opposed the pipeline because it went through sacred burial grounds and would pollute the water quality in the area.  The Standing Rock tribe founded a center for opposition to the pipeline and thousands of people joined.  The pipeline was still completed although they bulldozed land that belonged to the Native American tribes and where their sacred burial grounds were located.
      These two issues are quite alike even though one is from Chile and the other is happening here in the United States.  It shows that governments do not respect indigenous people or their land.  Its all about making a profit and money.  It is horrible greed.  The Mapuche and Native Americans were the first people in their countries.  They are the natives.  They respect the land and the Earth yet they are given no rights and are struggling to survive.  The Mapuche are having to leave their land to find jobs to support themselves and their families because they don't have enough farm land to make a living.  The tribes impacted by the Dakota Access pipeline were not taken into consideration.  Their sacred burial grounds meant nothing to the companies trying to build the pipeline.  Oil is more important than the environment or traditions of Native American tribes.  We raped and took their land yet in 2014 we still don't respect them and do the same thing all over again for our own benefit.  It's disgusting.  The same thing is happening to the Mapuche in Chile.  I really hope that they continue to fight for their rights and make headway.  They deserve to be treated with respect and allowed to carry out their lives as they please even if it isn't the conventional way.

Chilean Film

Bear Story Review

       This short film is about a bear family.  The dad bear creates an object that tells a story about his life and what happened to his family.  The dad bear, along with other zoo animals, gets taken away by circus people to live and perform at a circus.  They get taken away from their families and lives without their consent.  The bear eventually runs away from the circus and rejoins his family.  Everything is happy again and the family is reunited.
         I think this film is a visual to describe what happened in Chile before, during, and after the 9/11 coup of Allende by Pinochet.  At the beginning of the story, the bear is happy with his family and everything seems perfect.  Then one night, the coup, everything gets destroyed.  The bear goes to live in a different world where he is forced to do things and this is the dark period.  After he escapes, aka the end of Pinochet's reign, life is good again and he is reunited with his family once again.
         I think the film did a great job of showing the history of Chile visually.  It is a little odd because it reminded me of the three little bears, but the circus metaphor made a lot of sense.  The film is all dark during that part and the bear holds a mementos of his family in his pocket to remind him of the good days and his family.  This keeps him going and trying to fight to escape the circus.  I understood the purpose of this short film pretty quickly right after watching it, and that is the point.  I think people will be able to understand the meaning behind it if they know about the history of Chile.  Overall, the film was a little eccentric in using zoo animals and a circus but it conveyed the meaning effectively and made it more understandable in simpler terms of that dark time period in Chile's history.
Link to the film:https://vk.com/video244132350_171200778