Today at 7pm afternoon I did a commemoration for the 11th of September in Chile. It was a deep emotional moment that touched my heart and connect myself with my roots. While we were there I read these words:
September 11 is a date marked by violence and sorrow in the minds of many around the world. For Chileans, it is doubly so, because on that day, in 1973, the country's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende was overthrown in a brutal military coup. What followed were years of repression, torture, forced disappearance, fear and for many Chileans, exile.
On the morning of September 11, 1973, President Salvador Allende, was secluded in La Moneda, Chile’s Presidential Palace. For weeks there had been mounting political uncertainty, and now, there were soldiers in Santiago’s streets. The President couldn’t get solid information on what was happening. He knew that earlier that morning, the Navy had taken the port of Valparaiso, north of the capital, but since then the army had shut down several of the city’s television and radio stations and bombed most of the others.
Allende, Chile’s first democratically elected socialist president, hoped that only some elements of the armed forces had betrayed him, and that the leadership of the military would uphold the constitution. But within hours the army announced that it had taken control of Chile and that Allende was deposed by a military coup d’état, led by General Augusto Pinochet.
Despite the army’s threats that it would blow up La Moneda, the President refused to surrender. Instead, he gave a last farewell speech, broadcast on the last radio station still broadcasting. “I will pay for my loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds that we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shrivelled forever.” As bombs rained down on the presidential palace, Chile’s democracy came to an end.
Once in power, Chile’s military imposed an atmosphere of terror. Soldiers occupied the streets of Chile’s major cities, where gunfire was heard throughout the night, now subject to a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Suspected left-wing activists were rounded up and detained, and many of them tortured. Pinochet’s secret police, operated outside the criminal justice system: there was no official arrest, no trial and no public record of the thousands of people who ‘disappeared’ during the dictatorship. The authorities gave detainees’ families no information, and when families came looking, the regime denied any knowledge of detainees’ whereabouts. Meanwhile, it was not uncommon to see bodies alongside the road, or floating in Santiago’s Mapocho River.
Investigations in Chile have determined that during Pinochet’s dictatorship, more than 3,000 people were killed and some 32,000 tortured. The hundreds of bodies that have been discovered in mass and hidden graves still do not add up to the thousands of names on the lists of Chile’s disappeared.
There were many students, many friends D1s and D2s, also two teachers who listened and respected the moment that had a special meaning to me. It connected me to my roots, to my country, to my family, to my ancestors and it allowed me to share a part of my history, of what is a part of my identity with the people who were there. We all sat outside Kijana, I put some meaningful photos on a table and I started reading the text I wrote before, a text that I had prepared for the occasion that talks about what happened the 11th of September, the context, the period itself and what it means for thousands of Chileans. At the end we put a song of Victor Jara “Vientos del pueblo”, a singer I really value and appreciate, that used to write about the Chilean people, their real life and the hardworking people. He died the first year when the dictatorship was stablished due to that he was taken prisoner and then tortured. While were listening the song, we put a candle so as to remember all the people who were killed, disappeared and suffered during the period, also for the people who still don’t know where their relatives are.
As I mentioned before it was a really meaningful instance for me and I felt deeply grateful for all the support, respect and understanding of the people who were there and listened, it meant a lot to me.
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