Feliz Navidad!

I was hoping to send you some pictures of christmas here, but it has not been easy. Not only because I began to leave my camera at home, but also because I discovered that I'm northern when it comes to christmas: it just doesn't feel right when its 30 degrees celsius! The approach to this summery christmas produced a strong rejection in me - the decorations seemed fake, the songs contrived, the food totally wrong. Everything imported, marketed, and "unauthentic".

I went shopping with my sister-in-law, and commenting on this, she seemed surprised. She has no recollection of christmas ever having been different. This led me to realize that it makes perfect sense for christmas traditions here to be "like everywhere else". After all, christmas was brought by the Spanish, and later "dressed up" by the Italians and Germans. Our most traditional christmas traditions are imports and unauthentic; plus, the wars against the indians here meant there was little of an indigenous culture to survive and be mixed with the Catholic (unlike Mexico, for example). Like anyone, the European immigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries brought their pine trees, santas, jingle bells and candles with them, independent of the weather. Once I realized this crap is not all the product of recent market globalization I felt free to actually enjoy a hot christmas!!

Now some info on what christmas here is like today. There is no pretty way of describing it so here is a bullet point list:
- There are LOTS of police! Theft shoots up, informal vendors proliferate and the police comes out in large numbers to protect shoppers.
-  A large segment of the daily news is dedicated to presents, both where to shop and how to manage the debt that will follow. This was said literally on TV news: "It is ok to buy presents on credit because christmas is a one time expense, its not structural like school".
- Traffic increases. This christmas I would like Santa to check everyone's breaks so they stop screaching. Then I would like him to disconnect the horn on every car.
- The things I love about christmas don't really happen here. Very few people have to travel anywhere (most people live with their family), so there is no sense of the country stopping. And its too hot to eat lamb, roast beef, roasted vegetables, etc. For example, we are eating cold stuffed tomatoes and eggs (I'm not complaining! just saying).

And finally a little bit about me- things are going well and Im excited to be entering a new phase soon. This means travel!!! First, new years in Buenos Aires with my friends (Lola!!) and cousins and my mom. Then I'll be spending Jan. 10 to Feb. 10 more or less in Valdivia, down south. (that is where I'll turn 33... aagh). Then back to Santiago for a family holiday in the countryside, and then end of February to end of March in Coyhaique, Aysén, the Chilean Patagonia. To get there: a 15 hour bus ride to Puerto Montt, then a 24-hour boat ride along the Pacific, then a 2 hour bus ride from the port to the town. Something like 2,200 km. Desparately seeking a friendly research assistant.... anyone??!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, FELICES FIESTAS, HOPE YOU ARE ALL WELL AND I MISS YOU!

Chilean Catholic traditions - here is the manger, and on the 24th late at night, you put out baby Jesus. This manger is in the shopping gallery where we bought our presents.

The formal vendor is accused by the Police of having informally expanded his business (taking up like twice as much sidewalk as his kiosk allows), to sell wrapping paper and small presents. Its all very christmassy...

Exasperation

"Chile, es un país que por las características de sus suelos y sus recursos naturales en general, es de una vocación eminentemente forestal."
This is the first line of a law written, debated and approved by Congress. The commas are misplaced, two verbs share one subject with no conjunction mediating this relationship, and the argument is completely flawed and vague. I'm so sick of reading Chilean laws.

Ivana

The past few days home life has been dominated by this story (for lack of a better word), that I want to share with you.

Today we (ie., my sister as bakery owner) had to declare Ivana as having abandoned her job as cook at the bakery because she did not show up for two consecutive days for work. On Friday Ivana was set to move, from the apartment she shared with her three children and husband, to a little house for her and the children. She was leaving her husband, though he had actually left her: some weeks ago, he boarded a bus for Ecuador, using a ticket another woman had bought him. Once in Ecuador, he was robbed of everything, and the woman he had gone to visit denounced him to the Ecuadorian police because he owed her money. She then called Ivana to ask for money in order to release her husband. Ivana and her parents-in-law (ie., the disgraced husband's mother and father) refused to pay for his release, giving up on him after years of drug and alcohol abuse; years in which he never held a steady job, betrayed everyone around him in different ways, and relied on theft and his wife for money. This man is the father of two of Ivana's chidren. The oldest she had at age 16, with another man. Today she is 27.
Ivana is from Salta, Argentina, and came to Chile following the father of the oldest child, until he left her. She then migrated from the Chilean countryside to the southern outskirts of Santiago, where the poor who can not afford housing live. She had been working with us for one year; she was a good worker, responsible, nice and charming. Despite everything she was doing well. Her mistake was this man, whom she was still willing to help: after refusing to send the Ecuadorian woman money, she sent him a bus ticket to return to Santiago. He refused to come back. Who knows what happened, but on Friday, before she could move house, her aunt and uncle came from Argentina to take her and the children back to Salta, with her mother.
We know all this because two other employees went to look for Ivana at her house; they talked to the neighbor, and then found the parents-in-law. Otherwise, we could equally well think Ivana had been kidnapped, killed, run away or sick in hospital. We will probably never hear from her again, even though we (my sister) like her a lot, did a lot to help her, and wanted to continue helping her. Instead, we have to scramble to re-arrange everyone's work hours, cover extra shifts and begin a new hiring process. And so everyone's frustration grows. The only comfort is to think that Ivana and her children will be better off back home, and that she has a family that cares about her.

Of 18 women between 17 and 34 that work in our bakery, 8 have children. Of these, only three are still with the father of their children (including my sister in law). One had her child one month ago and is likely to break up with the father by the end of the year.

Not Beijing

But almost? Or as much as we might want? One manifestation of Chile's growth is in urbanism: lots of new buildings, expansion of public transportation (after years of stagnation, 3 new lines have been built in 5 years plus extensions of existing lines), and the improvement of parks and plazas. Many places have changed beyond recognition, as I will now show you.
When I was little this - that round white tower - was one of the biggest buildings in Vitacura, a nice area of Santiago:

Apumanque shopping center, focusing on the old part. Please notice the untasteful and annoying advertisement around the top of the tower.

Now, the street leading to the right from the point where I was standing to take this photo, looks like this:

Rosario Norte Street, from the Manquehue metro station to the Parque Araucano

View from Parque Araucano- the buildings! they are so many! all corporate HQ, and the cranes.. there are more to come!!

Another set like this is the following: the Titanium Tower is now the tallest building in Latin America. It overshadows everything else and is visible from everywhere in Santiago. To build it they had to destroy the Omnium Center, also pictured. Half of the Center refused to move, and they won court protection to stay. The result is the disgusting, dirty, half of the Omnium Center (which I love because I used to get the bus from there to go skiing by myself years and years ago so I associate it with freedom and fun), and the ugly and disproportionate (and pretty much empty) Titanium tower. 

the shiny Titanium Tower, the dirty Omnium Center

This is just north of the Titanium Tower- Here you see its closest relative, the Milenium Tower. This corner gives my sister nightmares: the very old, somehow surviving with the new, to make a whole that makes no sense at all.

On the clearly positive side, a fascinating example of Chinese influence: the importation of public exercise machines, and with that of physical exercise habits that just don't traditionally exist here. The municipality where I live has installed these in all its municipal parks (there are a lot of them) and they are hugely popular! They are always being used by all sorts of people- young & old, fat & thin, sporty & not. Here, my niece and nephew having a go at it-

Tradition. Isnt she the best and the cutest you've ever ever seen??

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires was as amazing as hoped for, and coming back a little harder than expected. It was a very good thing to go away for only 4 days because otherwise coming back would have been very difficult. I leave you with some pictures from the trip, both contemporary and historical (and recently digitized).

My grandmother's 90th birthday. 30 people came over for a party. Here is the family (+ a few wanna bees and minus my mom). We all wore sweaters made for us by my grandmother (the one in the middle with the pink dress, which she made for herself for my brother's wedding 3 years ago).

Blowing out the candles

My cousin participated in a very fancy hat design show. Here my sister tries out her creation, made in mimbre (wicker), while my grandmother tries to understand what it all means.

My grandparents and my mom, about 1945.

My mom getting married. My grandmother kissing her, looks like she is crying. It amazes me how Catholic and traditional and fancy their wedding was.

My father - to the right of the man - with his family, on holiday in Mar del Plata, about 1950.

With Fatima, my ex-boyfriend's sister. Amazing coincidence we were both in Buenos Aires. Last time I saw her was for my goodbye from Madrid, over 4 years ago. Very nice to see her.

Holiday!!

One month after arriving I am going on holiday! My grandmother turns 90 years old and my sister and I are going to Buenos Aires for her birthday. We come back on Friday; short holiday. As part of the celebration I am allowing myself to complain about a few things. As my friends, you get to hear them.

The things that irritate me most...
1. Essays about current day politics and society that base their argument on something Plato or Aristotle said.
2. Essays that define concepts by telling you the etymology of the word. (together, #1+#2=99% of essays I've read here).
3. Being asked if I did that (live in the U.S., go to grad school, work in Madrid) "alone" (¿y hiciste eso solita?). Not everyone is satisfied by the mention of my San Francisco brother, no one accepts friends as enough to free you from "alone", and amazingly ex-boyfriends or a fictitious current boyfriend are not what they are looking for either. It seems like only marriage and children can fully free you from "alone" here.
4. Being treated like a hero for having done that "alone".
5. Taxi drivers and bus drivers; mad men. To stop a bus at the bus stop, you must throw yourself onto the street. You can't read at the bus stop and then rely on your little arm to stop the bus. Throw yourself at the machine.

The things I am learning to live with....
1. The crazy amounts of children everywhere you go.
2. Being asked don't you what one (a child) too? I now respond in a very sweet voice: no, I am really enjoying my neice and nephew and don't see any need for me to have a baby too when everyone else is doing that already.
3. Cigarette smoke everywhere.
4. Service staff everywhere: my father's building has 24 hour staff at the door plus several cleaning and maintenace staff. Most apartments have a maid. Shops - even those with one client an hour - have one person at the cash register and another that gets you what you want to buy.
5. Very boring conversations about daily anecdotes: what happened when you got dressed this morning, the dog that looked at you walking down the street, the woman who slept through the earthquake and thought thiefs had broken into her house....
6. The mystery of the Chilean sense of humor. I just don't get it and its becoming more and more obvious that I don't get it. This may move up to the other list by next month...
7. People asking me about my work and then interrupting me with some "joke" or anecdote or another question about something completely different.

So its not too bad. Objectively, life here is very boring and were it not for my family, our nice apartment and bakery, my good memories from the past, and the hope of travels to the Andes, I might be in despair right now.

After dissing Chilean humor I leave you with some political humor. This photo is from a satirical journal. Some necessary cultural background: though the national myth is that there is one "Chilean race" racial differences do exist. The whiter you are the more more likely you are to come from the upper class, and vice versa. A very common topic of conversation is to mention that "my grandmother had blue eyes", "when I was little I was blond", "you wouldn't believe how light my uncle was" (I've been to three social events and in two of them these comments were heard). With that in mind...

Condoleeza Rice with President Piñera. It says "I have a black brother". Really the joke is on all Chileans, this is not specific to Piñera. It is making fun of the "arribismo" of Chileans. Arribismo is a pejorative term for people who want to climb the social ladder.

Family

Family defines life in Chile to a very large extent, and I am no exception here. Things are going well, though I am looking forward to a "fun break" in Buenos Aires next week. Approximately 90% of my conversations occur with family members: father, brother, sister, sister-in-law, nephew, niece, and sister-in-law's family. Say hello to some of them below.

Family is about reproduction in Chile. A recent newspaper article on the rise of the birth rate (it dipped 2004-2006 and is now back to its 1999 level), tells us it is good for the birth rate to rise, but does not say why. According to a sociologist "it is still very important for people to have children because they give stability when things are difficult at work and you don't know how long your partner will be around". Children make up for the deficiencies in your professional and love life. The article goes on to say that, unfortunately, the increase in natality isn't observed in women aged 20 to 34 but in "high risk groups": teenagers and women of "advanced age". The only women I know in Chile who have had children over age 35 are having their 3rd or 4th. On the other hand, another recent article in the same paper was entitled: "16 and Pregnant: the MTV show that is uncomfortably close to Chilean reality". It is well known that the teenage pregnancy rate has risen steadily and terribly over the past 20 years, due to the combination of increased political and economic freedom with sustained levels of Church-led social control.

No one talks about what comes after birth: how these fearsome mothers stressed by the instability of work and love can raise their little dolls. Compound the problem with the low, low quality of schools (more on this some other day). A friend (with no children) said to us that, during a recent trip to Argentina, he was amazed by how much Argentine parents love their kids, because that is not the case in Chile (he is Chilean). On a recent bus ride I encountered three anecdotes that provide some evidence of this. A 10-year old boy told his mother, at the bus stop, that he made the winning goal during their soccer match. The little kids beat the big kids. The mother said nothing: no bravo, no hug, not even a smile. A father, in his suit, pulls his 10-year old with him to the front of the bus line, cutting in front of everyone else. I complained, everyone else was mute. Finally, another 10-year old rolls up his sleeves as high as possible because it was hot on the bus. His care-taker (his uncle I think) tells him: you look like a nerd if you do that. When you roll your sleeves they can only go 3/4 of the way up, thats the cool way.

One more story, picked up in my first two weeks here. You've seen that I've been going biking and hiking in the nearby countryside and mountains. Through that I met a friend of a friend; he is in his early 30s and has full custody of his 6-year old daughter. The mother seems to not be very interested (who knows the truth). He loves to talk about her and he also loves to spend the weekend on his mountain bike and hiking. A few months ago he sent her to live with his mother because, he told me, it was too hard to meet his work commitments and her time-table. But he doesn't even spend the weekend with her. Frankly, bullshit, it was too hard to take her mountain biking.

Meanwhile neoliberal public policies - on health, education, you name it - assume a stable and cooperative family where both parents work and pay the bills. No statistics exist on this, but I bet that a conservative estimate is that 45% of Chilean families are "broken": ie., the father left long ago, the grandparents care for the kids, the mother had a child with each one of her 3 or 4 different partners, the maid is the primary care-giver, etc. In this context its good for the birth rate to increase? I think every priest, bishop and pope should go live with a Chilean family and pay the bills before they express any further opinions (chastity belts included please).

Diego (nephew), at the end of his first afternoon with me. (hahaha) 

Ricky and Lola, my sister's cats, in our apartment. She said: You don't understand, they are like your children.

Sara (niece), she is "mi gorda exquisita", I just can't resist her!!! She laughs ALL the time. Look at those legs!

Father, brother and kids in the stroller I got them in Oakland, on a Sunday stroll together. This building was built in 265 days to be ready for a big UN meeting in 1972, under Allende. Pinochet turned it into a military headquarters. It burnt a few years ago, and was just reconverted into a cultural center. Its very nice actually.

The pedophile next door

Around the world the priests of the Catholic Church are being accused and found guilty of pedophilia. Chile, where the Church is very strong, is no exception. From my window I gaze onto the Church of El Bosque, one of the most upper class Catholic communities in Santiago, led until a few months ago by Priest Karadima. In 2003 Karadima was first accused of "abusing boys", yet he was removed from his post less than 6 months ago (ie., 2010). He has now been dispossessed of millions of dollars he accumulated under his name (pressumably for the Church) and a whole circle of protection around him is being uncovered. He was one of the most powerful Church leaders in Chile.

One of Karadima's victims is Jimmy Hamilton, and his case is somewhat typical of this case. Jimmy was 17 when Karadima started asking him to masturbate him. This situation lasted until Jimmy was in his 30s, married with three children. The family would go have dinner at Karadima's house (located there within the Church grounds), and at some point Karadima would say: "Hey Jimmy, come to my little office back here so I can check your heartbeat" (Karadima was trained as a doctor) and the abuse would happen, as the children ate their meat and rice outside. Finally Jimmy decided to seek a divorce from his wife through Church channels: that is, an annullment, granted by the Vatican when marriage is not freely entered into. For many decades this was the Chilean upper class' way of getting divorced because divorce was not legally possible. Jimmy argued he was not free to marry because he had been at the time a victim of abuse by Karadima!

Karadima's case has shaken the upper class to the roots. They feel their trust has been betrayed and, to protect themselves somewhat, they continue to call it a case of pedophilia rather than homosexuality. It comes on the heels of the case of the "Cura Tato", priest at an upper class girls school where he had sex with many adolescent girls and left one pregnant. He was moved around from diocese to diocese (including other countries) until a group of lower class girls denounced him. He now lives in peaceful retreat in the Swiss Alps where he asks foregivness for "this dark side within me".

Unfortunately these cases have had much more resonance than that of Marcel Maciel, founder of the Legionarios de Cristo, an ultra-conservative upper class Catholic "sect", found to have raped a 15-year old girl, fathered a child and kept the mother as a mistress in a double life he led for years, in addition to many other acts of pedophilia. The cases of sexual abuse are evidence of the Catholic Church's crisis, but so is the rise of these ultra-conservative sects - also prey to scandal though incomprehensibly with less resonance. Yesterday I came to this question: could the demise of the Catholic Church lead to the rise of these ultra-conservative sects, actually leaving us in a worse (from my point of view) position than with a strong Catholic Church?

The beautiful view from my office, one a cold day after a rainfall (snowfall in the mountains). Very atypical for November.

The red steeple of the Church El Bosque, from my office window.

Grafiti saying "Karadima Pedofilo" on a nearby sidewalk. This is very strange; this is the only grafiti that exists and Karadima's upper class victims (and their friends) are hardly the type to do grafiti. 

Karadima's playground, the city of Santiago, from a mountain-side to the East of the city. We had to cut our hike short because of the rain that came in.

City and Country

This week I finally left the comfort of home and explored my first meetings and libraries, as well as subjecting myself to excercise-shock-treatment with a 25 km bike ride.
During one of these excursions I visited the historical neighborhood of Bellavista, today a mix of tourist trap, dive bars, and chic restaurants. The neighborhood entrance is guarded by one of Santiago's first bridges across the Mapocho River and the square below, where 4 students were killed in the 1950s during some political mobilizations. My Santiaguina adolescence was spent buying lots of cheap jewlery and incense at this square, today dominated by the massive building you see in the photo. That building belongs to the University San Sebastian, a private for-profit university dominated by the Opus Dei and ex-Pinochet government leaders. They want to replace the trees you see with a 12 meter statue of Pope John Paul II (http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=estauta+juan+pablo+II+bellavista&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1187&bih=577)
Neighbors and architects thankfully dissuaded the Santiago authorities, but its incredible to read about other municipalities begging to have the statue placed in their area (http://www.molivision.cl/content/view/662896/La-comuna-de-San-Clemente-solicito-estatua-gigante-de-Juan-Pablo-II-rechazada-en-Santiago.html). The statue cost about US$4 million to build; who knows if students' tuition fees helped finance part of that. Opposite the massive building of San Sebastian University in the photo is another massive building of another private, for-profit university, Andres Bello U., the object of my paper on the inequity effects of privatizing higher education some of you may have heard me speak of.

Future resting home of 12 meters of Pope John Paul II ?? 

The next photo gives you a glimpse of what is soon to be South America's tallest building, the Titanium Tower, with the snowy Andes behind it. Construction was interrupted two years ago when the developer ran out of money, and again after the earthquake until fear of tall buildings receded (that took about a month). No one knows what will fill the tower.
Lest you think all Chile is steel and copper I've added some images from our bike ride around the Laguna Aculeo, 40 km south of Santiago. Beautiful!!

Titanium tower. Please admire the Andes in the background!

With my friend Rosario on our biking trip in Aculeo.

Chilean countryside at Aculeo, the snowy Andes in the background. 

Sunday to Sunday

You asked me last week what I would do today. At the time today seemed so far away and the move so dramatic it was impossible for me to imagine. I was completely wrong, as today passed with the most bland normality imaginable. This was a deceptively fast week. The good news is that my original accent is only getting stronger; that is about the only thing going on as planned. If you have any ideas about how to create productive stress, please tell me!

Because you asked, I will tell you what I did today:
I made my own granola and I'm determined to become good at it. If all else fails, I'll set up the competition within the family and open a health food store across the street!

I then became friends with Atlas.ti. This is work so I won't bore you with the details except to say that qualitative software is GREAT. This means too that my office is all set up! A friend lent me her desk and I got a fairly cheap nice leather chair (with all the money I saved from the desk). Now I can work... starting tomorrow.

I had a fruit and custard pie for lunch. Photos will follow one day (I'm practicing). For now you can admire the professional ones: http://www.sabordebuenosaires.com/tortas.html. And then I took my little nephew to the park. He's an angel.

I still feel like I'm on holiday because the only hard thing so far is getting used to the high-pitch voices of women here. It was a beautiful day today and all the young families were out at the parks, using the new excercise equipment (like the ones in China), playing with their kids. I took some photos for you. It reminded me of Germany because its so crowded yet so quiet... all you need to add to the photo is a warm breeze, the feel of the sun and the smell of jasmine flowers.

Diego y su papa

The quiet plaza

Don Tito's Birthday: he gave a very nice speech about the bakery, trust, comraderie.

Spring

I arrived on Tuesday and today, Friday, I'm still settling in. This involves catching up with everyone, buying a desk and chair, and renewing all my ID cards and passports (these were all expired! I had to enter as a foreigner!). I also want to email everyone and maybe this will make that task easier.

It is spring here and the weather is beautiful, flowers everywhere. But the pollution and dust make me sneeze and my environmental sensitivities are hurt: water is wasted, very little recycling, organic is super expensive and scarce, everything super packaged, cyclists and drivers are at war, etc.

Crin is a typical local craft. You may have seen it in my house. It reminds me of my childhood and I just love it, it is so simple, colorful, intricate, just like the country. You can see some examples here: http://rarichile.blogspot.com/. Desubicado means disoriented.

Today we are celebrating the 80th birthday of one of our star employees, Don Tito. Don Tito drives the van between the two bakeries and will retire in 3 months; he'll continue working with his kids in their event planning business. He hasn't stopped working since World War II, and these are some of conclusions he has reached (not as well phrased as the original):

"I love the [rescued] miners. Every time I go to the bank or admin office now and they say 'Oh no we can't do that; you need a signature, a form, then go there, stamp here, and next week I'll do it', I just say: what do you mean, we can rescue miners from 700 meters underground but you can't process some forms? Are you rebeling against the new 'Chilean way' of doing things?"
[the President has actually said - abroad - that this represents a new Chilean way of doing things: the right way]

"If I was your age, I'd be over at Las Dalias (our main bakery site, where all the girls work) everyday and make sure to not leave one of those girls 'unruffled'"

"Old people give good advice because it is too late for them to set a good example"

I will take photos soon. I promise!