Blog #5: Chilean History and Politics

Daniel Sparler: 
Much of this information presented on Chilean history is new to me. He talked much about politics in Chile which were interesting to see the differences compared to the US in such how they have more than two political parties. He states many different facts about Chile and shows how they differ from other Latin American countries. Such as Chile having the highest life expectancy rate and low infant mortality rates. It's interesting to hear facts like these and see how vastly different Chile is especially compared to other Latin America countries. One fact that I remembered and really stuck out to me was the fact that they do not know what the word Chile means, it could literally mean anything, I am surprised that they still to this day they don't have any assumptions or have tried to come up with something for it. I never really have read much or done much research on Chile but learning about it is very fascinating, I am glad to be learning about it before I go and I am excited to learn more about Chile while I am visiting.



Colonia Dignidad: 
A man named Peter Schaefer organized and ran a colony in the countryside of Chile. What most were led to believe it was a place of happiness and a place of communal work. What actually happened inside this colony was much worse. There was abuse, torture, molestation, forced labor, and much more that occurred. He was able to keep this colony for over 50 years torturing and manipulating many people. Still, to this day, there are many people who were involved in this colony who are still scarred emotionally and physically. This event immediately reminded me of the holocaust and it was so shocking to see how one man can have so much power and influence amongst these people and torture them in many ways such as Hitler did. It was astonishing to me to see them just build a resort on top of this colony as if it never happened. They seem to be wanting to forget it ever happened, which I think is not fair to those who went through this. I wonder why they don't acknowledge it and try and do something for the victims? They could always do a memorial or something rather than trying to make it disappear.

Orlando Letelier

Letelier (Forgotten terror in DC):
I had never heard about this attack before, happening right in Washington, DC a former Chilean diplomat, Orlando Letelier, and his assistant Ronni Moffitt were killed in a car bombing. As they said in the video this piece of history has been forgotten or "replaced by Lindsay Lohan's latest escapades", which is sad but true. It seems as if Americans have pushed this piece of history aside as it could portray the Americans in a bad way. It was sad to hear not only how little this is talked about or remembered but also about how Letelier didn't really receive justice in the end and how those who were involved in the bombing didn't receive much jail time and are free-living normal lives.