David Concha, the key Chilean link in the chain of friends of friends that got me so settled in La Serena, and the source of the phrase La Solidaridad de los Viajeros (which, happily he’s given me persmission to use for the ONE postcard project, yay!) David is friend of Sarah from their days flat-sharing in Spain where they were both on student exchanges, and Sarah is old uni mate of my old flat mate and art college friend Steve. Brilliant! :-)
And wow, what a gorgeous human being David Concha is... massively intelligent, hugely motivated politically and socially, kind, generous and playful with paint, David has a cheeky smile about him, a thirst for good Chilean wine and a willingness to entertain with daft imitations of international Spanish accents.. as I learned to my delight during our long midnight wait for the bus out of town - a moment when I also introduced Moley to him.. so Lily and Amelie, you'll be happy to see below that they got on pretty damn well! ;-)
David studied Psychology and Social Sciences and is currently working on his final year practical investigation at Arica’s University of Tarapacá where he is also President of the Students’ Union. He and his student and activist colleagues are putting huge amounts of energy into the local issues of higher education and water and the heartfelt passion I witnessed them working with was truly inspiring. It was a real privilege to be invited to share a couple of days alongside David in the intensity of his day-to-day life in Arica. Like I said to him, by the end of Saturday my head was spinning and I felt like I had learned a huge amount.
Despite being full of a cold and having to get to work for 9am, in typically hospitable Chilean style David met me from the bus station early-doors 7.30am Thursday 21st. In the hours he was at work and for most of the afternoon I was catching up with writing and photo-editing... oh and also cooking a cold-curing soup spiced with so much ginger and garlic that it had us both snotting enough for David to name it mocos/snot soup! ;-)
So really it was the next morning when we hurled full swing into David’s intense routine, which felt like it didn’t really stop until late Saturday night! Friday morning, after having secured my bus ticket across the border to Cochabamba, we headed to the University Campus and listened to a talk introducing the social and economic context of Chile and the local environmental issues facing Arica and neighboring communities in Valley Lluta.
Committee of the Defence of Valley Lluta, Social-environmental movement of Valley Huasco invite you to unite in a meeting with communities of Valley Lluta and the Mayor of Putre to discuss the problems with water and the mining project "El Puma" en ACHS.
There were two main speakers;
Alvaro Torro and Juan Pablo Orrega. Juan
Pablo is a psychologist, environmentalist, activist, and spokesman for EcoSistemas, Chile. Alvaro Torro is a
lawyer and activist who works for a socially focused organisation in Santiago
to oppose the mega-mining and thermoelectric projects that are causing such
huge environmental damage in Chile. He
was honest in saying that in their fights there tend to be more losses than
victories, but also spoke of a number of significant successes in drawing a
halt to the activity of some huge projects whose activity they were able to
prove illegal due to the extreme levels of contamination being caused. Very encouraging for the locals here in Arica
and Putre who are fronting the fight against the mining project Las Pumas,
which is due to commence activity in Valle Lluta on 9th April.
This talk was one of many that
Torro and Orrega are presenting in the tour that they are currently on, spreading
information and knowledge about the truth of environmental issues in
Chile. This is in part an attempt to
combat the problem of disinformation spread by the marketing strategies of
mining companies, which give the illusion that firstly they are socially
responsible (the same tricks we’d heard about at the Huasco meeting of giving
short-term gifts to communities to get them sign away their land rights) and
secondly that they are huge employers of local workers (not true – Valle Lluta
gives work to 6,000 agricultural workers, whereas the mining company will only
offer 250 workers posts for just10 years)
Part of the intention of spreading information is to
empower local indigenous communities so that they know their rights and are
aware of the danger of signing away land rights to mining companies for
short-term financial gain. Within
communities where land has already been sold and projects are already underway
or on the brink of starting, such as Los Pumas in Valle Lluta, Torro and Orrega
are informing locals of the alternatives to a Chile based on mines and encouraging
them to mobilize and take action by joining the fight against the mines. It was refreshing and inspiring to hear Juan
Pablo Orrega speak of a Chile whose economy would be based on higher education
and healthcare of such high quality that foreigners would come and pay to study
in Chile, and disseminated eco-tourism.
It was then even more encouraging to hear Alvaro Torro follow this up
with the practical invitation to join the fight by gathering evidence of
contamination to take the fight law courts.
Torro and Orrega’s mission is supported and strengthened
by the activity of other activist groups, such as David and the other students
at Tarapacá, and the Hari Krishna community based at Valle Lluta’s Eco Trulycommune, where we slept overnight in gorgeous adobe huts on our way up into the
mountains to visit the community in Putre for the 3rd of the water
issue talks on the Saturday afternoon. Thanks
to Nitai and the other monks at Eco Tuly for their hospitality.
There was also a young lad with us throughout the
talks on the Friday who was from Iquique and whom the Ecuadorian monk kept referring
to as “coming from the future”. This was
in the sense that the environmental damage wreaked by the mines in Iquique,
which is a town a few hours south of Arica, is already so severe that there are
apparently large numbers of people with
cancer and others with strange spots and marks on their skin. This lad and his dad have been making
documentaries about the issues of the mines in their region under the name
Traversía Norte, you can watch their videos such as this one online on Youtube:
David and I were picked up from the highway by a
bus-full of Arican activists headed by Cesar Huanca Chambe, and continued up
into the Valley, arriving at the 3,015m altitude of Putre around midday, where
a large part of the community are of indigenous Aymara heriatge. It was a real insight to accompany David,
Cesar and his colleague from Radio Andina FM 100.1 as they chatted with Putre
local and newcomer to the radio-scene Little Tommy (in reality a towering
height of somewhere far over 6ft) about potential radio collaboration. Radio Andina was established in Arica just two
months ago, specifically with the intention of raising awareness about social
issues, with the main focus on the mines and the resulting water issues. Again their focus is on combating
disinformation so it is vital to them that their programs have as wide an
audience as possible, and the hope is that with the collaboration with Tommy
they will reach far into the rural communities.
After having notices a coupe of workers in the fields that morning with
the radio blasting our music it was interesting to hear from Tommy that peak
listening time in rural areas was indeed early morning as well as evenings
after work.
As representative of the student movement, David
spoke at the Putre meeting of how the students see their struggle as not just
for the educational issues so personal to them, but also as the struggle for
water which will affect the futures of all Chileans and the generations to
come. On behalf of the student movement
he offered words of support for the community of Valle Lluta, and encouragement
in joining the students and Arican community in the streets in the upcoming
marches, and above all identified the importance of solidarity and it’s power
to overcome even the hefty opponent of large business and cash.
David and a group of student friends had also
offered their support to worker’s syndicate Pioneer in Arica the previous
afternoon, at an assembly in the street where the workers had gathered to plan
their movements at a march the following day.
This was a syndicate of workers who handle transgenic seeds, (the ethics
and issues of transgenic seeds in this instance a secondary issue to the
humanitarian issue of extremely poor working conditions) and who are on a 6 day
strike to demand fairer working conditions are rates of pay. Touchingly the students had brought along
supplies of food for the workers, who they knew would be struggling financially
during the days of the strike.
So these really were an intense couple of days, a
huge learning curve and a real insight into the severity of these current
issues in Chile. There was, however,
also a strong positive message from these days – that of the powerful force of
solidarity between different groups fighting from their souls for their human
right to a healthy future.
Respect above all - that's how we'll achieve mutual happiness!
(An image and quote photographed on the wall of David's uni, seems pretty symbolic to me of the unity and solidarity that marks the highly developed social consciousness that is so prevalent in Chile.)
David, thank you so much for
inviting me to share these says with you,
and thanks also for the access to your travellers
network...
here’s hoping I can share some of
mine with you in the future!
:-)
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