Goodbye to Santiago... heading north

Moley's been pretty quiet for this last wee while, but here he is demonstrating the great view from the top of Cerro San Cristobal (so Lily and Amelie, rest assured he is well and happy and enjoying his trip!)



For any of you who know I have a thing for odd numbers and a thing against even numbers, you'll not be surprised to know that this meant after visiting la Virgen at the top of Cerro San Cristobal two times I really felt it was appropriate to go for a third trip!  And as she seems to mark the centre of Santiago for me, and has been an important space for reflection and thanksgiving,  it seemed an apt place to spend my final afternoon in Santiago, drawing this "Soñadora" dreamer image as a thank you to Nayarett for sharing her home with me for the last week and looking forward to my move north towards La Serena.

I was taking a time-lapse of the activity around La Virgen while I was drawing and here is the resulting video fragment.

The evening was spent with the remaining members of La Tribu, having drinks with Kristina and Panda at la Piojera, then joining Angelica and Nayarett and their friends at Angelica's despedida.. more dancing, more drinking, a great end to the week! (Although with the strength of the two "terremotos" early in the evening and the late late night I woke up very late and feeling like there had indeed been an earthquake in my head (terremoto translates as earthquake).  I'd missed my bus north, so got a far later one than I'd planned, and slept most of the 6 hour journey north.

Arriving into La Serena I was astonished and impressed yet again by the sheer generosity and openness of the Chilean people when I was welcomed by Christian, a friend of a lad I've been in touch with about visiting here, who is the friend of an old flatmate's friend's friend who lives even further north here in Chile... phew what a chain of friends' friends! :-)

Christian picked me up from the bus station because Mauro (the flatmate's friend's friend's friend who I've been emailing and texting) was in the middle of a 24 hour shift at the hospital where he and Christian are in their final year of 7 years of studying medicine.  We wandered along the beautiful long stretch of seafront with our feet in the water and ate a delicious dinner of fresh sea-food...  I had prawns with two other shellfish I don't know the names of in English let alone Spanish, but no matter the language, the food was delicious!  Christian then dropped me to Mauro's shared flat where I have a room all to myself, which was a huge surprise.  I met a young lad Miguel who turns out to be the brother of the lad whose room this is, and he explained that his brother is away further up north, on one of the 7-on days of his 7-on-6-off routine of work at the mines (the routine Gonzalo explained to me back in Valparaíso).

What a kindly warm welcome!

Am excited to start exploring tomorrow and finally meet Mauro...

:-)

Flower lamposts of Santiago :-)

Walking to meet Kristina and Panda at the highly recommended Piojera on my last evening in Santiago was delighted by the flower-like pattern the street lamps light and shadow cast on the ground, so added a few digital brush strokes, and here you have the flower lampposts of Santiago! 

This seeing forms in objects makes me of cloud spotting and the way that each of us can look at the same thing and see very distinct images, hence the personality tests based on ink blob interpretation.  This seems a pretty apt illustration then for a conversation that Denise's brother Christian and I had about the different ways we see the cities of London.  Born and bred in Santiago, Christian like his sister Denise,  has also lived in London, and where I was pointing out similarities between Santiago and London, he observed that for him arriving into London he only noticed the differences, perhaps because that was the change he was looking for in moving away, whereas perhaps I see the similarities because I am looking to feel comfortable and fit in.

I would say I notice the same thing about my approach to appearances.  I tend to notice similarities between people and have a tendency I need to be wary of, of ignoring the signals people deliberately use in their dress and style to invite interpretation of their personality and tastes.  My theory is that I do so because I am trying so firmly not to make judgements about people,  but this can be detrimental if it means I then miss useful clues.  Hannah was the one to first really make me aware of this when she suggested I use the clues of how my students at Kids Company dressed to give me an idea of their tastes so that I could tailor our animation workshop content towards them.  Seemed so obvious as soon as it was said, and it was hugely useful in practice.

These thoughts are particularly in my mind at the moment because I keep feeling surprised at how quickly people know that I am a foreigner, even before I speak and have a different accent.  The reasoning I get when I inquire is that I am so white, but that confuses me still, as it did when Ilze said I had a "European face" on the second day of the residency, because so many Chileans are so very pale and have what I would consider similar bone structure to Europeans.  My theory on this is that having lived for so many years in London, where it is impossible to know where someone is from based on their skin, hair or eye colour,  that I am just not used to using someone's physical appearance to make judgements.  Whereas the Chileans are accustmed to making jusgements based on skin colour, coming from a past history, Chiristian tells me, of indigenous people with darker skin being from lower classes and haveing less opportunities in education and work.  Happily this is not so much so the case now,  apparently, but perhaps the Chilean eye is still highly tuned to see colour difference whereas perhaps ours are not anymore, being so many generations into racial equality (at least legally, if not always socially).  

This will be an interesting area to be aware of as I move on through the other countries of South America.

As Rachel said when we were talking about this at the weekend, the priviledges that skin colour gave some people is in part why she and I now as British women, can travel so far and freely in the world whereas for others there remain far more restrictions.  Our conclusion was that rather than feel guilty about having some kind of unfair advantage we should be above all grateful do our best to make the most of  these opportunities of travel to share in whatever way we can some of what were are privileged to have. 

Peace :-)

Santiago con la Tribu

So this last week I’ve been happily settled back in Santiago, with what has become known as “la tribu”  - the tribe – so named by Denise’s brother Christian when he was impressed by how often all of us left over residents from Villa Alegre are in contact with one another.  And it’s been great having a crew of mates to call on and hang out with.

Mostly by day I’ve been working on video editing, writing, going for the odd run and catching up with all you lovely folk back home, and by night usually getting up to some adventure or other with la tribu!

There have been some brilliant moments over the week, so here are a few of the highlights:

Thursday 28th: After the thought-provoking Sibila documentary in the park we headed to a Salsa bar where a wicked live band had the crowd jumping around maniacally (until I had more booze on my clothes than in my belly from all the drinks flung in the air!) and where we danced yet again until the wee hours!

Friday 1st March: Headed to Pablo's house with the intention of heading out on bikes, but seeing as the lads had continued after the Salsa bar til 9am poor Rocket had a bloodshot eye and barely any voice so we spent the afternoon relaxing and I had the pleasure of meeting some of Pablos flatmates including the lovely Pedro.  Pedro is a writer who has spent years living in New York, so we spoke in English (a happy relax amongst all the Spanish chat which is great and I love, but is definitely tiring from the extra effort in understanding!) and had a brilliant chat about books, particularly ones with non-linear structures, taking me back to my love of the "multiplicity" in literature that I was obsessive about at art college and based my thesis on.  It was great, Pedro and I exchanged a good few reading recommendations, and he also really kindly offered to put me in touch with friends of his in Ecuador.

Another delight of Pablo's house was tasting the home-grown tomatoes from their garden.  The atmosphere of the home reminded me a lot of my old home at Omega, Unit D, particularly because it is filled with artwork (including this map created by Pablo with his neighbours flagged with names and positions of local fruit trees) and also because this afternoon it had a stream of folk passing through, the five who live there and visiting friends.  One friend who turned up, Caco, mentioned that she had just been at a workshop of happiness - another of those "how small is this world" moment, because this is the workshop that Angelica is leading at the moment, so Caco was surprised and delighted to find out Angelica was also on her way around.  This vortex sensation of crossed paths is also something familiar with Omega, and seems to have intensified around our tribe in these post-residency days, including Maria from Nerven and Zellen contacting me in response to my post about their videos then chatting with Pablo who she's only just met! Happy days and a positive sign that things are as they should be and we are heading in the right direction, as Pablo said. :-)

Saturday 2nd: Rocket's karaoke-on-the-metro artist intervention and the night that I met up with good old friend from London Denise Galvac, yay! :-)

So Rocket put his ever-versatile amplifier to great use yet again by bringing karaoke into the tube carriages of Santiago's metro, with Kristina singing and inviting fellow commuters to join in and Panda and I filming.  What an exciting experience! The reactions of the folk were of course fascinating, and though many wore confused or blank expressions, there were also many who's faces lit up with smiles, and the folk who joined in and sang were left elated... brilliant! :-)

And in return we left on a high... as you can see here from Kristina's gorgeous expression. 

Thanks Rocket! :-)

So from karaoke-tubing I headed to another of Santiago's free events - this one a live band called "los Tres" performing free in Parque Aviación, and more importantly, where I met up with Denise and her brother Christian.  What a delight to see her, and what a great shared hug, a real friends-connecting-afte-time hug!  Although actually it was only just over a month ago since we saw each other, but to be meeting here, in Chile, and unexpectedly, was a real treat!

I know Denise from our Kids Company course, and it was actually Denise who gave me the map marked with suggestions of places to go and things to see here in Santiago that was a treasure map for me in the first few days in the country.  Denise herself is Chilean, from Santiago, but has been living abroad now for 5 and half years, without ever having some back to Chile.  Her reason for returning now is problems with her visa back in the UK, which is also why this meeting was a surprise - she only knew two weeks ago she would be coming, so it's great that I'm still here and had this chance to see her.

Coming back to her home country after such a long time is obviously an emotionally charged experience, and got us talking about the issues migrants face around feeling "at home".  I'd been chatting with Pedro about exactly this, in asking how his experience was when he returned to settle back into Chile after New York.  The subject has fascinated me ever since my return to the UK from the nine months cycling through Central America, and these conversations brought me back again to three of my favourite books on the subject: Greg E. Madison's exploration of the pschology of chosen migration in "The End of Belonging",   Amin Maalouf's discussion of the personal and political implications of multiple heritages in "On Identity" and Milan Kundera's emotional and poetic response to returning to the home country after years of living abroad in "Identity".  All brilliant, I'd recommend them to any of you who's interest is triggered by the subject.

Sunday 3rd: My first experience of the Mexican Temezcal ceremony, invited by Nayarett and Angelica to accompany them Sunday morning, and what an incredible experience.

Led by a group called Raíces del Sur, this temezcal ceremony is conducted every Sunday in this eco-community at the foot of the mountain range on the outskirts of Santiago.  The ceremony of songs and prayers giving thanks to Mother Earth and our ancestors is conducted within the pitch black of a canvas dome tent, where we sat in tight huddled rings around a central pit where water thrown on stones heated by the flames of a bonfire at the tent's entrance create the intense heat of a sauna.  The stones are called "abuelos" meaning grandparents, and the sweat triggered is considered an offering handed over to Mother Earth along with the songs and prayers.

Conducting in four parts, marked by opening up the doors of tent to allow in air and freshly heated stones, the four parts focused on are: la Naturaleza (Nature), including earth, wind, sun and water; ancestors and family (here I was so touched by a song whose lyrics as I understood them were "we are our family, we our our roots" that I had tears in my eyes); friends and enemies; relationships and love.  In this final section there was another song that really moved me with it's words "This is family, this is unity" referring to the circle we were within, all included, and reaching out to all humanity.  Angelica said afterwards with a huge smile, and hugging her body warmly as she spoke, that these ceremonies make her feel the potential of all communities living in peace and harmony. :-)

In the time we spent there there were three temezcals conducted and a fourth underway as we left.  The newcomers were invited to enter first, but there were so many of us first-timers that I entered the second.  Angelica and Nayarett entered the third, so after mine I had plenty time to sit and relax and reflect in the shade of a makeshift shelter.  I was left feeling incredibly peaceful and with the unusual (for me!) experience of an incredibly still mind, leaving the body open to sense more fully the surroundings and appreciate them directly.

In the car on the way back to the city I was surprised when I accidentally glimpsed my reflection in  the wing mirror to notice that a simple smile I was unaware of having was curling the sides of mouth. What a tranquil experience.  A big huge thanks to Angelica and Nayarett for sharing this experience with me, and their tales of the Vision Quest that Nayarett supported Angelica on recently.  Ever since reading the Journey by Tom Brown when I was traveling I have been hugely interested in Native American spiritual connection with Nature and so it was hugely exciting to hear Angelica talk of her lived experiences of these practices, including a powerful vision she described as having after her first Temezcal ceremony in Mexico, where she experienced changing her form into a white buffalo. And for any of you sceptics, these experiences are all entirely drug-free.  Another writer who writes brilliantly on these spiritual practices is Bear Heart, a Muskogee Creek Indian who trained traditionally as a medicine man as well as studying for a graduate degree in psychology.  His book "The Wind is My Mother" was a huge learning tool for me at the beginning of my Therapeutic Communication training with KidsCo as it holds many profound insights into human nature and relationships, based in the spiritual understandings of Native America teachings, which I appreciate for their very direct approach to connecting to the Earth and life forces.

After the very calming temezcal morning Sunday night was again spent connecting with la Tribu for Rocket's despedida, and happily meeting up with another friend from back home, Camilla Brendon.   We actually met back on the And'Art Casablanca residency in September last year, which Camilla happily pointed out means we've now spent time in each other's company in three continents, although we've only known one another six months! Both of us recognise the impact that that residency had on our work and perceptions of what is possible with art and travel and in fact Camilla is also now at the beginning of a long-term art based trip called 34 South/ 61 North.  Camilla's plan is to journey the full length of the Americas, from here in Chile where she's just arrived, all the way to Alaska, in what she reckons will be about 2 years, doing residencies and putting on exhibitions everywhere she goes, with five growing map records of her developing journey back in London and Manchester.  Impressive!

A final happy moment came when we were sat having some drinks to celebrate Rocket's leaving, when this Guatemalan magician stopped off for a light and showed us a few coin tricks that had us giggling like kids.

And a final observation: the Santiago street dogs are very quick to make friends with you and hugely protective.  We'd stopped off in a park to finish our drinks after closing time and a couple of dogs that had befriended us barked madly and incessantly at a homeless man who walked by us.

Thanks for a great week mí Tribu!

:-)

Sybila

Santiago seems to be full of interesting cultural events in the open air - as well as al the amazing murals and graffiti making up "The Museum of Urban Art" there seem to be plenty free concerts and cinema, and at the moment a series of screenings of documentaries.

Last Thursday Nayarett, Angelica, Rocket, Panda, Kristina and I joined the crown in Parque Forestal to watch three fascinating Chilean documentaries:
1. Campamento Sol Naciente - Ignacio Aliaga (1972) about a community of women in Maipú who took possession of their land in order to take control of their lives and combat the extreme poverty they faced.
2. Cuentos Sobre El Futuro - Pachi Bustos (2012) following the lives of four youngsters living on the outskirts of Santiago, as they grow from teenagers into adults, an honest and gritty portrait of life in the city.
3. Sibila- Teresa Arredondo (2012).  The director's investigation into the story and person of her Aunt Sybila, who was accused of being a terrorist and jailed for 15 years for her involvement with the Peruvian revolutionary guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) in the 1980's.

Sybila Arredondo was a Chilean aristocrat who was married first to Chilean poet Jorge Tellier, then to Peruvian writer Jose María Arguedas.  After Arguedas' suicide Sybila continued to live in the mountainous regions of Peru, where she became involved with Sendero Luminoso who were a communist group formed in response to the severe poverty in Peru.  The civil war that was triggered between the Senderos and the government lasted a decade and caused many civilian deaths, and ultimately Sybila and other Senderos were accused of terrorism and imprisoned.  Sybila served her full 15 year sentence, which separated her from her two children, who Teresa also interviews a number of times in the documentary.

Read a review of Sibila in English here - interestingly even this article passes judgement, referring to Sibila's actions with Sendero Luminoso as "transgressions".

Sybila’s story is most interesting for the moral questions it provokes.  Through the documentary we get the sense that the niece is looking for an apology from her aunt, or at least an acknowledgment of the suffering that resulted from the actions of the Sendero Luminoso.   But Sybila remains adamant that the actions of the Sendero were necessary and justified, and that had they not fought against the regime of the 80’s far more people would have died from starvation and malnutrition than died as a result of the Civil War.   She refuses the term terrorist, saying that in the majority of countries it is legal to belong to a communist party, and that violence of the 80’s was an inevitable and unavoidable part of the process of war. – no war can be fought without deaths, and for her this war was necessary and justified.  

In their intense discussion Teresa repeatedly asks what about the victims but Sybila will not apologize on behalf of the dead, nor in respect to personal family issues, for the time lost with her own two children or other relations.  Rather she believes that it was better for her children to live the reality of their country’s plight rather than be shielded from it, and indeed her now fully-grown son spoke of the privilege of his unusual experiences as a child.  Sybila’s attitude comes across as being one of putting the quality of life and future of the wider human family first, above her own  “circle of only 7 or 20 people “ as she puts it.  I admire this conviction of hers which in many ways is self-sacrificing and far-seeing. 

Teresa, as Sybila’s niece still seems unsatisfied by her aunt’s stance at the end of the documentary, perhaps partly because she is still involved in her own process of understanding.  Indeed Teresa’s motivation for making the documentary was in order to find out more about her aunt’s story, particularly as within her childhood home there was silence about the subject throughout the 15 years of her aunt’s imprisonment.  Interestingly though, both of Sybila’s own children are at peace with their childhoods and the time lost with their mother, although both acknowledge that there were difficult feelings and when their mother was released at the end of her sentence there were deep talks when the family moved to France.

The overriding impression I was left with was that Sybila is someone for whom human rights are essential and a very true and raw (not fluffly) love for human beings motivated all her actions with the Senderos.  Throughout the first half of the documentary, being presented with the images of newspaper coverage of the arrests and the bomb materials found in the 80’s, I noticed myself leaning towards viewing Sybila as indeed a terrorist. However, in the second half when she comes onscreen and hearing her interpretation of the events, I was disappointed in myself for having been so readily influenced into thinking like that.  This was a concrete example of the power of the media to convince us that particular individuals are “terrorists”.  It was fascinating to learn that our Angelica from the residency had actually lived with Sybila in her home in France for 3 weeks, so knew her personally.  Angelica said Sybila was always as firm in her stance as she is in the documentary, and that her opinion is that the media coverage of the 80’s , being government controlled, was of course directly opposed to the Sendero’s, leaving Peruvians with a very biased opinion of their actions, whereas Sybila would see it as the Civil War brought about the change that they hoped for, and was therefore entirely justified.

It is a difficult subject though, as even a tiny amount of research online brought up stories of the Sendero Luminosa being responsible for rural massacres with machetes, killing women and children who were exactly the people they were supposed o be representing. Results of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report from 2003 apparently found that the Sendero Luminoso were responsible for 46% of the total 31.331 deaths and disappearances throughout the conflict.  A summary of the report by the Human Rights Watch apparently states that the Senderos killed half the victims, whereas the government were responsible for one third.  It also identified that 75% of those killed or disappeared spoke Quechua as their native language, a disproportionality high figure bearing in mind the 1993 census showed that only 20% of Peruvians speak Quechan or anther indigenous language as their native tongue.

There was even apparently objection to this report from previous Presidents of Peru who think it too biased in favour of the Senderos, accepting their status as “political parties”  when the US, the European Union and Canada all consider them a “terrorist organisation”.

Separate from the difficulties of the moral questions provoked by the organisation of the Sendero Luminoso,  remain the moral questions around the personal actions and choices of Sybila Arredondo.  I remain impressed by her individual choice to put the long term well-being of the wider community of all Peruvians first, beyond her own or even her own families comfort.  A difficult choice but one that leaves me warmed at her belief in the unity and equality of all human beings.

Valparaíso: 24 horas

A second edit of the Valparaíso video, this time with just the time-lapse footage set to the song "Valparaíso mi Amor" sung by Vero Dayz.  

This time-lapse approach to documenting a city inspired by my collaboration in 2011 with Patrick Dalton and my brother Daniel Alexander's global photography project 1 day 6 cities.

Shot from 20:24 hrs on 09.02.13 to 20:23 hrs on 10.02.13.

:-)

Valparaíso: 24 hours y una semana

24 hours of time-lapse combines with a montage of photos taken during the week spent with Emma and James in Valparaíso at the beginning of February.

Thanks to the gorgeous Vero Dayz for singing "Valparaíso mi Amor".

Thanks to the lovely Emma and her avocados.

Thanks to the bookbinders Noelia Araya and Paulina Rodriguez.

And thank you to the juggler Gonzalo.

:-)

Big love to all the beautiful warm suns out there! :-)

Friends who love you and have warmth for your creative life are the very best suns in the world.  

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run with Wolves, Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman, Rider 1992, P.323

With this image from Valparaíso, sending a big hug and lots of love to all of you, my friends and family out there... thanks for being such an inspiring collection of beautiful warm suns!  Missing being close by you, but I can feel your rays even across the distance...

Big love

:-)