¡Feliz Fiestas Patrias!

Hola everyone! Apologies that it has been so long since my last post, but a lot of stuff has been going on down here in South America!

September is an incredibly important month for Chile. If you look at their history, a ton of really important events happen during this time. Everyone (from my host mom to Chileans at school to our residence director) told me in the lead up to this important month that I was so lucky to get to experience Chile during this time, and they were right! The month comes with two main important dates: the 13th and the 18th, which are commemorated in very different ways.

September 13, 1973 was the day that the military coup overthrew President Salvador Allende’ government, the first socialist president of Chile. This is a pretty dark day in Chilean history, as Pinochet’s subsequent dictatorship was plagued with violence, abuses of power and human rights. On September 13, 2019, we were told to go to school but then stay inside at night when most of the demonstrations happen. The whole city of Santiago seemed subdued and there were not a lot of people in class that day (they did not want to be outside after dark apparently) but other than that, nothing really cataclysmic happened. My favorite part of experiencing the 13th was seeing the art on our campus honoring the students of our school who went missing during the dictatorship. It was very powerful and poignant to see it on such an empty campus too.

Changing gears from the 13th, 5 days later comes September 18th. This is Chilean independence day, also knows as “Fiestas Patrias”. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement leading up to the independence celebration as it is a time to eat a lot of empanadas and drink something called a “terremoto” (translation: earthquake) which is a deathly combination of white wine, pineapple ice cream and grenadine. I know, it sounds disgusting. It actually is not too bad taste-wise, though you do have to watch your consumption because they are very strong – as is the wine-induced hangover the next day!

We had Wednesday the 18th through Friday the 20th off from school, which was half spent celebrating “Dieciocho” (18) and half spent traveling to the south of Chile (more on this in the next post). The 18th is traditionally celebrated by two things: an “asado,” which is basically a long family lunch with a lot of delicious meat consumed; the second is a “fonda,” which can best be described as an independence day fair of sorts where they sell empanadas and terremotos galore. We went to two fondas and I definitely preferred the smaller one of the two, but they were both cool to experience!

Here are some pictures from the fondas and from my host family’s asado! Cheers!