Toby and Allan in Chile: Return to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights and Dinner at a Wine Bar

Sunday March 16 was a picture perfect day, sunny and about 30C. Alano started his day with an eight km run in the nearby Parque Forestal. We decided to return to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights to finish the permanent exhibit and look at the temporary exhibits. The Museum is free.

We started our walk to Barrio Brasil and passed two interesting statues outside of the Juzgados Civiles (Civil Courts).

Civil Courts

The second statue in front of courts

We then walked through Plaza Brasil and checked out the huge monkey puzzle tree in the middle of the Plaza. There were also lots of swings and play equipment for kids.

In front of monkey puzzle tree

Playground equipment

We then stopped for lunch at Cafe Cronica Digital, the lefty cafe were we had eaten before. Chileans like big sandwiches. Alano and I shared a large ham and melted cheese sandwich. We chatted to a very young couple from England who had just arrived in Santiago and were going to start teaching English here for six months.

Cafe Cronica Digital

Alano with his cortado

Giant ham and melted cheese sandwich

We continued our walk, passing some interesting street art.

My favourite so far is "Hipster Yo" below.

Come Hither

Cool for Cats

Barrio Brasil is an older neighbourhood with crumbling buildings, small businesses, and amazing street art.

At the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, we watched a number of videos and returned to a few exhibits we had not finished. It was terrifying to see a massive round-up and search of a poor neighbourhood in the mid 1980s. One of the most heartbreaking events was the setting on fire of two very young students who had participated in a demonstration in 1986. A memorial to Mario Martinez Rodrigues, who died after the burns, was later erected in Santiago. We saw a video where the dictatorship's spokesperson tried to imply that the two students had set themselves on fire. Eyewitnesses had a different story about the two being doused with gasoline by soldiers and a small gasoline bomb thrown at them.

There is also a marker for medical practitioners who died during 1973-76.

We also saw a watchtower that had stood outside a house used as a torture centre on Republica Street in Santiago. Apparently, there were seven houses on that street used as detention and torture centres- the area was known as the "Bermuda Triangle". The houses were closed down after 1990, and the watchtower brought to the museum in 2010.

Watchtower outside Republica 580, a torture centre

We then went to see the temporary exhibit: Artists for Democracy. This exhibit was the companion piece to the exhibit we saw last week at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. It featured work from the archives of Cecilia Vicuna who was a co-foundeer of the activist group "Artists for Democracy", established in London, England in 1974 to support the resistance against the 1973 military coup. The group organized a Festival of Arts for Democracy in Chile at the Royal College of Art in London in 1974 and a big demonstration in Trafalgar Square on September 15, 1974.

Exhibit: Artists for Democracy

John Dugger wearing sweater designed by Cecilia Vicuna and Vicuna with banner designed by Dugger in 1974

Photo from Trafalgar Square in 1974

Piece by Cecilia Vicuna with Salvador Allende as the background with his trademark glasses

The exhibit ended with a piece designed for the Museum of Memory and Human Rights entitled "Quipu of Weeping", a sonic-spacial work by Vicuna along with Jose Perez de Arce and Ariel Bustamante. The sound is the cry of the disappeared.

Quipu of Weeping with sound

After leaving the Museum we headed back along a different route. We passed a building known as "La Moneda Chica", which housed the first Cabinet of the Government of Salvador Allende from September - November 1970.

La Moneda Chica

We passed some more street art.

Complete the program of the people!

More colour

Cats seem to be a focus in street art

There were lots of interesting old buildings in Barrio Brasil.

Colourful building in Barrio Brazil

We passed by the Mercado Central and saw some interesting signage from 1984 and 2012.

Plaque referring to Pinochet inaugurating some renovations of the Central Market in 1984

We noticed that Pinochet's name was attempted to be scratched out of the 1984 plaque. In 2012, a plaque was installed by the Instituto de Conmemoracion Historia de Chile, noting that the Mercado Central had been in existence for 150 years.

After a short stop at the apartment to change, we headed out to the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (known as GAM). I took a picture of Alano's new silver jewellery pendant he bought at the Artisans' Market on Saturday.

Alano's new pendant with indigenous drawings

Alano at the Cultural Centre

In front of the GAM sign

Some kids in the Plaza of the Cultural Centre taking a dance class

We then went up two flights to the entrance into the dance performance space. We were seeing Rito de Primavera ( Rite of Spring) by Compania de Jose Vidal. We were asked to take off our shoes and hold hands going into the room. Luckily, one of the women giving instruction spoke English and told us that we were in for a treat and that the performance would be very exciting involving all senses. The company has performed this piece over 40 times in the past two years.

We entered a dark room, with a sandy floor entrance and were let to seating in a single row of seats in a square around the dance floor. There was a mist and perfume backdrop and the first five minutes involved periodic lighting of the 40 dancers walking in the nude to a slow part of the Stravinsky music. They then put their clothes on ( men in shorts and tank tops and women in a short one piece loose garment with a cut out back).

The dance began--- one hour of exuberant movement at an often frenetic pace. At one point the audience were asked to participate- but only for a minute or two and then lead back to their seats. It ended with a slow movement of the dancers in a circle, often piling on each other. It was an incredible performance- the choreography very innovative. Forty dancers on a not too large space was amazing. The music was, of course, the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, but done in a number of styles- classical in parts and electronic in others. The piece was an hour long, costing just $10 CAN each. What a treat!

While we could not take pictures, I did find one on the internet.

Scene from Rito de Primavera (from internet)

We then headed for dinner at Bocanariz, a wine bar located around the corner from the Cultural Centre on Lastarria Street.

Daytime pic of Bocanariz, from internet

Part of Wine Bar

Room with Wines listed

We ordered two flights of wine ($8.50 CAN each). One was called Carmenere: National Emblem, a flight of three Carmeneres (now Chile's big grape); the other was Tribute to Maipo Valley, featuring three wines from that wine region. All were good wines and a few excellent. We also shared a huge plate of ceviche; some trout and salmon toasts; and a big salad with beans, tomatoes, red onions and slivered almonds.