Inside Literary Chile

By Terri Morrison
© Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved

Chileans pride themselves on their literary tradition.

Since the 1920s, Chile has challenged Argentina's place as South America's biggest producer of books in the Spanish language.

Chile's most noted authors include:

Isabel Allende (1942- ) is distantly related to Salvador Allende, Chile's Marxist president who died during the coup in 1973. Educated in English boarding schools, she worked as a multilingual journalist for many years. Her first novel, La Casa de los Espiritus (The House of the Spirits), published in 1982, depicted the violence of the Pinochet regime. She currently lives in San Francisco.

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), a teacher and poet, became the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1945). Her poetry concentrates on children, love, and death. Her most famous collection is Sonetos de la Muerte (Sonnets of Death). .After being awarded the Nobel, she was appointed as a Chilean consul to the USA.

Nicanor Parra (1914- ) bills himself as the anti-Neruda. Reflecting his training as a scientist, his poems are objective and unlyrical — the direct opposite of Pablo Neruda. He studied at Brown University in Rhode Island and later taught at the University of Chile. His collection Poemas y Antipoemas (Poems and Antipoems ) was published in 1954.

Pablo Neruda (1904-73) is the pen name of Ricardo Neftali Reyes, who took the name Neruda from a 19th-century Czech writer. Chile's most famous poet, he became Chile's second Nobel Laureate in Literature (awarded in 1971). He was elected to the Chilean Senate as a Communist in 1945, but just a few years later he was forced into exile. Neruda was only 20 years old when he produced one of his most popular collections: Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desperada (Twenty Love Poems and One Song of Despair). This volume has sold over a million copies worldwide.

Antonió Skarmeta (1940- ) is the author of the novel Ardiente Paciencia (Burning Patience), which was the inspiration for the 1995 Italian film Il Postino (The Postman). The film focuses on a year in exile for Pablo Neruda and his friendship with an Italian postman. Skarmeta now lives in Berlin.

Lights! Camera! Action!
The Chilean film industry has produced a number of movies over the years, although few of them have been released outside Latin America. The 1973 overthrow of the Allende government inspired over a dozen films and documentaries. Most of these films were made outside of Chile, and generally depict the US Central Intelligence Agency as the villain. The following films are particularly enlightening about Chile and the Chileans:

Enough Praying (Ya Basta Con Rezar) dramatizes the moral dilemmas of a young priest, protrayed by Marcello Romo. His congregation contains wealthy, upper-class members, as well as some of the poorest Chileans. The disparity in their lives leads him to question the ethics of the status quo (1973, directed by Aldo Francia).

The Jackal of Nahueltoro (El Chacal de Nahueltoro) is a documentary-style recreation of a horrific event in Chilean history: A farm laborer murders his common-law wife and her four children while in a drunken stupor. Director [Miguel] Littin provides a moving portrayal of the lives of Chile's poorest citizens. Released during a time of intense debate over the poor, it became the most widely seen film in the history of Chilean cinema — the director even prepared inexpensive 16mm prints for distribution to Chilean jails (1969, directed by Littin).

The Knight of the Sword (El Santo de la Espada) is a lush historical drama. It follows the career of Argentine-born José de San Martin, the general who fought for the liberation of Chile, Peru and Argentina (1970, directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson).

What Is To Be Done (¿Que Hacer?) takes place just before the election of Salvador Allende as president of Chile. This co-production of Chile and the USA depicts a woman in the Peace Corps, torn between her love for a Maoist revolutionary and a mysterious American — who may or may not be an agent of the CIA (1972, directed by Saul Landau, Nina Serrano and Raul Ruiz).

Demographics
The majority (89.7 percent) of Chileans are of European of mestizo descent. Amerindians make up most of the remainder, primarily Araucanian (also known as Mapuche) but with some Aymara as well. There are also a few thousand Polynesians on Easter Island.

The original immigrants to Chile during the colonial period were Spanish. Later immigrants came from Italy and Germany. Of course, Chile's mineral wealth has attracted miners and prospectors from all over the world.

Language
The official language of Chile is Spanish. In fact, the Chileans speak a very conservative form of Spanish. Unlike the rest of Latin America, where the second-person plural is replaced by the third-person plural, the Chileans continue to use the second-person plural. Chile is actually a good place to study classical Spanish in its pure form.

Linguists have identified eight different languages spoken in modern Chile.

Business
There are approximately 3,000 importers in Chile, many of whom act as local distributors for foreign products. Finding the right local distributor or agent can be a challenge. The selection can be narrowed down by eliminating importers who are unfamiliar with your type of product or who currently carry your competitor's products. But there are other factors to consider. A good local agent will have an aggressive sales force which reaches a wide area (including Chile's free-trade zones). Most importers have their main office in or near Santiago.

Franchises have experienced tremendous growth in Chile in the 1990s. About 65 foreign firms have franchises in Chile. Fast-food franchises have been especially successful. There are no laws in Chile specifically aimed at franchises.

Shopping malls have also experienced rapid expansion. Chilean consumers have a tradition of window-shopping and comparing products before buying. Shopping through catalogs has not been popular. Direct marketing of products to consumers is rare, although such marketing of services to businesses has been successful. The resistance of consumers to catalog shopping and direct marketing is attributed to widespread distrust of warranty and service guarantees.

Buying decisions are usually made on the basis of price. Products from North America and Europe face strong competition from inexpensive goods from Asia. Where after-sale service is important, local customer support becomes a factor, but price remains the most important determinant.

Chile's unusual geography has led to the development of a traveling sales force. Businesses have become accustomed to having salesmen demonstrate products in their offices, rather than going to a showroom.

Except for direct marketing, advertising runs the full spectrum in Chile. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and billboards are all used.

English is commonly understood in the business sector, but all materials should be translated into Spanish.

Leading Businesses
The following businesses are five of the country's largest employers:

Contreras Morales Lucia, Talca, grocery stores; Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile, Santiago, copper ores; Cia de Telefonos de Chile SA, Santiago, chemicals and allied products; Empresa de Obras y Montajes, Santiago, engineering services; and Cia de Petroleos de Chile SA, Santiago, petroleum products.

Invitation To The Dance
While some Chileans dance to the Argentine tango, Chile has its own indigenous form of popular dance. It is called the cueca, and, like the tango, it is both erotic and powerful.

Behavior
Why are Chileans the way they are?
Chileans always explain their uniqueness in terms of geography. Their country was isolated and ignored by Spain. Their long, narrow nation is divided into distinct regions, all of which have different climates and conditions. And the ever-present danger of earthquakes reminds Chileans how powerless they are.

Why do you want to avoid pouring the wine in Chile?
Because the wine-growing Chileans have developed several nonverbal idiosyncrasies about wine pouring: pour the wine in the wrong way and you've managed to insult them. "The wrong way" includes holding the bottle backward (with your palm up instead of down) or pouring so the wine splashes against the opposite side of the glass.

What is an once and how did it get its name?
An once refers to an afternoon drink, which is taken around the time the British have their tea. While an once can be any alcoholic drink (with or without an accompanying snack), it was traditionally an alcoholic drink called aguardiente. Once means "eleven," and it is the eleven letters in the word aguardiente that allegedly gives the once its name.

What concerns does a traveler have in Chile?
Sunburn is a risk in Chile for two reasons: the altitude and the Antarctic ozone hole. Wear sunglasses and sunblock. Remember that the higher you go into the Andes, the less atmosphere protects you from the sun.

In the Andes, altitude sickness presents a problem in areas over 6,000 feet above sea level. There is no effective predictor of who will succumb and who won't. People of different ages, sexes, and health are struck down. The best way to avoid altitude sickness is to acclimate yourself to the altitude. Once you get to 6,000 feet, schedule a rest period at each increase of 3,000 feet.

Finally, Chile is one of the most tectonically active nations on the planet. Earthquakes can occur at any place, at any time, throughout most of Chile.