Chile
November 13, 2009
There are a great number of scary stories and legends in Chile, from the desert in the north to the Patagonia in the south. Most of the stories are from pre-Colombian times, and there are only a few that involve more contemporary people and events. But if you’re interested in the supernatural in Chile, Chiloé is the place to look at. Chiloé is an archipelago, a very rural and traditional area located in southern Chile. Most of the legends in this area are about the birth of the Island, some goddesses and witchcraft. Warlocks are still quite a big deal down there, most people are still afraid of them and the legend I’m about to relate is their doing.
Continue reading "Warlocks and Chiloé"
October 27, 2009
Independence Day in Chile is celebrated on September 18, and people usually take a whole week to celebrate and spend time with their love ones. But I already wrote about Independence Day in my first post at Willamette World News. Now, I will refer to a different date, October 5, which is the day that Chile regained democracy, or at least, when Chile took the first step towards regaining democracy.
Continue reading "October 5, 1988"
September 22, 2009
Hello! I'm Pablo and I am from Chile. I was born in the beautiful city of Valparaiso (on UNESCO's World Heritage list since 2003), one of the main ports of the Pacific during the 19th century. I graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso with majors in History and Education and minors in Geography and Social Sciences, and I'm very excited to be here at WU helping students as a language assistant and of course writing for the Willamette World News.
Continue reading "Hola!!"
March 12, 2009
For 200 years Chilean women have fought a lot to have a place in the society outside of their houses. They have not only asked for political rights, but also to have possibilities of study after high school and the chance to become professionals. At the beginning of last century, the concepts of woman and culture did not meet at any point. Females were educated to be housekeepers and mothers; nobody thought to go in another direction.
Continue reading "Women Effect"
February 12, 2009
Valentine's Day is called "Día de los Enamorados" in Chile- that means "day of the lovers"... a few years ago we didn't celebrate it and it is an American day that we adapted in our own way through the Media. The Chilean way to celebrate this is only for couples, you go out with your couple and enjoy a different day together.
Continue reading "Día de los Enamorados"
January 30, 2009
The term culture shock describes the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment. This term expresses the lack of direction, the feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do things in a new environment, and not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. The feeling of culture shock generally sets in after the first few weeks of coming to a new place.
Continue reading "Back home: culture shock?!"
December 09, 2008
Christmas is celebrated in many ways across the varied landscapes and diverse families in Chile.
Continue reading "Viejito Pascuero remember me!!!"
October 29, 2008
Just a few years ago that Chilean people started celebrating Halloween. This is not a special date for us; only the children go out and nock on the doors around theirs neighborhoods asking for some candy.
Continue reading "Halloween in Chile????"
October 15, 2008
Inflation is the principal economic issue that Chile has to face up to at this moment and the development of the worldwide financial crisis has increased Chilean and international uncertainty towards the future.
Continue reading "Chilean Economy today"
September 29, 2008
Hi all, I'm Monica Diaz from Chile and I will be at Willamette for this year working as a language assistant for the Spanish department.
Continue reading "Holis"
October 22, 2007
Right now there is a dispute going on between Chile and Peru. But it is not a political or social issue they are arguing about. It is all about a drink. A drink? you might ask. Why would they fight about something like that. Well the issue is, that it is considered as a national drink - but by both countries. A national drink as part of a country's cultural identity is obviously difficult to share. I chose to talk about that topic because it does not only talk about a current dispute but also tells us about the values of cultural identity.
Continue reading "PISCOLITA!!! Chilean or Peruvian?!"
October 04, 2007
Maybe you don't have any idea about this! But the current President of Chile is a Woman! Her name is Michelle Bachelet. Forbes magazine ranked her as the 27th in the list of the 100 most powerful women in the world, she is the only Latin Women on it. She is the most powerful woman in Latin America! See you soon!
-Karen Cresp
Continue reading "Woman President of Chile"
September 26, 2007
My name is Karen Cresp and I am one of the Spanish Language Teaching Assistants for this year. I’m from Viña del Mar, Chile. I was born on the Patagonia, in Punta Arenas the most southern city in the world! It is a cold city but has great views with lots of ice and penguins. I now live in a warm, fun, and cool ambiance beach in the middle of Chile. Vina del Mar is surrounded by vineyards, cultural activities, cool beaches, nice people, great weather and a lot of night life; all of which is next to Valapariso. Willamette has an exchange program with Valapariso which is the principal port of my country. If you are interested in this program, feel free to contact me and we can talk. Who knows, maybe I will be showing you around my country soon.
Continue reading "Hola Po!"
November 18, 2005
Pinochet's health tested before trial
On Tuesday, former dictator Augusto Pinochet underwent a series of court-ordered medical tests to determine whether he can stand trial on human rights charges. Mr. Pinochet remained for two and half hours at the downtown Catholic University Hospital . No details were available on the exams. The top court last month stripped the 89-year-old retired general of the immunity from prosecution he enjoys as former president, a mandatory step before he can be tried for his alleged role in the disappearance and killing of 15 dissidents during his 1973-90 regime, a case known as "Operation Colombo."
But the court ruled that medical tests must show he's able to stand trial before court action could begin.
The Supreme Court has twice blocked attempts to try Mr. Pinochet on human rights charges citing health reasons. Mr. Pinochet has been diagnosed a mild case of dementia caused by several strokes since 1998. In addition, he suffers from diabetes, arthritis and has a pacemaker. "Operation Colombo " involves the killing in 1975 of 119 dissidents whose bodies were found in Argentina . Mr. Pinochet has been charged in the deaths of 15 of those victims, stemming from lawsuits filed by relatives. Mr. Pinochet's regime said the killings were the result of clashes among rival armed opposition groups. The current case is only one of a number of legal problems for Mr. Pinochet, who faces dozens of lawsuits stemming from human rights abuses during his regime, a time when 3,197 dissidents were slain or disappeared, according to a report by an independent commission appointed by the civilian government that succeeded him in 1990.
Mr. Pinochet also lost his immunity in a case involving alleged tax evasion related to multimillion-dollar bank accounts he owns abroad. An appeal is pending before the Supreme Court. Whether or not he ever sees the inside of a courtroom, the trial and even the punishment of Augusto Pinochet has already begun.
October 07, 2005
President Ricardo Lagos
The President of Chile is both the chief of state and the head of government. Currently, the President is elected by popular vote to serve for a period of six years, without immediate reelection. However, changes to the Constitution, enacted on Agust 26, 2005, reduced the President's mandate to four years starting in 2006, also without immediate reelection. The shorter period allows for joint parliamentary and presidential elections.
Ricardo Lagos was born in Santiago, Chile. He was the only child of Froilбn Lagos Sepъlveda (who died when he was eight years old) and Emma Escobar Morales (who passed away in April 2005 at age 108). He attended primary school at Liceo Manuel de Salas and high school at the Instituto Nacional.
In 1954, Lagos was admitted into law school at the Universidad de Chile. He took his first steps into politics between 1955 and 1959. He was chosen as student body president and gave his first speech at the same location where Salvador Allende had spoken to the president of Guatemala, Juan Jose Arevalo, just two minutes earlier.
In 1960, Lagos concluded his law studies. The title of his thesis, "The Concentration of the Economic Power," received the highest distinction and became a publishing success, with five published editions. In the paper, he discusses the existence of economic groups, which earned him an interview in Time magazine and an editorial in the newspaper La Naciуn, which called him "The Mozart of the economy".
Lagos became a lawyer and married Carmen Weber, with whom he had two children, Ricardo and Ximena. After obtaining his Ph.D, and upon returning to Chile, he annulled this marriage.
In 1969, he met Luisa Durбn de La Fuente, and they married in 1971. The couple shared the parenting of the children of Lagos' first marriage, the children of Durбn's first marriage, Hernбn and Alejandro, and their only child together, Francisca.
September 23, 2005
Hola a todos. My name is Marlene Molina. I am the Spanish language Assistant this year. I am 28 and I teach English in a farming school in Chile. This wonderful country is long and narrow; it borders Peru and Bolivia in the north and Argentina in the east. But I am not going to write about something that maybe you already know. I decided to write about a place that you are going to love if you someday go there. This place is called Isla de Pascua. Easter Island is one of the most important oceanic islands of Chile. It is a volcanic island located to the south of the Pacific Ocean. The island has 3,800 inhabitants approximately. People speak Rapanui and Spanish. Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Chile and Tahiti), making it one of the most isolated places on Earth. It is essentially a triangle of volcanic rock in the South Pacific. It is best known for the giant stone monoliths, known as Moai, (the one that is next to me in the picture), that dot the coastline. The early settlers called the island "Te Pito O Te Henua" (Navel of The World). Admiral Roggeveen, who came upon the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island. Today, the land, people and language are all referred to locally as Rapa Nui. Easter Island today, remains one of the most unique places you will ever encounter; an open air museum showcasing a fascinating, but unfortunately lost, culture. The Rapanui are among the friendliest people you will ever meet, and the landscape is truly amazing: volcanic craters, lava formations, beaches, brilliant blue water, and incredible archaeological sites.
May 12, 2003
The history of women in Chile combines the leading role and the social action with the discrimination and invisibility. Active from the Colonial age in the humanitarian task, by the end of the last century women entered the university (1877), graduating like the first professionals of Latin America. More than fifty years of fight were necessary to conquer their citizenship and with it a slow access to positions of popular representation and government. The great social subjects, world-wide peace and their condition of subordination, impregnated their collective action from the start of the century, and reappeared in the recent decades - under the military dictatorship in a group of organizations who fought to get the respect to the human rights, the recovery of the democracy in all aspects, and the effective equality between women and men.
The Chilean women, for example, went out each 8 of March to confront the capitalist military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989). When the political parties in Chile, mainly directed by men, negotiated a return to the democracy, these women raised a flag that said "Democracy in the country and the house."
In the last decades the situation of the woman in Chile has experienced a revolutionary change with the massive and progressive incorporation of women to the different areas of the national life. One of those great examples is that a woman, Michelle Bachelet, is the Minister of Defense, being the first woman having such position not only at a national level but at Latin American level as well. In spite of it, there are still levels of discrimination that don't allow the total equality of opportunities, among them, the nonexistence of a divorce law and an abortion law. The latter (therapeutic abortion) abolished by Pinochet's regime in 1989.
Continue reading "Women's Rights in Chile"
April 28, 2003
In last March, Chile - being a member of the Security Council of the United Nations - gave its vote against the American intervention in Iraq, the country clearly voted against war, but not against the United States. Apparently the position of my country surprised many due to the bilateral interests at the time. When saying interests, I mean the Free Trade Treaty between these two nations;although both parties came to an agreement on the past December, it has not been signed yet.
Our president declared the Chilean opposition to the war (we must remember that a president who has been democratically elected, must be the voice of the people), and with it the conflicts came. They have been mainly comments expressing the American "disappointment" for the Chilean vote, which was made public by the USA trade representative, Robert Zoellick.
In any case, Chile maintains its optimism that in spite of the differences that have emerged in the process; both nations are capable to fulfill the treaty.
Continue reading "The Cost of the Conflict"
March 03, 2003
Claudia Mancilla
As a country that has left behind the atrocities of the military regimen, the only ethically valid way was to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment. So, by means of the Law 19.734, on April 03 of 2001 Chile eliminated the death penalty of its legal code. There are exceptions for specific crimes committed in time of war, which are sent to the Military Code of Justice. This satisfied the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights in use since January 5, 1991.
Though Chile maintained the death penalty for 112 years, during that time it performed 57 executions. Contrasted with other nations, this does not seem to be so extreme. On the other hand, I should mention that in 1990--when Democracy was restored after the dictatorship--the presidents Aylwin and Frei, both of the political party "Christian democracy", decided to pardon the death penalty by perpetual prison, to be consistent with their party and with a mainly catholic nation.
What has been the main motive for abolition? It is considered that the role of the justice is to repair as much as possible (the loss of the life is irreparable) the damage to the victim and to the society, and to produce an exemplary effect (inhibitory) in the rest of the citizens. That is, through a fair punishment, proportional to the committed crime, the delinquent senses the punishment (we are speaking of a punishment of minimum 40 years in prison). Proportional does not mean equivalent. In that sense the death sentence has been like a form of liberation of the own existence of the delinquent since
with the death of the author of the crime, the punishment loses effect automatically. On the other hand the pain of the victim will continue for many years more.
The hardest punishment consequently, should constitute a punishment that the delinquent perceive as such, and not as resembles more to the "an eye by an eye", than to a true concept of justice. In fact with every criminal that justice executes, society tries to clean its conscience, and every criminal that remains in jail for life is the constant reminder that we are doing something wrong.
Sources In English:
http://www.againstdp.org/chile.html Chile abolished the death penalty.
http://www.cwnews.com/Browse/2001/05/15628.htm Cardinal celebrates ends of death penalty in Chile.
Continue reading "Death Penalty"
February 24, 2003
Claudia Mancilla
The development of the astronomy program in Chile is a great challenge since it is here where unique findings can be obtained due to the quality of the observatories placed in the north of the country, the most modern ones in the world: Inter-American Observatory of Cerro Tololo, La Silla, Las Campanas, Paranal, and Gemini Observatory in Cerro Pachon.
Our work has been based on telecomand, search and telemetry. In this last case, it is daily measured the health of the ships, mostly of scientific investigation and others of telecommunications. That is to say, registering voltage, load of batteries, power of transmitters, orientation, stability of annotation, among others parameters. As soon as it is sounded these satellites, transmit the information to the control centers. Other vital aspects of the services are to provide information and to process images, at the same time to work as a coparticipants in national or foreign projects. Moreover, the most powerful interferometer of milimetric waves will be built t in Chile: ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array). This project is a common effort among United States and Europe, to which Japan will probably join. ALMA will be the most important milimetric radio telescope of the world.
My country is also partner of the International Astronomical Project GEMINI. United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Argentina are the other member of this company.
Chile is without doubt the country that counts on the better conditions to carry out astronomical investigation from surface. The question is if as country we are capable to take advantage of these advantages and to achieve a harmonious development to this potential.
Continue reading "Astronomy in Chile"
February 14, 2003
It is kind of difficult to write an article about Saint Valentine’s Day taking into account the reality of the world. Besides, trying to look for some information about the topic on Chilean newspapers, I couldn’t find much, just the typical virtual greeting cards, and “buy flowers for her” and things of that kind.
Continue reading "...About love in times of war"
January 20, 2003
Hi, I’m a Spanish Language Assistant from Chile, my name is Claudia Mancilla and I will begin this introduction talking about my country. Located along the Pacific Coast of South America and the Andes Range Mountains, Chile is a long and narrow country that borders Peru and Bolivia in the north and Argentina in the east. My beautiful country is politically divided in 13 regions, including the Antarctic Territory, plus the metropolitan region with a surface of 756,950 square kilometers and a population of approximately of 16 million inhabitants. Our official language is Spanish, and our currency is the Chilean peso. Our geography is characterized by great contrast and diversity. While in the north exists one of the most arid deserts in the world – Atacama Desert – in the center and south beautiful landscapes of green valleys grow fruits and vegetables which not only nourish the Chilean population but international markets as well. Towards the south, everlasting icebergs and native woods make Chile a wonderful place for tourism and a very attractive destination for all travelers.
Continue reading "Introduction:"
