Although in theory all days are equal, in truth some matter more than others.
Some dates, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, evoke images of joy and tradition and connection. (Many non-Christians have a different take of the former, while many Native American have a dim view of the latter.)
But others days are noteworthy for the memories they stir of pain, suffering and destruction.
In our country, December 7, a day that then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy,” is one of those occasions.
So, too, is September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Here in Chile, September 11 is also a day of major national significance.
For it was on that date in 1973 that the Chilean military, headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, ousted democratically-elected Socialist President Salvador Allende and ushered in his 17-year reign.
University of Diego Portales Department Chair Carlos Aldunate made the point during a dinner one of our first weekends in Santiago that Chile has seen similar tensions before in its history.
But the memory that resonates loudest in Chile are the echoes from that fateful day.
The anniversary is a moment of significance every year, and this one promises to be particularly important.
The first and most basic reason for this is that a week from Wednesday will mark 40 years since the Pinochet coup.
There’s something about the passage of a full decade, or decades, that prompts intense revisitation and analysis of key events. (I’m not in the United States at the moment, and can only imagine the frenzy that will build in November around the 50th anniversary of the assassination of 35th President John F. Kennedy.)
The second reason is that November marks the presidential election.
And a third has to do with the personal histories of Michelle Bachelet and Evelyn Matthei, the two major presidential candidates, have direct ties to the aftermath of the coup.
These two highly accomplished women have similar military pasts, but very different political visions for the nation.
In 2006, Bachelet became the nation’s first female president. A divorced mother of three children, she served as Defense Minister at the same time as Donald Rumsfeld held that position in the United States.
She is also the daughter of a former Chilean Air Force General.
So, too, is Matthei.
In many ways, the two women share important similarities besides their fathers’ military backgrounds.
The families were close, and the two women were friends as children.
Both grew up in privileged homes, attended elite schools, learned to speak multiple foreign languages and took advanced training in a discipline that requires many years to master. (Bachelet is a certified pediatrician, while Matthei is a classically trained pianist.)
It was during the Pinochet era, though, ushered in by the 1973 coup, that the similarities ended.
Whereas Matthei’s father was part of the junta, Bachelet’s father remained loyal to the constitution and to Allende. Because of that, he was tortured daily at the facility headed by the elder Matthei, even though he personally was not there at the time Bachelet’s torture occurred.
Bachelet and her mother both were tortured as well in the infamous Villa Grimaldi compound where legions of others also were tortured, murdered and disappeared.
Even though she did not break, Bachelet has said that she still grapples with the emotional scars from that experience.
Bachelet has at different points shown compassion for the torturers, saying they carry bags of guilt with them.
When she was elected president, in a gesture of reconciliation, she hugged the elder Matthei and called him “Uncle Fernando.”
Yet, in some ways, the most basic reason that the coup’s anniversary is such a cultural lightning rod is the basic fact that Chile remains a profoundly divided nation, and memory is at the heart of the divide.
I’ll write more about this aspect in the upcoming days.
Tonight, I wanted to signal the deluge of news coverage, television shows, books, conferences, and museum exhibits that have already been published, or will be so during the upcoming week and a half.
Sifting through this flood of material will be my focus during the next 10 days.
This includes a week from Wednesday, when the date that bonds American and Chileans alike in suffering again occurs for the twelfth and fortieth times since the mornings when history in each country was permanently and irrevocably changed.
Stephanie Behne on another FDR biography
Stephanie Behne shares her thoughts about a new FDR biography.
Chicago Reporter intern, dedicated mother and wife, and emerging career changer Stephanie Behne posted the following in response to a recent post about President Obama and a biography about Franklin Delano Roosevelt by James MacGregor Burns (Again, the added links are mine):
“I, too, am a little envious of your ability to feast on books. But I’m chomping on a good one now, the Brands biography of FDR you mentioned, Traitor to His Class. I’m just a little over halfway through, but there’s so much in the 430 something pages I read so far, I should mention a couple things while I still remember them!
Brands’ book is reminiscent of Burns, it sounds like, in showing FDR’s true talent as the consummate politician. Congenial, even charming, he not only won the average person over personally but had the ability to reach out and create a sense of understanding with his radio audience, too. A fine use of the technology of the times, really, to further his own political aims. But people responded to him in person, too, so is that so wrong? Politics and technology–sound like anybody we know today?
Another strategy that FDR used that stuck with me was when he’d put rivals together to work out issues, while he mostly stayed out of the way. One example was workers and union reps during the establishment of the NRA and the “planned economy.” Amazingly, it worked over and over with different people and agreements reached to fulfill a variety of political goals.
I could go on and on. FDR and his battle with his polio diagnosis was compelling in Brands’ hands. Roosevelt’s extraordinary handling of the crisis and establishing a sort of a rehab spa for polio victims from across America in Warm Springs, GA–at his expense, he brought them there and encouraged and exercised right alongside of them–was a surprisingly inspiring section. For a period of several years, he recuperated, strengthened, and entertained wonderfully, even fishing, boating and driving a hand-controlled car around the countryside on his own and with groups of friends regularly. In letters, he reported feeling better than he ever had in his life!
Brands goes on to say of FDR: “…for years afterward he credited his experience in Georgia with providing insight into this aspect or that of politics, economics, or the American dream.”
Also, too, there are many striking similarities to our new 44th president, aside from the shrewd use of technology, that it would take at least another comment space to mention them.”
Terrific post, Stephanie! I look forward to borrowing the Brands book after you finish it!
Everyone else, keep the comments coming!
Jeff
Leave a comment
Posted in Commentary
Tagged Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Georgia, H.W. Brands, James MacGregor Burns, National Recovery Administration, planned economy, President Obama, Stephanie Behne, The Chicago Reporter, Traitor to His Class, Warm Springs