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In Love With Chile

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March 10, 2009

You walk into a room. Your heart skips a beat and the butterflies float in your stomach . His eyes meet yours, and while you’re not sure it’s love or lust, you know it feels damn good.

Then you start dating and he starts farting (sometimes on your head). If the relationship is a good one you love each other more and more anyways, just in a different way. If the relationship is unhealthy or one sided you might begin to despise each other and slowly but surely everything goes downhill — no matter how mind blowing the sex was in the beginning. You might still love him, but, things will never be the same and you’ve got to get out (*ahem* Rihanna. Yes, I judge her for staying with Chris Brown).

This is how I feel about Chile. I thought I was in love in the beginning. Then when we got to know each other, we realized we really weren’t a good fit. We’ll break up on good terms and I’ll leave happy because in the end, it simply wasn’t meant to be.

But, last weekend she made me feel butterflies again.

I shot photographed two amazing weddings — one in Lonquen and the other in Pirque, both on the very outskirts of Santiago.

The first was a beautiful gringa, crazy about her Chilean husband and crazy about Chile. That enthusiasm reminds me of how I felt when I first moved here. Being around people like that always opens my heart back up. I love being around that new love, it brings me back to the days when I really did feel the same (granted, I still do feel the same about my Chilean husband :P )

And the second wedding brought back my love for Chile even more. The bride’s mom is well-known Chilean singer of Chilean folkloric singer (her name is Charo Cofre) so during the reception we were treated a mini-concert. When Charo got up on stage and started sharing the family’s life story, I was totally captivated. They left Chile after the dictatorship to go live in exile in Italy. She talked about how Matilde Neruda received them abroad to help them make a home there. She had thought she was unable to have kids, but then ended up pregnant with her daughter, and gave birth to her in a foreign country, so far from her native Chile. There were several politicians other people at the wedding who had been with the family while they were in exile. While Charo spoke the atmosphere was so emotional. And when she sang, even more so. One of the songs she performed is below, called “En Esta Ausencia,” about their time in exile.

And here’s a link to one of the other songs that she sang called “A la Ronda Ronda” which is about watching her little girl grow up and getting married. Unfortunately I can’t find a youtube video of her performing. The link is just go someone else’s homemade video of the birth of their own daughter with Charo’s song in the background.

Normally I tend to think of Santiago as a city full of very grumpy, very angry people. And who can blame the citizens? A person will spend hours transporting him or herself on the hot sweaty micro or metro, being elbowed, pushed and shoved by other cranky Santiaguinos, then a half an hour in line at the local Lider just to buy bread fighting off rude folks who try to cut in front, all while earning a salary that’s so low they’re barely scraping by. Of course so many people here are miserable, wouldn’t you be?

After she finished singing, Charo mentioned that everyone was asking her about the flags. She had lined the road to the venue with giant red hearts, Chilean flags and random multi-colored flags. The reasoning behind the decoration she said, “Porque somos Chilenos y somos alegres!” Translated that means, “Because we are Chilean and we’re happy!”

This was more than a wedding to her. This was seeing her daughter marry in the country that she loves. This was knowing that her baby will be able to have babies here, in her own homeland if she so chooses. This was about Chile being a place where her whole family can be happy.

Charo said in the strongest voice with the most conviction I’ve ever heard anybody use, “Porque somos Chilenos y somos alegres!!!”

And I believed her.

View Comments

  • Cincinnati Chile
    You are right- the gringa you photographed at the wedding (so amazingly I might add) is in love with Chile. Even if it weren't for my Chilean husband, I still would love Chile. I know visiting is way different than living there but I've never been anywhere that makes me feel the way that Chile does and I consider myself pretty well traveled. I can't quite put my finger on what it is about Chile but it's a general feeling that I get when I'm there. The natural beauty melts my heart. I don't know if it's just because it's so different than the mid-west USA or what.


    Something funny happened to us today- I was at a restaurant outside of Cincinnati, Ohio with my Chilean husband and we were waiting for our food and heard a guy talking on his cellphone in Spanish. My husband is pretty good at quickly determining where someone is from based on their Spanish accent. He told me the guy was Chilean and a few minutes later we started hearing "Si Poh, and Ahhh Yeaaaa" so there was no denying it. After the guy hung up and as we were leaving we stopped by to say hello to him and his family. There are in general very few Chileans in the US, only a handful in Ohio and none that we knew of in our town of West Chester, Ohio. It turns out that he was from Concepcion and his wife from Santiago and they moved from Chile to Miami 20 years ago. They visited our town of West Chester, Ohio (outside of Cincinnati) 3 years ago and fell in love with it. He said it was "paradise" here. GO FIGURE!



    (Note: He did say that he had not been to Chile in over 20 years and it has evolved so his point of reference is a little old).
  • Mei
    Thanks, Kyle!
  • Mamacita Chilena
    Mei, nooooooo, you didn't miss the announcement. Trust me, you won't be able to :)


    But, unfortunately, I'm still waiting anxiously too!!!!!
  • Ritamae
    Loved your post. Speaking of weddings and Chile, during Leah & Kiran's Christian wedding ceremony I went to last Saturday, a verse of Pablo Neruda's was read. I thought of you during the Hindu ceremony too because it was very interesting and so colorful and I imagined the awesome photographs you would have taken had you been there!
  • Mei
    Swoon-worthy tale! I loved it.


    Kyle (or anyone), I hate to change the subject, but did I miss the amazing new announcement? Still dying over here!
  • John Evo
    I think I'd like Chile... to spend a few months. But then, I would say the same of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize and many other places.


    But if I were contemplating living somewhere other than State-side, it would have to be somewhere in northern Europe (as much as I don't care for cold weather). While there are nice people to be found anywhere, the majority would have my head exploding before long.



    Denmark, anyone?
  • Maeskizzle
    Thanks for the inspiration post with a taste of how fun in can be to live in Chile.
  • Sara
    Sounds like a great time! Is it weird that I've never been in love with Chile like so many of the other gringas? When I left the first time I thought " That was fun..." and I had no intention of returning, but in some way it became home, more than Minnesota or the US. It's a very weird relationship I have with this country.
  • kumichan83
    Very cool. Looking forward to those pics. And then some with your new baby!:)
  • tashia
    That was a really beautiful post, thank you for sharing it.
  • Girl.Meets.Chile
    Great post, what a wonderful experience. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the positive because wherever you are, however you feel, there is always a positive. Your post made me laugh too...the bit about S farting - heehee!!
  • Lori - Blondie in Brazil
    What a powerful experience! I have small instances where the things that I like about Brazil come crashing in on me. I cherish these moments because all the frustrations make them really hard to see sometimes.
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