Category Archive for ‘Chile’ at Hannah Kelley’s Blog

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PUCV still in Paro

Published

hannah

on May 7, 2008

in Chile

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In light of all of the extreme events that have been happening here in Valparaíso, I thought I would make a partial time line for those of you on the outside. Start by reading my first post on the paro.

Four universities have been collaborating with one another to make the impact of the paro stronger than ever:

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV)
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (USM) (Casa Central and Sede J.M.C)
Universidad de Playa Ancha
Universidad de Valparaíso

Similar protests took place in September of 2007, resulting at one point in an overtake of the Intendencia Municipal (City Council building).

The police have been illegally entering into school buildings in Valparaiso; police aren’t allowed to enter a school building unless the director of the school calls and gives the precinct permission.

Wednesday April 16th –Students at the University Federico Santa Maria vote to start a paro.

Friday April 18th — Students are detained by carabineros (police officers) who entered illegally into the Isabel Brown Caces building of the PUCV and took them charge. (El Mercurio)

Thursday April 24th — Students (presumably from the PUCV) take over the metro for 10-15 minutes in the middle of the day. The students stormed past the turnstiles and raced onto the metro car at Francia Station, where they began to shout cheers in support of the education protests.

Monday April 28th — Students at the University Federico Santa Maria (USM) are tear gassed for education related protests. Students burn paper figures painted to look like Reinaldo Sanchez (Don Choco), board member of Transporte Metro Valparaíso, among others. Avenida España is blocked on several occasions by students and burning objects. The Gimpert and Ruben Castro buildings of the PUCV are taken over in a toma*.

Wednesday April 30th – The Geography Department at the PUCV is tear gassed while full of students.

Tuesday May 5th & 6th — more protests and tear gassing at PUCV and USM. The PUCV shut their main doors for the second time since the 30th of April. The police close down the USM on the 6th because of the extremity of the protests on the 5th, involving molotov cocktails, burning posters and other objects, rock and object throwing on behalf of the students and gas and water retaliation on the part of the police. Avenida España is blocked by the ruckus for nearly an hour.

See some pictures here.

*toma is literally a takeover. Students sleep in the faculty/dept. they are taking over, they lock the main exits and endure weeks without electricity and water. Friends and fellow students bring them food.

More information (Spanish):

http://www.cordonpucv.tk

http://unaprensadiferente.blogspot.com

http://www.fotolog.com/princesskariko/40930324

http://www.mercuriovalpo.cl (”Microbuseros subirán pasaje escolar en $20″, April 18th)

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PUCV Valparaíso student strike

Published

hannah

on April 19, 2008

in Chile

. 3 Comments

The students at my school are on strike right now, protesting bus prices which are set to be raised over 50%.

Buses are the main means of transportation in Valparaíso.

Some departments were on strike up until this past Friday, others are on strike indefinitely until the situation is resolved.

Students are not going to class, and incidentally I have been under the weather, so I was able to miss class without there actually being class to miss.

Update: The paro will continue into Thursday, when there will be a national student strike. 4/23

Update: The paro continues and will probably go until at least tomorrow, Monday April 28th. The Universidad Federico Santa Maria has declared they are on strike until May 4th. The Playa Ancha campus of the PUCV is in a toma–the students are sleeping at the school and the faculty no longer have access to the school. Bus fares are set to raise tomorrow. 4/27

Poster protesting raise in prices

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National Reserve Siete Tazas and Semana Novata

Published

hannah

on April 3, 2008

in Chile and Travels

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This past week was Semana Novata, a week which celebrates freshman. Classes are suspended, and each evening boasts an event hosted by the university’s federación estudiantil, or student body.

To take advantage of this week off school, I along with two other girls studying at PUCV on exchange went camping at the National Reserve Siete Tazas. Siete Tazas means literally “Seven Cups” and is so named for the seven waterfalls which spill into one another through natural volcanic basins formed years and years ago. We spent Saturday buying camp food and supplies, and left Sunday morning for our trip.

Gretchen (Alaska)

Emily (Montana)

Things went pretty much on schedule on the way to the reserve. We managed to get student prices for bus fares and micros (city buses), and had little delays in the way of waiting in between transfers.

Our path was as follows:

Valparaíso to Santiago in Bus (9am)
Santiago to Curicó in Bus
Curicó to Molina in micro (2:30pm)

This is where we ran into a problem…
Because it is no longer considered high season, buses do not run more than once daily after a certain point in February. Of course we found this out, no thanks to Lonely Planet’s Guide to Chile.

We had to wait in Molina until 5:00 for a bus to Valdesina, which was still about 20 miles away from our destination. Molina, by the way, is a pretty small community; we were well aware as we sat in the town square with our fair skin and huge backpacks, that we were the main attraction.

Waiting in Molina consisted of exciting things like:

Making sandwiches on a bench in the park out of avocado, lukewarm cheese and salami
Going to the internet cafe
Buying new water bottles and using the restroom at the local grocery store
Getting bothered by some local teenagers on BMX bikes
Sweating because I was wearing a polar fleece jacket
Swatting flies at the bus station and avoiding contact with the flea-infected dog who kept running around our bench

Once we were finally on the bus to Valdesina, curious as to how we would find our way to the reserve from the destination of the bus, a fellow passenger told us about a bus that was leaving Valdesina for Radal (the embarkment point for the reserve) at 9pm that evening.

Valdesina was scarcely more than a wide spot in the road. We easily found the river (by turning right after we descended from the bus and walking 40 feet), and a place to set up camp. The question now was whether to set up camp before nightfall, or wait for the phantom bus which would whisk us away to Radal where we would set up camp and hike to the falls the next day.

We decided to wait.

We ate a hearty dinner of rice and mixed vegetables, and some type of packet soup. Gretchen and Emily both have ample camping gear, so we had two propane stoves to make food with.

After dinner we made a small fire in one of the many stone fire pits while we waited for the bus. At 9 a bus finally came, but it was the same bus that had taken us to Valdesina running the same route again.

The next day we got a local to take us to the park in his truck for 14,000 pesos (around $30). This was a huge rip off, but we had run out of options!

We found a camp spot once we arrived in Radal, and spent the rest of the day in the park.

The falls were beautiful. We saw two distinct sites, and had the fortune (due to the difficulty of arrival and the fact that it isn’t high season) of not having to share them with anyone.

For more pictures from this trip, click here.

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La Estrella writes about me in their column “La Gringa del día”

Published

hannah

on March 25, 2008

in Chile

. 2 Comments

You can access the original article here: http://www.estrellavalpo.cl today (March 25th) by scrolling down the page– or any other day for an indeterminate amount of time by doing a search for “Hannah Kelley”.

I was interviewed on Saturday while sitting at a cafe near my house.

At the top it says:

The Gringa of the day

>North american Hanna (sp) Kelley thinks that the nice part of Valparaíso is that each neighborhood is distinct and has its own identity.

HANNAH KELLEY “The hills left me stunned”

Aside from studying and getting to know Chile, she is working as a volunteer

by Lisa Karlsson

_________________________________

“Hannah Kelley (21) arrived in Chile three weeks ago from the U.S. It is her first time in our country and in Valparaíso, but she already has a variety of opinions about this port city.

‘Each community has its own identity even though they are separated by just a few kilometers. I love that.”, says the north american, who was playing chess when we found her at a café on cerro Concepcion (cerro = hill).

She didn’t have a clear image of Valparaíso before she arrived, but she says that it was more or less what she had in mind, except that the streets of the hills are much longer and the stairs more tiring. “The characteristics of the hills left me stunned, they are quite impressive”, she signals.

During this year that she stays in Chile she is going to study history and pre-hispanic art, among other courses.

“But I didn’t just come to study. Aside from that, I am also going to work as a volunteer with Rotaract, an organization similar to Rotary International.”, she explains.

She tells us that a few weeks ago she went to a place in Olmué to work with some children alongside the Rotaract club. “It was a different experience, it will be very fun to continue working with them.” recounts this gringa.“

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The Hills of Valparaíso and an Easter Passion Play

Published

hannah

on March 22, 2008

in Chile

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Hills

The Saturday of Easter Weekend I went wandering around the hills Cerro Alegre and Cerro Concepcion near my apartment with fellow scholar Paul Goldberg. We first went to a very unique cemetery, which is actually visible from the rear windows of my apartment.

See more pictures of the cemetery here.

Although I live at the bottom of a hill, in fact I am inundated with hills at every turn, I don’t often have the chance to explore them. Cerro Alegre is known for being one of the more touristy hills, while Concepcion is slightly more residential. Despite what either is known for, the interior of these hills is full of life and surprises.

After exploring the cemetery we climbed a little higher into an area with a puppet theatre, and a small park. In the park a family was playing soccer, and there were other people sitting on benches enjoying the nice day. It was like walking into an alternate universe. In front of my house there is the hustle and noise of buses and taxis, yet a five minute walk yielded a quiet beautiful spot to spend with the family on a Saturday.

After we toured around the hills more, spending probably 20 minutes in our descent, I was surprised to find that we ended in the same spot we had began. The hills above me are within such proximity, but constitute a totally different life.

See some of the sights I saw during my wanderings here.

Houses on Cerro Concepcion

Pastoral

The same night I went to a Pastoral, or what might be known as a “Passion Play” in the U.S. on Cerro Placeres. It was all outdoors, and consisted of around 70 community members reenacting the Easter Story. There were large booming speakers at every block corner, with the deep masculine narrator’s voice reading passages from the Book of John. When the narrator wasn’t speaking, they would play AMC- Charlton Heston-Ten Commandments-style movie scores.

The play spanned about 10 or so blocks in total, and lasted about two hours. It is currently in its 56th year of production. Five thousand plus people showed up for the event.

I took a lot of footage of the event which I will *eventually* get around to editing and posting on my vimeo page. Until that time, look at the handful of pictures that I took of the event here.

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Karina Silva Zamora vigil at PUCV

Published

hannah

on March 17, 2008

in Chile

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While walking around Casa Central (main campus for PUCV) on Monday, I noticed that some fellow students were using white paint to write on enormous strips of black plastic, then hanging them as banners all along the inside of the courtyard.

Posters inside of Casa Central

I stopped to ask one of the students what they were doing. The posters all began with the word justicia, justice, in big capital letters.

The girl I asked told me that they were putting up posters for a vigil that would be held that evening for her friend and classmate, Karina, who was murdered. I later realized that Monday was the one month anniversary of her death. The purpose of the posters, and the vigil, is to raise awareness that the police have not yet investigated her case, and in a certain way to put pressure on them.

I edited a video out of the footage I took from the vigil, and from talking to the student.

Karina Silva Zamora - Justicia from hannah kelley on Vimeo.

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House phone number, Beach in Reñaca, Old Prison in Valparaíso

Published

hannah

on March 16, 2008

in Chile

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Announcing my home phone number: (011) (56) (32) 221-9305

Saturday was Beach Day. I didn’t bring my digital camera, but I took a lot of pictures with a small plastic 35 mm camera I brought. I am anxious to see what effect the camera gives to the pictures. I went with Matthieu by bus to Reñaca, which is about a 30 minute ride away from Valparaíso. Despite the beautiful waves and invitingly warm sun, the water here is freezing! Matthieu went surfing, but I just sunbathed and hung out on the beach.
Afterward we ate some delicious empanadas and pastel de choclo from a nearby store/restaurant. Empanadas are pastry turnovers filled with a variety of different ingredients; they are either baked or fried. We had the baked kind, mine was filled with what I believe were mussels, and Matthieu’s was filled with ground meat, olive and egg. Pastel de choclo is more or less a corn and meat casserole. The bottom is filled with ground meat or chicken, egg and olive, but the top is a semi sweet layer of baked yellow corn. Yum! It is a very typical Chilean dish.

My friend from the U.S., Loreto, came back to Chile after almost 6 years this past Wednesday. Last night I spent time with her and her sister Isabel, along with Isabel’s friend Cata (short for Catalina). We went to the ex-carcel, an old prison turned art and cultural center.

They were having something called a puertazo, in response to recent legislation which favors industrial fishers and ignores the needs of local fisherman, or pescadores artesanales. One of the people we met there happened to be an ex political inmate in the prison. He along with 15 other inmates escaped by tunneling underground to refuge.

Apparently a film was made about the prison, called El 25 de Mayo a las 9 en punto, which I am told can be purchased at the apartment next to the Municipalidad (Town Hall) of Valparaiso, on the second floor, where there is a sign hanging that says: Evangelical Church of St. Juan.

Pedro stars as one of the prison guards.

More pictures of the ex-carcel can be found here.

One of the performances

Me with Pedro Donoso Acevedo, tunneler and escapee of the Valparaiso Prison

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Trains, Boats, Buses, ID’s, Empanadas and the like

Published

hannah

on March 16, 2008

in Chile

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I have taken most of my classes by now. I added another class, “Formulation of Latin American Culture” which meets on Thursday nights. The professor is an endearing older gentleman with curly hair and a penchant for “sh” sounds.
He described South America and Latin America as a grand painting of Indigenous peoples, Africans, Europeans and Mestizos.

Board drawing from my new class on Latin American culture

I also made a new friend, Sole. She sheepishly told me that I was one of the only foreigners she had ever met. Sole must be at least 19–how different from the United States, where every city boasts its own ethnic group, replete with corresponding nightclubs, fine dining, and religious centers.

Since this new class and two of my other classes are in Viña (del Mar), I have been taking the train. There is a stop called Bellavista which is 3 blocks from my apartment, and it goes directly to Miramar station, which is about 3 blocks from the history department.

Train/Metro

I recently received a paper from the university called a comprobante, which entitles me to a reduced bus fare. This wonderful little piece of paper is substituting for my pase escolar, or university ID which won’t be given to me until May or so.
Since it is just a piece of paper, I had to go to one of the ubiquitous photocopy stores to get it laminated.
What a situation! I was telling a good Belgian friend here, Matthieu, that the entire concept of having to go get a piece of paper laminated to serve in lieu of a university ID is totally foreign. At Wayne State, not only are ID’s served up instantaneously, I would never worry about using it for a reduced gasoline price.

On the topic of documents and identification, I also went to the Registro Civil with another scholar, Paul Goldberg, on Thursday morning to apply for my carnét. The Registro Civil serves the public much in the same way the Secretary of State does in the United States. I was warned several times that it fills up early and always has long lines (sound familiar?). I had to pay a fee equivalent to about $8. They took my picture, finger printed me, and gave me a piece of paper with the date of when I will be able to come and pick up the carnét. A carnét is the equivalent of a drivers license in the U.S., except that almost no one my age here drives, so it is more like a state ID. It is used to buy alcohol and tobacco, get into night clubs, and in case you are stopped by the carabineros (or in more colloquial terms, pacos).

Lancha!

On Friday I went with some friends on a small boat or lancha. It was about $20 for the six of us to go zipping around the port for half and hour. We were able to see all of the cargo ships, navy ships, as well as have a great view of all the cerros or hills of Valparaiso.

See more pictures from this here.