Chile 4

Vocabulary—

We say They say

Buenos días Buen día Good morning
Aseos, servicios baño restroom
Habichuelas porotos green beans
Frijoles
Judías
Guisantes,
petits pois arvejas peas
Chile ají hot pepper
Mantequilla manteca butter
Salsa (the kind you eat)
pebre hot sauce
Novio pololo boyfriend

The police here are called carabineros, and their uniforms are military green with a decidedly fascist-style hat. Mote con huesillo is sold on the street from vendors. I didn´t dare try it, but I did ask what it was—fruit juice with dry fruit floating. It looked delicious. Rich compares Chile/Argentina to Canada/US. He thinks it’s cleaner and more orderly. I like the Argentine spirit. Because the monetary units are so large, the paper money, and reckoning its value is a bit more difficult. Shoe stores are everywhere…how many feet do Chileans have?

The belongings of Gabiela Mistral have been returned to the Biblioteca Nacional. She is the Nobel Laureate in poetry (from whose work I created a concordance), and shares the poetic spotlight with Pablo Neruda (also a subject of one of my concordances) more and more. The other writers of note are José Donoso (Obscene Bird of the Night), who came to Emory when I was on the faculty there; Isabel Allende, a relative of assassinated President Salvador Allende, who teaches in exile in the University system of California; and Arial Dorfman, also in exile, on the faculty of Duke University. You might ask why are they in exile now that Pinochet is dead? They have not returned to Chile, but are still considered major Chilean authors.

The fruit police. We went to eat at a local popular restaurant around six, and split a sandwich of chicken tomato and avocado. Afterwards, I requested some fruit. WELL, FRUIT IS NOT SERVED AFTER 5. It’s a RULE. YOU CANNOT HAVE FRUIT AFTER 5. What is THAT about?

I enjoyed Chile, but I really love Argentina. We are now back there, and it feels as comfortable as Spain. Have to change peso gears, from Chile to Argentina—math calculations go from multiplying by 2 and taking 3 zeros off, to dividing by 3. Too bad Chavez is the only one calling for a united America, because he´s nuts, but the idea is a good one.

More later