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Notes from Underneath: Chile, 100 years ago

Notes from Underneath

A California girl in Chilsters (that's Chile to you)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

 

Chile, 100 years ago

I love the magazine inserts that come in the weekend editions of "El Mercurio" (Chile's primary newspaper). I rather enjoy reading them and finding out about all things related to the Chilean culture and the happenings in Santiago itself.

This past Saturday's edition of "Sabado" Magazine. A Bicentennial special.

I grew up learning the in's and out's of American History: the wars we fought in, the important figures that helped shape our country, the geography, the movements and the changes we encountered and the obstacles we overcame to arrive where we are today, whether good or bad. So when I moved to Chile last year, I realized that I arrived with very limited knowledge of why Chile is the Chile it is today, who was involved, which historical dates were the most important and who played a role in shaping society. Of course I know who Pinochet was, who Allende was ... but what did Pratt do? Is he the naval hero or is it Bernardo O'Higgins? And mind you, the only reason I even know the names Pratt and O'Higgins is because every city in Chile has streets named after these two so I gather, they must be important, right? There are holidays that randomly come around and G will have the day off from work and I ask "To what do I owe the pleasure?" and the response will be the likes of "El combate naval de Iquique." (Iquique's - city in northern Chile - naval combat.) Oh. Right. That.

Apparently baby's got a lot to learn about her new home.

Which is why I was particularly happy that this past "Sabado" magazine was a special on the Bicentennial and as such, many fun and interesting historical "datos" (or facts / information) were featured. My personal favorite from last weekend's issue: "Chile Puertas Adentro: Como han cambiado nuestras costumbres." (Chile behind closed doors: how our customs have changed.) The article gave a very top-line but interesting look at how family life has changed, what tendencies have been left behind and which ones still remain intact in Chilean family life.

The article first begins with stating what we know of Chile today: 60% of families consist of both a mother and a father and 27% of families are single-parent; the woman not only works outside the home but makes up 50% of the Chilean workforce. We read that there are now more divorces than marriages, that Chilean women begin to have children at about age 30 (give or take) and the average woman will not have more than 2 children. Further, it is now a viable option to just have one child.

From here, the article takes us back 100 years to what the family life was like at the turn of the century. The most fundamental difference between families then and families now is that the men and women of the last century did not typically marry for love. Rather, they married to procreate (how romantic.) Couples were introduced and were pressured to marry based on family preferences (either personal or professional) and this led to the majority of husbands turning outside the marriage for sexual satisfaction and even love. As an outsider, I still see a little of this in Chile in that many, many couples I know have been together for 5,6,7 or more years BEFORE ACTUALLY GETTING MARRIED. Then they seem to get married because it's the logical next step. Yeah, I gather that they must love one another but after 7 years together, at some point there must be way more family and societal pressure to marry than there is heart-wrenching, burning desire to do so. Nowadays I wouldn't go as far as to say that men opt to cheat since I'll take the information regarding growing divorce of evidence that greener pastures will be pursued sans infidelity. Plus, in the more elite circles of Chile, I am willing to bet that little has changed with regards to family preferences and who a man or woman chooses to marry. If they come to say it doesn't ever matter ... I call LIAR!

The article then moves on to talk about where the family spent the majority of their time. Since central heating systems are still lacking in Chile, and chimneys weren't introduced until the 1930s, the majority of Chileans used "braseros" to heat their homes at the turn of the century. I had to look up what a traditional brasero looked like and this is what I found:

Typically coal was burned (indoors) to provide heat. Hi, intoxication!

These were used across all social classes and the primary consequence of this less-than-cozy apparatus is that it forced the family to spend the majority of their time together in one room of the house. The article then states that family members would wear coats to move about other areas of the house ... which got me thinking that it doesn't seem to me that that's changed much nowadays. I'm pretty sure we aren't going to see coals warming the homes of the average Chilean but I'm fairly certain that no matter the social class, the lack of heating in Chile forces everyone to walk around the house looking like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man...


...or Randy from the movie "A Christmas Story" ...

What have you.

Santiago, with a population of about 544,000 people back then, was a considerably smaller city than it is now. Hence, people either walked from Point A to Point B or rode around in horse drawn carriages. The men worked, went home for lunch, took a nap and then went out to work again. Mind you, this concept of closing for lunch is still relevant outside Santiago and it's like you've been in the DeLorean and have been shuttled back in time when you encounter a sign that tells you the store will reopen at 3 pm. Happy hour seems to still be around since back in the day the men would go to their "club" after work (whether it be La Union, Club Hipico, a Mason club, firefighters club, etc) and to quote Kate from Titanic, I imagine they were also inclined to "congratulate themselves on being masters of the universe." Woman had their little get togethers as well and after a long day of duties at home, would invite other women over and partake in a little gin rummy and conversation. It sounds to me like they may have also dipped into their husband's wine and may have gone crazy showing one another their ankles. Call me crazy.

Other interesting tidbits about the article include:
The article concludes stating the one thing that hasn't changed at all in the last 100 hundred years here in Chile: women continue to be the ones responsible for "keeping" the home and that "domestic co-responsibility" is something that continues to be non-existent in the majority of Chilean households. This despite the fact that women now work outside the home and like I said, make up at least 50% of the country's work force ...

Thinking, thinking, thinking ....Hmmm ... why does that sound so familiar ...?

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Comments:
interesting. it's super interesting to ask R what Chile was like when he was little - like how soda CANS didn't even exist. you know, stuff that you and i took for granted in the US. also his grandma used to go to visit friends in large houses up in las condes and providencia via horse and buggy...providencia was like a forest with huge houses...none of this huge apartment building crap. it seriously blows my mind how much has changed for chile in such a short period of time. not quite sure how that has affected the chileno psyche but it surely accounts for some of the big time differences in Chilean v/s US culture. also that 7% Catholic # sounds a bit suspect - i mean culturally speaking the vast majority of Chileans are Catholic...and i mean all you have to do is look at all the schools...even the top schools (la catolica), or the top highschools (verbo divino, los cumbres, etc etc etc)...so maybe only 7% like go to church every Sunday but i mean Catholicism is all up in Chilean culture - padre Hurtado's grill is on just about every Chilean mantel i've ever seen. so yea, would like to know + about that 7% numero. no lo creo mucho.
 
Pooks, I think that 7% is like you said, those who actually go to mass and what not. Those who, you know, practice it. I think it sounds about right.
 
Hahah. El mercurio's 1930 is apparently Lydia's 2010. My boyfriend and I use a brasero to heat the house. Its highly dangerous, but we're cheap.

I have very little reason to believe infidelity is not the norm here. I am surprised and how little our acquaintances try to hide it. Married men will "joke" about their mistresses to my boyfriend and I while their wife runs to the kitchen to get us more hot water. Joke as in, one of those "say it like a joke but its true" things. The issue has me ready to pull my hair out, the ridiculous stuff people I know do!

My university students claimed that doing besos on the cheek is a recent thing as well
 
If you're intersted in old pics, check this out.

http://lupa.io/tag/historia+de+chile

Compare the Teatro Municipal back then http://lupa.io/uploads/d568f12fc230498f50878298e476ccbb2ba1e6ad.jpg and now http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/3583292750_643196e3b8_b.jpg you can see how it really was the Cerro Santa Lucía full of rocks.

Fernando
 
Fernando what a great link! Thank you so much for sharing and yes, I love old pictures! So cool!

Lydia - ack!! Please be safe with the brasera. Just the thought of them freaks me out. Do you have a carbon monoxide detector or is that just not applicable with a brasera in the house? I can't believe that about mistresses and guys being so open about it in this day and age! I guess I just want to believe that things are changing with the younger, more educated (as in having attended college) generations but I guess not? I might be oblivious to signs and it could be part of my naivety here but I too would be ready to pull my hair out.
 

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