MARCHES THIS

MONTH

SANTIAGO’S

ARCHITECTURE

POETRY OF THE

PEOPLE

Editors’ Note

In the UK, October means falling leaves, rapidly shortening days and lots and lots of knitwear. In

Chile, it signals sunshine, the start of summer and a far less polluted, more inviting Santiago. For Ellie

and me, this month has been one of new experiences. Some of these have been cultural, such the

play Allende: Noche de Septiembre at the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, and the

Danish Film La Cacería at El Biografo cinema in Lastarria. In the case of the film, this also meant our

language skills were put to the test as we had to juggle drowning out the Danish soundtrack with

deciphering the Spanish subtitles! October was also the moment that I threw caution (and probably

good sense) to the wind, and enrolled in a local Muay Thai course. I am not a sporty person, and the

news that I am now attending Thai kickboxing classes twice a week on top of two hours of swimming

with Ellie has been enough to send my friends and family into hysterical fits of disbelieving laughter.

No matter: it turns out that the old pearl of year-abroad wisdom – that starting a new sport or

hobby is an excellent way to keep busy and integrate into a new cit – is true, and despite the bruises

and aches and pains, I am actually really enjoying the classes.

In October we have done a little bit of travelling – a friend visiting from Uruguay was the excuse for

another trip to Valparaíso, then last weekend we completed our set of Pablo Neruda houses visited

by making the pilgrimage to the stunning Isla Negra. One glance at the house’s surroundings maes it

more than clear why it was Neruda’s favourite place; the swathes of interesting rock, weird coils of

seaweed and the spray of the sea made it one of the most beautiful places that I’ve seen in Chile so

far.

Finally, the end of October can only ever mean one thing: HALLOWEEN. So to kick of this issue we

are going to leave you with a quote from some of the most famous witches of all time…

Here’s to a fantastic November.

Love Claire and Ellie x

In this issue: The Witches’ Spell – William Shakespeare, Macbeth

The Architecture that Chile forgot – Ariel Hernández Mora

Marches this month:

o La Marcha por la igualdad – Photos by Constanza Cabello Sáez

o NO + AFP – Photos by Ellie Jeffrey

The First Wall War – Sebastian Paulletts – A commentary on popular poetical voices today in

Santiago.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,—

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

The Architecture that Chile

forgot Ariel Hernández Mora (Translated by Ellie Jeffrey)

A lot of the time when we talk about historical buildings or old architecture within

Santiago, we are generally referring to structures like the government palace, the

stock market, cathedrals, the municipal theatre or Chile’s postal building. However

we tend to side-line the buildings that made Chile appear on the world architecture

scene. World-renowned Chilean architects made way for Chile in the world, giving

important presents of creativity and futuristic vision to the country.

Walking through the centre of Santiago we find ourselves in the Plaza de Armas and

the historical quarter, but we ignore a building which

was unique in the Latin America of its time. I am

referring to the “Edificio Plaza de Armas”, designed by

the Chilean architect Sergio Larraín, built in 1958.

This modernist building uses the system of “Placa-

Torre”, which consists of a commercial base

underneath a residential tower. It has 12 floors, 4 in

the base and the other 8 in the tower. The building

tries to maintain sustainability in the community of the

said strucutre. To put it more simply, the inhabitants of

this building have everything at their feet, shops like

bakeries, fruit and vegetable shops, cafés, minimarkets, bookshops, boutiques etc.

creating a small residential neighbourhood. It is an innovative system that was the

influence of lots of buildings in this country.

It wasn’t looking to generate a relationship with the surroundings (the historic

quarter), but it was creating a building with its own autonomous character. This

building was the first of its type in Latin America.

Another great work of architecture that we set aside, are the “Edificios Turri” (Las

torres de Baquedano), designed by the Chilean architecture, Guillermo Scheider

Vergara, in 1929. These are another unique work of Latin America, once again in

Chile.

These are a group of three residential towers located beside the well-known Plaza

Baquedano (Nicknamed Plaza Italia), being the first “appartments” of Chile and Latin

America. In these towers we can perceive an Art Deco style, and it is one of the most

important architectural milestones of Santiago from the 20s.

This trio of towers challenged the fear of tremors and earthquakes of the

Santiaguinos, who preferred to live at ground level. On the first floor of this trio you

can find between others a café, restaurants, and the structure’s most important

establishment, the “Teatro Baquedano” (Today, Teatro Universidad de Chile).

These two important structures often pass us by, without us realising the importance

that they have, like lots of other buildings of our country.

.

NO + AFP

05/10/13

Photos by Ellie Jeffrey

LA MARCHA POR LA

IGUALDAD

05/10/13

Photos by Constanza

Cabello Sáez

When Santiago speaks, it speaks through books, by writing on walls, through unknown musicians or through minds that by marching are asking for justice and demanding their rights, but the most important thing is the creativity which is expressed by Santiago’s hometown poets who capture the essence of what the people really want to say. They promote “underground expressions” using a pencil as a gun. This is the only war where the helmets are the creative minds, the tank is your body moving when you write, the rate is your heart and the feelings are medics.

The city does not have many internationally well-known names, such as poets like Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral or Patricio Manns , as almost all of them have been from other cities, living the reality of the countryside and outside of the “cosmopolitan city”. The artists that I will try to show you are like you and me, students, normal people, workers etc... I mean routine artists: people who show you art by physical poetry with a kiss or perhaps in a blog, playing a humble guitar in the park, simply talking, or reading lovely-angry words from a book in a meeting-place. We can go to places where people just write and express lovely or realistic things, for example today this can be seen on the walls in neighborhoods… You can see this in this battle of the revolution of poetry.

Sebastian Paulletts

Society: “La revolución de los niños es siempre hoy. Mañana será tarde.” – Poetic action Happiness: “Hoy fue un día feliz, solo rutina.” – Poetic action Freedom: “In my madness I found my freedom.” – Acción poética Love: “Your ears are the paper where I paint music for your eyes.” – Acción poética Carpe diem: “Vivir consiste en crear futuros recuerdos.” – Poetic action Change: “Nuestro mejor homenaje es luchar.” – Poetic action

Affection: “Take your hand, drop the world.”– Acción poética Missing: “Thirst of memories will take rain in the forgetfulness.” – Acción poética Hope: “La vida es como un espejo, te sonríe si la miras sonriendo.” – Poetic action Living: “Today I want to live without realizing.” – Acción poética Life: “El cuerpo es la cárcel del alma.” – Poetic action This is the only war where deaths are replaced by giving life to walls

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN

FOR THE NOVEMBER ISSUE!

Submit your poetry, stories,

articles, photos or collages at:

santiagospeaksmag@gmail.com