Anita’s Parents and Chile

You have heard my interest in Chile since college, but you may not know that the parents of Anita, my wife, lived in Chile for 2 years before Anita was born. Anita’s dad, Jim, came from a Quaker background and was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. His alternative service was to work for World Relief, a humanitarian organization active in Chile. One of the population groups that he served were the Mapuche in the provinces around Lautaro where we are going on our Global Encounter Trip. Here is a picture of him working (and that is not Anita’s mom in the picture).

Anita’s parents left Chile about a year before the Chilean coup d’état in September of 1973. Anita’s mom’s name is Garyanna, but in Chile she went by Anita: the name she gave to her daughter. Anita’s dad, Jim, loved the following picture that he took of a Mapuche woman that he met on her farm. He wanted a picture of the woman’s beautiful silver necklace. However, the Mapuche believe that an image has a spirit and if someone captures it then that person takes a little part of their soul from them, so that is why she is looking down. It was quite an honor that she allowed him to take this picture.