Monday, July 7
Our sightseeing adventure for the day was a guided walking tour of Santiago through a company called Spicy Chile. The tour started by La Moneda which was originally a mint (the Spanish word for coin is moneda), then the presidential palace, and now it houses several ministerial offices. We happened to arrive early for our tour which was the same time as Chile's changing of the guard. Chile's changing of the guard was more of a military parade, as seen in the pictures below:
Unlike in the US, the guards are not protecting the tomb of an unknown soldier, but regardless, these types of symbols and rituals are part of what makes a nation a nation. After all, 240 years ago there was no such thing as America and Americans (meaning the USA and its citizens) or Chile and Chileans. These countries and people originated during the course of colonial independence movements, but because they are relatively recent developments they must be maintained through a variety of means (national anthems, national museums, statues, national sports teams, etc).
Our tour was led by an aspiring actress named Sandy who led the tours as a part-time job. She was very energetic, animated, humorous, and demonstrative, as might be expected. Our tour began at La Moneda, went to several cathedrals, though downtown, and ended in Bellavista at a late famous poet's residence. It gave us a very good feel for Santiago's downtown which came in valuable since we visited the area the next two days. Below we're posing in a park or in front of a fountain Germany gave as a gift to Chile.
Tuesday, July 8
Our next big sight seeing adventure was hitting the big museums. Museums are also an example of how nations can be held together because they reinforce the history that is so important in building a group's identity. There were four museums that I wanted to see and I expected each would take a day or two because I was expecting museums approaching the size of the Smithsonians, the British Museum of Art, or even 1/10th of the Louvre. However, they were relatively small and we were able to see two in a day.
The theme for Tuesday was history. We started at the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, which contained works--mainly a lot of pots and figurines--of American Indians south of the United States. It recently reopened in 2013 after a two year renovation and it was very well done. It was especially helpful that all the text was also in English. When thinking of this museum in a nationalistic sense, it sends the message that Indians are a part of Chile's identity and I would compare it with the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC which opened in 2004. Here are a couple pictures: the first is a Mayan statue and the second is with some quipu, the Incan record keeping system.
The second museum we visited was the Chilean National History Museum and it's one of the best history museums I've been to. Unlike the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, the Chilean museum could be completed in two hours. Moreover, there was an audio guide in English which helped immensely. The museums was divided into eighteen time periods highlighting the major periods in Chile's history. Since I knew very few details about Chile's history before coming here, this was the perfect museum to visit.
Our third major event of the day was watching soccer fans watch soccer--which is watching nationalism in action. In this case, it was watching German fans (of which there were a significant number--the area Garv and Lindsay live in is full of expatriates working in finance on a temporary basis) go crazy in disbelief and the Brazilians fans sit in stunned silence. It was not quite the soccer fan watching experience I'd hoped for.
That night we ate leftovers--I had the pizza. Then we went to see The Fault in Our Stars which was really good (it was in English with Spanish subtitles).
Wednesday, July 9
Our next set of museums were the La Moneda Cultural Center and the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. These museums were not my style (and I love museums) and they certainly weren't Lindsay's. They were both post-modernist. Since I've been to graduate school in the humanities, I've been trained to understand post-modernism. Basically, it means that all human knowledge and culture is "constructed" through the manipulation of language (discourse is the word post-modernists use), space, social norms, and relationships of power. The best example of this is: Chile and the United States exist as nations only because they have been constructed by people. Explained like this, it makes a lot of sense. However, when it's time for post-modernism to be expressed in museums it's usually weird shit. I could keep writing but I'm going to stop because post-modernism annoys me. The bottom line is that the post-modernists got a hold of the La Moneda Cultural Center and the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts and arranged them in a way that was not accessible to the average person. Lindsay thought they were really F-ing weird. Fortunately, the post-modernists have been kept away from the history museums...
For the final bit of nationalism, we went to a different sports bar to watch the other World Cup semifinal: Argentina versus the Netherlands. Apparently both teams watched Brazil's debacle and played very conservatively so the match was very boring. Even the Argentinian fans were bored, at least until they won on penalty kicks. During the penalty kicks, it was very apparent that there were no Netherlands fans there though from what I've heard, most Chileans were rooting against Argentina because Chileans think Argentinians are arrogant.
Since I'd forgotten to take pictures since our visit to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, Lindsay did snap one of me in the sports bar right before the Argentina-Netherlands match started.
Looks like you are having a wonderful time! Blogs are a great way to document your adventures! Enjoy the rest of your stay!
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