Best of Vancouver 2014: Chileans find new life locally

From 1970s exiles to post-Pinochet immigrants, Chileans remember their roots.

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      For most North Americans, September 11 is a date with extra resonance.

      For Vancouver’s Chilean community, the date is also connected to another dark day—September 11, 1973, when a U.S.–backed coup in Chile saw forces led by right-wing general Augusto Pinochet overthrow the government of socialist president Salvador Allende. The subsequent regime resulted in a worldwide diaspora of hundreds of thousands of exiles, with over 7,000 Chilean refugees resettling in Canada alone.

      Carmen Aguirre, a local actor, director, playwright, and author, was one of the first Chileans to arrive in Vancouver after the coup. A six-year-old from Santiago who arrived with her immediate family, she was one of only a handful of Chileans living in the Lower Mainland at the time and quickly adapted to what she calls a “seamless kind of bicultural life”.

      “Many people didn’t even unpack their bags,” she recalls. “They kept suitcases under their bed, waiting for Pinochet to fall so that they could return to Chile. In terms of us children, though, we all had double lives—we were able to assimilate completely into the mainstream and also be completely Chilean. It was much harder for the adults.”

      It’s not surprising, considering that many of the adult exiles had been harassed, imprisoned, and even tortured before escaping Pinochet’s ultraconservative dictatorship. As a result, left-wing politics was a major component of the 1970s Chilean experience in Vancouver.

      Among the political exiles, Aguirre explains, there were three main factions: “the Communist Party, probably the majority; the Socialist Party; and the MIR—the Movement of the Revolutionary Left, who believed in armed struggle”.

      For her part, Aguirre eventually returned to South America and went on to join the resistance against the Pinochet regime in the 1980s. It’s a harrowing story she details in her best-selling autobiography, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, and her one-woman play Blue Box, which runs October 9 to November 1 at the Arts Club’s Revue Stage.

      As the exiles began to grow in number and coalesce into a community, a group of them came together to form the 37-unit Chilean Housing Co-op. Built in 1983, it still stands on School Avenue in the Killarney neighbourhood of East Vancouver and serves as both housing and a cultural hub. It’s become such a fixture in the neighbourhood that there’s even been lobbying to have the street renamed Salvador Allende Avenue. “The co-op has a reputation for its solidarity work,” board member Justina Salas says, “and we take great pride in helping new immigrants, exiles, families, and other Latin American communities.

      “I got to grow up with so many friends—it was like having 37 houses of family,” recalls Salas, who’s lived in the co-op for 24 years. “It’s really nice to share with my own kids.”

      Alfonso Osorio, a political analyst for W2 Media Mornings on Co-op Radio, also came to Vancouver as an exile in the 1970s. Having been an adviser to the Archbishop of Santiago, Osorio became involved with the Catholic Church’s liberation theology movement, a liberal wing that focused on combating extreme poverty in South America and Central America. Its activities weren’t viewed favourably by the Pinochet regime.

      “I was trained by my friends to live in the underground movement, which means the way you have to behave and how you respond to situations. I was jailed a number of times, but they couldn’t find any evidence so I was lucky. But I worked with the archbishop and I was very close with Canadian priests—we were working in shantytowns in Santiago—so that gave me some sort of protection. At the end of the day, though, it was
      a question of luck.”

      After initially fleeing to Argentina, Osorio soon found himself a two-time refugee following a 1976 right-wing coup by the Argentine military. Eventually, he made his way to Vancouver, where he would go on to work as an adviser to various NDP officials. “We Chileans carry politics in the blood,” he says with a laugh.

      Of course, not all local Chileans came to Vancouver as exiles, and the politics of the 1970s aren’t the unifying force they once were. Since Pinochet’s 1990 ouster, traditional immigration has swelled the local community’s ranks to about 3,400, according to the 2011 census.

      Leslie Riquelme, who came to Vancouver in 1996, is part of the post-Pinochet wave of immigration. A pastry chef at her family’s Panaderia Latina Bakery, she speaks of a more traditional immigrant experience—the quest for a better life, hard work and difficult jobs, years of saving followed by the purchase of a business. It may be the template for the latest wave of immigrants, but it doesn’t mean she’s not mindful of those who came before.

      “They had to deal with so many things that we didn’t have to, especially psychologically,” Riquelme says. “We just have to be grateful for the time when we came, and respect the experiences that they had back then.”

      Best midpriced Chilean wine

      Viña Falernia Syrah Reserva
      (B.C. Liquor Stores, various locations)

      At only $17.99, Viña Falernia Syrah Reserva holds its own with much more expensive wines. With hints of tapenade, black pepper, and dark fruit, this savoury Syrah from northern Chile’s Elqui Valley is a great match for red meat.

      Best place for a completo

      Panaderia Latina Bakery
      4906 Joyce Street
      604-439-1414

      The completo is Chile’s most famous street food, and you’ll definitely need both hands for this oversized hot dog piled high with sauerkraut, chopped tomato, mashed avocado, and mayonnaise. Forget about the calories and dive right in—you’ll be glad you did!

      Best place to see Chilean cinema

      Vancouver Latin American Film Festival

      Since 2003, VLAFF has been the premier showcase for Latin American cinema in Vancouver. The festival takes place in early September, but special screenings happen year-round. See www.vlaff.org/ for info.

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