So basically one of the first things many gringos ask about when or before we get to Chile is Pinocho. It's a taboo subject among the natives because talking about El General is pretty much guaranteed to lead to the same old tired argument that has two positions: he was good for Chile, he was bad for Chile. There is no, "well, things sucked with Allende, so perhaps a cous de etat was necessary, but maybe Pinocho & co. se fue en la volada killing innocent people, etc." Seventeen years is a hell-ass long freaking time to have had him as dictator/general of this country and people have strong opinions about him...basically they love him or they hate him. Perhaps there are people out there who actually lived in Chile during those years and are indifferent or ambivalent about him. They probably live in Puyuhuapi. Anyway, I do plan to ask people their feelings about "El general" to see if I hear anything new with regards to the subject. I haven't brought the topic up since like 2000, because I got bored of hearing the same 2 answers...that he's great or that he sucked...and the same ideas and people, enfatically discussed over and over: communists, socialists*, civil war, capitalism, los desaparecidos, human rights, etc. Any other positions out there or am I accurate to say it's just these two?
*When I've heard Chileans talk about socialists, I get the impression they make it a synonym of communists. Anyone else feel this way?
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Yes. I do feel that way.
Also, in our study abroad program they sort of insinuated that you should not bring up the subject of the dictatorship with Chileans unless you know them really well. But, I find that a lot of Chileans want to attack me about George W. Bush's doings, so I feel that gives me license to bring up Pinocho.
Yeah, you're right. It's a good idea not to bring it up, especially if you are critical of Pinocho when talking about the era. I imagine most Chileans know that most gringos think Pinochet was evil. Although, lately I've started bringing the subject up again, in search of new or different answers that may not even exist.
I find that while I do take some shit from Chileans about having Bush as our president, mostly they sympathize with me about Bush. Like, "sorry it happened to you." To which I reply: yeah, some of my compatriots are total idiots. But what can you do?
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