A Brief History of Chile

Brief History of Chile

Has published writer and journalist Alfredo Sepúlveda Cereceda. The work tries to condense from the last Ice Age to our previous revolution, in tight 541 pages, with their own notes.

It is a journey from time immemorial-when the narrow strip that is now known as our territory was submerged in the depths of the oceans (several million years ago) – to this day, including The Thousand Days of Salvador Allende, the military dictatorship, the plebiscite and the transition, the complex cohabitation of civil governments with the Armed Forces, the social unrest and the “Penguin revolution”, led by the students in 2011.

It is a daring, as entertaining, effort to sum up our history, in the way of a chronicler, with a supposedly “objective” look, with great strokes, getting the readers to recognize us as protagonists.

In a somewhat novel way, the author describes the long and bloody wars waged by our native peoples, before the arrival of the Incas and then the Spaniards, who “discovered” our America and intended to “domesticate” them, most of the time in blood and fire, with successes limited to our days.

A tale that captivates. Certainly not so much the scholars or scholars of the history of the country. But it will stimulate the journey to young people, and not so young, who never submerged, or only slightly traveled through it in school times.

We go through the struggles of independence and the long journey to become a nation. We identify the first political parties and their struggles for Hegemony, distinguish the origins of the Pacific War and the complex peace sealed with Peru and Bolivia, The Times of bonanza and the emergence of the social question. We appreciate the new workers ‘ movements and parties, the emergence of the lion of Tarapacá, the phenomenon of urbanism, radical governments, the revolution in freedom, the Chilean road to socialism, the 1973 coup d’état, the cycles of the military dictatorship and the tensions within the FF.AA. The 1988 referendum and the transition to democracy, from Patricio Aylwin to Sebastián Piñera, in his first term, including the so-called “penguin revolution”, which unexpectedly changed the country’s agenda.

It is a daring, as an entertaining effort to summarize our history, in the way of a chronicler, with a supposedly “objective” look, with great strokes, getting the readers to recognize us as protagonists.

It attracts that it addresses the most recent events and events, which so many accommodate to the measure of their interests or points of view, but which remain in the collective memory by their own experiences, those of families, their environment and relations, based on indescribable facts.

Undoubtedly, the author’s perspective to face this recent history – the same one that ignites the passions among those who supported the 1973 coup d’état and its opponents or victims – will stimulate more than a sharp controversy among those who justify or attempt to explain, by “historical context”, the massive and systematic violations of human rights and the majority that condemns them.

All this within the framework of ideological postures, supported by powerful political and financial interests, associated with the direct intervention of the United States government in that historic milestone that transformed Salvador Allende into a martyr of democracy that leaves a legacy to be vindicated.

Surely, the author’s perspective to face this recent history – the same one that ignites the passions among those who supported the 1973 coup d’état and its opponents or victims – will stimulate more than a sharp controversy among those who justify or attempt to explain, by “historical context”, the massive and systematic violations of human rights and the majority that condemns them.

Beyond the historical value, academic, literary and journalistic, which contains a Brief History of Chile Alfredo Sepúlveda, your work reinstalled discussions long passed, is certainly not resolved, about our recent history and the teachings that she might be able to extract the new generations.

It is no small matter for a story so long and presented in such a condensed and entertaining way. A book worth reading.