Terrorism in Copayapu?
I arrived in Copiapó this morning after the 12 hour bus ride from Santiago and was pretty tired since the five guys sitting in the rows in front of me wouldn´t stop talking all night. But when we got off the bus, we became friends- I saw that they all had instruments and asked where they would be playing. They have a gig here in town tonight so I am going to stop by and check ´em out.While walking around looking like a lost tourist (Lonely Planet guide and map of Copiapó in hand), this photographer came up to me and asked me if I was a tourist. Duh. But we got to talking and I learned the whole history of Copiapó and the fallacies (according to him) that are written in the books (or carved in stone, as in some cases). Some quick examples- four of the religious statues in in this town that became noted as the "guardians" of the military after the war in the north were actually first "guardians" of Bolivia´s army- in other words, they were stolen. Although most histoy books say that Copiapó is the site to the fisrt locomotive in South America, it is actually the third- but the first in Chile. According to the monument in town, the discovery of silver here in the 1800`s is attributed to Juan Godoy- but it was really his mom who found it and it was Juan who capitalized it. Even the town´s name, which is said to mean "golden chalice" (copa in Spanish mean goblet or chalice) was really a big misunderstanding- it was originally a native word (Copayapu) whose meaning had something to do with greenery or pasture but since the settlers killed all of the native population in this particular area, no one really knows for sure.
We discussed quite a few things- most notably the Catholic church´s imposed presence in South America. Something he said struck a chord with the chat we had at yesterday´s Rotary meeting (I went to a dinner meeting at Peter`s host club right before catching my bus up here). The topic of discussion, spurred by the occurences in Chechnya, was terrorism. Some conclusions drawn about this tactic were that it is drawn from the struggle for power in order to defend intersts, be it political, territorial, religious, personal, etc, and that often times it is considered terrorism depending on whose point of view you share.
The idea that these people took over a school filled with children is horrific- and this exact action is what brings terror to all of us. Someone commented that the fact that it was a school made it completely inhumane.... So what? If it would have been a hospital or a retirement home, would that have made it any more humane?
But I just don´t get why these actions and tactics are being purported as new- after all, this is exactly what history had been made of- the Spanish conquistadores did the same thing when they came to settle in Latin America (that was Victor`s, the photographer´s, comment). As a matter of fact, they instilled terror by wiping out whole villages (men, women, AND children) solely because they wanted claim to a land that was already populated and the people, who had their own distinct religion and histoy, couldn´t be made to believe in what they were being told (did that have anything to do with the fact that they didn´t speak the same language?). The same goes for US history- but I don´t recall ever reading anything in our histoy books about the nonconformists seeking religious freedom in New England who massacred the native population as being terrorists.
The difference now lies in the globalized world and ease of communication, and I wonder- if every person in the 17th century had a television to watch the slaughter of millions in the name of "prosperity" and "freedom", would they have considered the founders of Western society, the settlers in Copayapu or New England as terrorists?
I love Copiapó.
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