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November 27, 1977
Dear Don & Jane –-
I am writing once again in haste. Your letter arrived yesterday,
catching us in the middle of preparations for a trip south, to
Concepcion. Diane, the kids & I are going there for a week -– I am
to do four “American” lectures at the U. Concepcion. All of our
expenses are being covered by the University & by the Fulbright
Commission; thus, our first extensive travel in Chile will be free.
But I wanted to get a few words off to you both before
going. First, to tell you I’m awfully glad to have those 31 ¢
stamps. I don’t really need so many (what faith you have in my
output!), but the surplus is the most wonderful luxury
for me, without stamps only a day ago. I also wanted to
let you know about a reading on Thurs. night (Thanksgiving)
by N. Parra of his new book Sermons Y Prédicas
de [sic] Cristo de Elqui. I enclose an article from Santiago’s
major newspaper, El Mercurio, Nov. 19, announcing the
reading and explaining that Parra has taken up residence
in Isla Negra, following the example of Neruda.
Oh – forgot to mention that Diane & I went to the reading
with friends and enjoyed it in spite of our very limited
Spanish (we are now taking lessons).
The enclosed article points out that Artifacts, Parra’s
last book of poems (not a book, really, but a pack of
poems, which resembled playing cards, in a box)
contained many verses that were anti-Allende. Our
friends concur with that assessment. In one passage
of Sermons Y Prédicas, by the way, Parra agrees that there
are violations of human rights in Chile, now there is
an inequitable distribution of wealth. Then he asks, in
what other country of the world are these things not true?
(Since he is speaking through the persona of Cristo de Elqui,
a preacher of Santiago in the 1930’s, he is technically
2/
referring to the dictatorship and the social conditions of the 1930s
in the passage; actually, of course, he is referring to the present.
So Parra is very much alive – and not, perhaps,
as disturbed about being in Chile as folks might think.
By the way, it’s my opinion, after having been here 3 months,
that the press in the U.S. has caricatured conditions here –
It seems to me that Allende was not as pure, and that
the Junta is not as monstrous, as we have been led to
believe. I will write more about this when I have time,
that which there is little of at present.
I promise at last a card from Concepcion
and a ^longer letter not long after I return.
Thanks once again for the stamps. Hope all
is well at Eagle Pond Farm!
Wes |