{"id":910,"date":"2012-01-19T15:05:30","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T19:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=910"},"modified":"2013-10-23T11:54:21","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T15:54:21","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-november-27-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-november-27-1977\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: November 27, 1977"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Page-1-McNair-to-Hall-11-27-1977\"<\/a>\"Page-2-McNair-to-Hall-11-27-1977\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

November 27, 1977<\/p>\n

Dear Don & Jane \u2013-<\/p>\n

I am writing once again in haste. Your letter arrived yesterday,
\ncatching us in the middle of preparations for a trip south, to
\nConcepcion. Diane, the kids & I are going there for a week -\u2013 I am
\nto do four \u201cAmerican\u201d lectures at the U. Concepcion. All of our
\nexpenses are being covered by the University & by the Fulbright
\nCommission; thus, our first extensive travel in Chile will be free.<\/p>\n

But I wanted to get a few words off to you both before
\ngoing. First, to tell you I\u2019m awfully glad to have those 31 \u00a2
\nstamps. I don\u2019t really need so many (what faith you have in my
\noutput!), but the surplus is the most wonderful luxury
\nfor me, without stamps only a day ago. I also wanted to
\nlet you know about a reading on Thurs. night (Thanksgiving)
\nby N. Parra of his new book Sermons Y Pr\u00e9dicas
\nde [sic] Cristo de Elqui<\/span>. I enclose an article from Santiago\u2019s
\nmajor newspaper, El Mercurio<\/span>, Nov. 19, announcing the
\nreading and explaining that Parra has taken up residence
\nin Isla Negra, following the example of Neruda.<\/p>\n

Oh \u2013 forgot to mention that Diane & I went to the reading
\nwith friends and enjoyed it in spite of our very limited
\nSpanish (we are now taking lessons).<\/p>\n

The enclosed article points out that Artifacts<\/span>, Parra\u2019s
\nlast book of poems (not a book, really, but a pack of
\npoems, which resembled playing cards, in a box)
\ncontained many verses that were anti-Allende. Our
\nfriends concur with that assessment. In one passage
\nof Sermons Y Pr\u00e9dicas<\/span>, by the way, Parra agrees that there
\nare violations of human rights in Chile, now there is
\nan inequitable distribution of wealth. Then he asks, in
\nwhat other country of the world are these things not true?
\n(Since he is speaking through the persona of Cristo de Elqui,
\na preacher of Santiago in the 1930\u2019s, he is technically<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

referring to the dictatorship and the social conditions of the 1930s
\nin the passage; actually, of course, he is referring to the present.<\/p>\n

So Parra is very much alive \u2013 and not, perhaps,
\nas disturbed about being in Chile as folks might think.
\nBy the way, it\u2019s my opinion, after having been here 3 months,
\nthat the press in the U.S. has caricatured conditions here \u2013
\nIt seems to me that Allende was not as pure, and that
\nthe Junta is not as monstrous, as we have been led to
\nbelieve. I will write more about this when I have time,
\nthat which there is little of at present.<\/p>\n

I promise at last a card from Concepcion
\nand a ^longer letter not long after I return.<\/p>\n

Thanks once again for the stamps. Hope all
\nis well at Eagle Pond Farm!<\/p>\n

Wes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n\n
\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] November 27, 1977 Dear Don & Jane \u2013- 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 -\u2013 I am to do four \u201cAmerican\u201d lectures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27136,35504,35505,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9380,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/9380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}