Sublime Photography or It's Amazing How Many Stories One Photograph Tells

I'd like to invite you to visit some photographs from the period we spoke about during the chat. I'm a bit worried about posting photographs without permission from the authors, for which reason I will just publish the links. I'll start off by recommending one of my favourite photographers, Marcelo Montecino, who shot a wealth of beautiful and poignant material during the years before, during and after the military regime. I know little about him, except that he was born in the early forties, he was brought up and educated during part of his life in the United States, I know he has a brother who (aged in his twenties) was made to disappear during the early days of the regime, (Spring days, dark hours) and I also know his work is sublime.

The photograph I have chosen for this post can be found here. I suggest you open the link on a separate window so that you can flit back and forth as you read this (in case you don't know how to do this, using the right hand button on your mouse should do it!)

Please visit it, it's so beautiful. As you can see it's a shot of a bunch of people sitting on the steps of a grand old building somewhere in Chile (I think it's probably the Cathedral in Santiago, but I'm not 100% sure) being drenched by the guanaco. What is the guanaco? I hear you ask. Well, most people in Chile know of two types of guanaco. The original and furry version of the guanaco is this one:

The guanaco, or lama guanicoe (scientific name) is a camelid animal native to South America, including Chile. The guanaco has a quirky habit of spitting a mix of saliva and digested food when threatened or attacked (and also apparently when the male tries to subdue the female.) A strange habit indeed! The other guanaco, however, is this one (and it has even stranger habits):

This more modern and man-made version of the guanaco doesn't have a scientific name. As you can see it's a type of police tank/water cannon. Like the furry guanaco, it spits, although it does so under very different conditions. This is why it's widely known as the guanaco. It is used in Chile by Carabineros police to control and disperse crowds and individuals during protests. It shoots water with great force at very high pressure, and is capable of physically shifting bodies. Sometimes, the water is mixed with chemicals or foul smelling dirty contaminants.

Let's go back to the photograph. It's from 1988, two years before Chile got democracy back. It looks like a surrealist oil painting to me. There's even a religious hint to it. It makes me think of the 12 apostles multiplied by 10. There's a sign above the huddled mass, it reads: EN CHILE SE TORTURA: LA TV CALLA. It means: PEOPLE ARE TORTURED IN CHILE : THE TV KEEPS QUIET. These people, obviously being attacked by the police guanaco, belonged to the Sebastian Acevedo Movement Against Torture. The movement, founded in 1983 by a Jesuit priest named José Aldunate, was a peaceful movement against torture. Peaceful meant it swore to not use violence of any type to protest against torture. For example, they would meet (punctually) and sit outside a secret police torture center holding signs saying "PEOPLE ARE TORTURED HERE", or they would carry out massive mailing/handing out of letters denouncing human rights violations.

Who was Sebastián Acevedo? The movement took its name from a Chilean man called Sebastián Acevedo, who burnt himself alive on a sunny Spring day of November 11 1983 in the main square of the Chilean city of Concepción on the steps of the Cathedral, to protest against the detention of his two children (both young adults, a woman and a man) by armed civilians three days earlier. Knowing they were most probably detained by the CNI secret police (state agents) and unable to get help, Mr Acevedo decided to burn himself alive in plain daylight. Torture was a common practice in Chile in those days, in fact, it was carried out systematically as state policy. Mr Acevedo, aged 50 at the time, knew his children would be tortured and so he shouted for them to be returned to him intact, as he doused his body in paraffin. He then set himself alight. Mr Acevedo died some hours later in hospital, but not before knowing that his daughter had been released (she was set free hours after he burnt himself, and managed to speak to him before he died.) His son was also released and it is widely believed that they were saved by their father's protest, and that this ultimate act of public sacrifice actually helped other political prisoners by making it known throughout the world that torture was rife in Chile .

The movement came to an end in 1990, after the first democratic government was sworn in, and Augusto Pinochet's secret police lost the control granted to it during 17 years.

There you are! So many stories behind one photograph. Marcelo Montecino, his brother Christian, the two types of guanaco, an anti torture movement and the love of a father. There's actually many more, but it's so late I must get a rest. I was hoping to go out tonight for a drink with a friend who stood me up. I was a bit peeved, but eventually it didn't matter because I finally sat down to do this and I've enjoyed it thoroughly, even though the stories can be so sad. I hope you found it interesting.

Until the next post!!!

P.S.
If you would like to see some more photographs of this type, including some by a US born photographer (but based in Chile), Helen Hughes, I recommend you visit this excellent site called Chile from Within. Many of the photographs are subtitled in English.