February to March in Santiago; there was much less traffic, the kids on holiday, half the population at the seaside. It was hot and bright in the blazing sun. I ate scrambled eggs for breakfast every weekday morning in the 'Coffee Break' snack bar on Apoquindo with Rosario Sur. The owners, Katy and Rolo, proudly framed a page from Chile's most famous cartoon strip 'Condorito', in which they themselves have been immortalised by the graphic team who continue the work of the late Rene Rios Boettiger, known as 'Pepo'. Here the same nice couple who served me attend to the little vulture in the comic.
For more information on 'Condorito', see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorito
My two artist friends remained in town; the comic-strip draughtsman Juan Vasquez (http://www.juanvasquez.cl/) had good news. Alejandro Jodorowsky chose him to adapt his 1970 film 'El Topo' into a graphic novel format. A few months ago, during the students' riots and occupations, Juan's path crossed with that of Marcelo Gamonal (http://marcelogamonal.blogspot.com), when Juan's group 'A Mano Alzada' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxJqwkAM9FU&feature=share) stuck their cartoon-strip posters on the same university walls that Marcelo was using to showcase his 'controversial' photomontages. Marcelo exhibits in the dry Mapocho riverbed. His shows are now 'by invitation only', since he has become a target for right-wing Catholic thugs. Marcelo is wearing the Monty Python 'Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition' T-shirt I sent him from London. The three of us finally met together in the Instituto Alpes on the 9th of March (below, from left to right, Hawthorne, Gamonal and Vasquez).
I saw the Roberto Matta exhibition in the Moneda Cultural Space. It was inspiring to see the large scale images so well-lit. Saturday 25th February and Friday 2nd March found me starting and completing a banner-size picture at Marcelo's house in the Quinta Normal, in enamel paint and charcoal.
(below, overlapping with a Matta from the Museo de Bellas Artes). I managed to get something off my chest about both Hitler's Condor Legion, the 1973 Fascist coup and the sections of Chilean society who continue to applaud it. See - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCsj02nvbps&feature=youtu.be
In the video, an image showing a stout man in front of a cross, with a model dressed as a nun and a black dog, is propped against the wall beside me. The man in the picture is the late Patricio Egania, a key figure in Santiago's underworld, a notorious armed robber and cocaine vendor to the degenerate entrepreneur Claudio Spiniak. Marcelo befriended Patricio shortly before the criminal's violent and mysterious death in 2006, photographing him for his provocative 'Hijo de Perro' series. Chile's National TV station broadcasted a docu-drama about Patricio, a kind of latter day Jean Genet, which can be seen in 7 parts at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLRqDmQ2iyY&feature=share
With the release of Meryl Streep's film, I couldn't resist taking a back-handed swipe at Maggie with a few posters stuck around the city centre, reminding people of her support for Pinochet. Pity I didn't depict his ugly mug more accurately in the original painting, but hopefully the message is clear. Naturally, the British Ambassador invited selected guests to a private screening of 'The Iron Lady' at the Embassy, as if it was a cause for celebration. We await a film about the treacherous general.
Chile remains as divided as ever. The Fascist mayor of the Providencia district recently suggested erecting a statue in honour of the convicted torturer Miguel Krassnoff, who ran the infamous interrogation and murder centres in 38 Calle Londres and the Villa Grimaldi. I read Monica Echeverria's biography of this officer, of Ukrainian Nazi descent; 'Krassnoff - Arrastrado Por Su Destino' (Santiago de Chile: Catalonia, 2008), as well as Manuel Salazar's 'Las Letras Del Horror - Tomo 1: La DINA' (Santiago de Chile: LOM Ediciones, 2011). Finally, I informed myself about the Claudio Spiniak affair with Pablo Vergara & Ana Maria Sanhueza's 'Spiniak Y Los Demonios De La Plaza De Armas' (Santiago de Chile: Escuela De Periodismo Universidad Diego Portales/ La Copa Rota, 2008). All this, with ten days in Ecuador and the completion of another chapter of my pirate novel, made the time fly. I'm waiting till April to see if I won anything with my competition blog, a little post about Montanita in Ecuador, for Matador Network. I returned to discover that Roehampton University had awarded me a First Class Honours Degree in Creative Writing. I'll have to put it to good use now! Keep those buccaneers on the move!
