The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández (inspirational books .txt) 📗

disappeared

Light candles in front of the cathedral,

I see the little flames go out

in jets from the water cannons.

First national protest.

Santiago governor Carol Urzúa dies

in an ambush.

Five MIR members gunned down in retaliation

on Calle Janequeo and Calle Fuenteovejuna.

My mother-in-law locks the door

when she hears the shots.

M hears it all from the thirteenth floor.

The man who tortured people

comes home with bloodstained pants.

His wife notices.

The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front

commences its activities

with a first general blackout,

my grandmother buys candles by the dozen.

New national protest.

Stones thrown at Pinochet in Punta Arenas.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral,

I see the little flames go out

in another jet from the water cannons.

The man who tortured people

arrives at the Cauce magazine offices.

I want to talk, he says.

Priest André Jarlan is killed

in the settlement of La Victoria.

The man who tortured people

takes refuge on Catholic Church property.

His superiors search for him.

State of siege declared,

opposition press banned.

The man who tortured people leaves Chile.

The man who tortured people seeks asylum in France.

Los Prisioneros launch La voz de los ochenta.

New earthquake in the Zona Central.

Brothers Rafael and Eduardo Vergara Toledo

are killed by a national police patrol.

On the road to Pudahuel Airport,

Santiago Nattino, Manuel Guerrero, and José Manuel Parada

are found with their throats slit.

We go to their wake, we go to their burial.

New national protest.

We scatter flyers in the center of Santiago.

We see a headline on the cover of Cauce magazine

that reads I TORTURED PEOPLE,

we decide that the torturer

looks like our science teacher.

Back to the Future is released.

Marty McFly breaks the barriers of time

and space and travels to the past.

Halley’s Comet passes.

A psychic claims to speak

to the Virgin in Peñablanca.

In France, the man who tortured people keeps speaking out

from his hiding place.

New national protest,

we scatter more leaflets in the center of Santiago.

The young photographer Rodrigo Rojas de Negri

is burned to death by an army patrol.

Vigils, days of reflection, marches.

Sábado gigante debuts in the U.S.

Attempted assassination of Pinochet

by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front,

Pinochet escapes and claims to have seen the Virgin.

The reporter Pepe Carrasco is assassinated.

In France, the man who tortured people keeps speaking out

from his hiding place.

The pope visits Chile.

We go to the National Stadium to see him,

we go to Parque O’Higgins to see him.

Stones are thrown at us and we’re drenched in water and tear gas.

Cecilia Bolocco is crowned Miss Universe.

Twelve members of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front

die in Operation Albania.

Vigils, protests, marches.

Meetings of the student movement Pro Feses

in a warehouse on Calle Serrano.

Seventy-seven actors receive death threats.

Superman visits Chile in support of his fellow thespians.

We go to see him at the Matucana Warehouse.

The mother of a classmate is kidnapped.

Days later she turns up with her nipples sliced

by a razor blade.

In France, the man who tortured people keeps speaking out

from his hiding place.

Family members of the disappeared

light more and more candles in front of the cathedral.

The Coalition of Parties for NO is created.

The poet Enrique Lihn dies.

Pinochet is declared candidate for president.

The NO campaign begins.

The YES campaign begins.

Marches, rallies, water cannons, detentions.

Plebiscite in Chile.

Vote YES for the regime to stand.

Vote NO for the regime to end.

NO wins.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral.

I enroll

at the Universidad Católica’s Theater School.

Rod Stewart sings at the National Stadium.

Cóndor Rojas cuts his own forehead

at the Maracanã Stadium.

MIR leader Jécar Neghme

is shot and killed on Calle Bulnes.

The Berlin Wall falls.

Back to the Future II is released.

Marty McFly breaks the barriers of time

and space and travels to the year 2015 to save his children.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral.

Presidential elections.

Patricio Aylwin Azócar, candidate of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, wins.

Celebration of democracy at the National Stadium.

A group of us get tickets and go together.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral.

They’re sure that now they’ll learn

the whereabouts of their family members.

Congress is back in session.

David Bowie concert at the National Stadium.

I meet the Thin White Duke and want to be like him.

Amnesty International organizes two concerts.

I see Sinéad O’Connor live

and want to be like her too.

Months later I decide to shave my head.

The remains of Salvador Allende

are moved to the General Cemetery

with state honors.

Spectacular rescue

of Marco Ariel Antonioletti of the Lautarista Youth Movement

from Sótero del Río Hospital.

Hours later he is shot in the forehead and killed

by PDI assault troops

at the house of Coalitionist Juan Carvajal.

Army placed on alert in response to investigation

of the pinocheques, illegal checks paid out to Pinochet’s son.

Three thousand five hundred and fifty counts

of human rights violations

are documented in the Rettig Report.

President Patricio Aylwin

asks the forgiveness of victims’ families

for the abuses.

He announces that justice will be done

to the extent possible.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral.

They’re still waiting for word

about the whereabouts of their family members.

Back to the Future III is released.

Marty McFly breaks the barriers of time and space

and travels to the past to try to correct the future.

The Patriotic Front assassinates Jaime Guzmán

at the Eastern Campus gate

of the Universidad Católica.

We see it all from the bus stop.

Fiestas Spandex at the Esmeralda Theater.

The Patriotic Front kidnaps Cristián Edwards,

son of the owner of El Mercurio.

Two Patriotic Front members are gunned down

when they leave the house where they’re holding a family hostage.

It all happens on the corner by my school.

Erich Honecker and his wife Margot

arrive requesting asylum.

Sor Teresa de Los Andes is canonized.

Boinazo near La Moneda:

army troops muster in combat uniform

protesting the opening of the pinocheques case again.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral.

There are no more water cannons, but still no answers.

Three Lautaristas are killed

on the bus on which they escaped after an attack.

The police kill three passengers and wound twelve.

Eduardo Frei Jr. wins the presidential elections.

Kurt Cobain commits suicide in Seattle.

The Memorial of Disappeared and Executed Persons is inaugurated.

Family members of the disappeared

light candles in front of the cathedral.

Rolling Stones in concert at the National Stadium.

M and I take our backpacks

and set off around the