Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Surviving a Tsunami: The story of Valdivians in 1960

[R] The smell of raw fish wavers in the air. Berries, vegetables, and seaweed overflow the temporary booths. Sea lions jump from the river onto concrete pillars to be fed discarded fish. Merchants shout out the variety of fish they?re selling and market-goers crowd around interesting-looking seafood.

This would seem an unconventional place for college students to visit on spring break. We came all the way from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts to this misty city in Chile?s southern lakes region to study something that happened decades ago. Valdivia?s central market is actually two to three meters below where it stood fifty years ago. The largest earthquake in recorded history?9.5 on the Richter scale?hit the city in 1960, destroying buildings and sinking the land. Minutes later, a giant tsunami created by the quake hit the coast, flooding the city and the entire region.

Valdivians who lived through the 1960 earthquake fear their stories will one day die as well. It?s sad, but slowly the stories are being lost. I like listening to stories, so I wanted to find some stories from those who experienced the disaster firsthand. Leonardo Mancini was a teacher in Valdivia in 1960. We were on the riverbank opposite the city?s center the night he told me his story. [:xy]

[Act 1S][Disk 2 Track 2/3:27-3:49]?Yo estaba en mi casa, a dos cuadras de la plaza... no quedo nada? [:xy] (I was in my house, two blocks down from the center of Valdivia, two blocks from the plaza, in the main street, the Picarti Ave. That's where I lived and nothing was left because my house was built on a lake.)

[Rodrigo]Unknown to him at the time, his house was situated on an ancient lakebed. Along with the rest of the city, it collapsed in only a few seconds. He described it as being the end of the world. Leonardo still misses some buildings, reminders of the old Valdivia that's now replaced with the city before us.

[Act 2S][Disk 2 Track 2/4:20] ?Uno hecha de menos muchas cosas. Como por ejemplo ese edificio...?

(You miss a lot of things. For example, that building used to look like a castle. It was Valdivia's beer factory. You miss for example the fire department's tower. It was tall and had 4 clocks, one on each face. For 20 or 30 years afterwards I'd look up to see the time and it wasn't there. Things like that happen to you, but little by little things get rebuilt.)

[Rodrigo] As devastating as the earthquake was, it wasn?t the only disaster to hit the area that day. A few miles from Valdivia, picturesque towns and fishing villages lined the coast. Approaching towards these at an incredible speed was a ?maremoto,? or tsunami, that was to wipe them all out.

[Act 3S][Disk 2 Track 8/0:30]?Vino un temblor muy fuerte. Se abria la tierra. De repente, miramos al mar y venia una mar tremenda.?

(There was a very strong earthquake. The ground cracked and opened in places. Suddenly, we looked towards the sea and a tremendous tide was coming.)

[Rodrigo] Erna Pacheco was in Quieule, one of the devastated villages that day. She still lives there, much higher up a hill though. She recently started a gymnastics club with some friends and walks daily to the nearest gym, in the next village. She told me her story on her way back from gym class. A kind woman in her 80?s, she still remembers, with some difficulty, what she and her town went through that day.

[Act 4S][Disk 2 Track 8/1:40] ?Nosotros arrancamos para el cerro--toda la gente. Otros quedaron abajo, los que se ahogaron. Habia una fiesta en el cerro y cuando iban para abajo ahi los pillo.?

(We took off towards the mountain, everyone did. Some stayed behind though, the ones that drowned. There was a party up in the hill, and when the people were coming down, that's when the wave got them.)
[Act 5S][Disk 2 Track 9/19:20] ?Se vino por el rio arrastrando botes, se fue para alla arriba. Ahi venia la casa, la vimos cuando fue pasando. Que pena. [R: Que penso?] Que nos ibamos a morir.?

(It came up the river, dragging boats. It went up that way. There came our house, we saw it as it was going by. What a shame. [R in English: ?what did you think then??] That we were going to die.)

[Rodrigo] I asked her if it's something she still remembers often. Her reply was that she remembers it every day of her life, as though it were a bad dream. She says it's something that those who lived through it will never forget. But despite the memories, she says she thinks the town is much better off now, with newer houses and better services. To lighten the mood, one of her friends couldn't help but make a joke when I asked about why they have a gym club.

[Act 6S][Disk 2 Track 9/2:19] ?Para soltar el cuerpo, para la salud. Por si se sale el mar otra vez, para poder arrancar.?

(To loosen up the body, for health. So that if the sea recedes again we can run away!)

[Rodrigo] Only a few miles from where Erna stood, tangible proof of the tsunami still haunts the seaport. The mast and chimneys of a sunken steamer, the ?Canelo,? have been rusting for over 40 years and still protrude from the water. A grim reminder of the many ships that sank because of the tsunami in the shallow waters of the bay. Hilde Normand accompanied us as we toured the area by boat. She had been here that day, on the sunken ?Canelo.?

[Act 6S][Disk 3 Track 4/0:35- 1:05] ?ahi almorze ese dia?era un bonito vapor?

(I had lunch there that day. In that steamer. It was in Corral Bay. [R: what do you feel when you see that ship?] what do I feel? It's been so many years. It was a nice steamer, a very nice ship.)

[Rodrigo] Only a few hours before it sank, she was on the very ship that now lies dead in the bay. Forty six years later and just a few feet away from the rusty remains, Hilde was telling me about her lunch that day. It was chilling to see the ship so close yet so different from how it used to be, and even more striking to see Hilde's reaction.

[Ambi 1][Disk 3 Track 2/12:10]: (PA Announcement of the Canelo) fade in under track, post in clear for 2 sec, fade under track.

[Rodrigo] Her expression and mood changed as soon as our guide announced the wrecks on the PA, and her attention was captured by the aging iron. She stood up, pointed, and told me the story behind the ship. Her father was a sea captain, so after lunch in the Canelo, she went to meet him at a reception on another boat. That?s where she was when the tsunami struck, on a boat that also now lies beneath the waves.

[Act 8S][Disk 2 Track 14/14:09] ?Entre la primera y seginda ola de repente vino algo y se seco delante de nosotros como 500 metros. Se formo como una especia de crater, y ahi se fue con la corriente y se fue un vaporcito de pasajero y estuvimos en el canto de eso.?

(Between the first and second wave, suddenly something happened and the area in front of us dried up-- about 500 meters in front of the ship. A sort of crater formed and a small passenger steamship fell in. We were right on the verge of falling in as well.)

[Act 9S][Disk 2 Track 14/12:17] ?Las casas que flotaban, se las llevaba el mar mientras nosotros andabamos con el vapor para adentro y para afuera, iban los hombres montados el los techos. De esos dicen que se salvaron muchos. Como? No se.?

(The houses that floated were dragged out by the sea, while we were dragged in and out on the ship. There were men on the roofs of the houses that were taken, and they say that many of those survived. How? I have no idea.)

[Act 10S][Disk 2 Track 14/11:14] ?El cuadro fue terrible. Imaginese usted, habiamos caminado por un camino, por casas, vivian muchos marinos en esas casas. No habia nada. Quedo practicamente Corral Bajo asi... como una playa.?

(The scene was terrible. Imagine, there were houses and a road through which we had walked. Many sailors lived in those houses. Then there was nothing. Lower Corral was practically reduced to a beach.)

[Act 11S][Disk 2 Track 14/16:05] ?La gente que estaba en los cerros nos conto despues que ellos no se explicaban como este vapor no se dio vuelta. Nosotros no podiamos opinar porque el miedo y la desesperacion que sentiamos en ese momento, como ya le dije, ya yo lo unico que deseaba era morir rapido.?

(The people that were in the mountains later told us that they couldn't explain how the steamship didn't flip over. We couldn't say, because with the fear and desperation that we were feeling at the moment, the only thing I wanted at that point was to die quickly.)

[Rodrigo] For survivors like Erna, Hilde and Leonardo, their experiences in 1960 are very much a part of their lives today. Like them, many still haven?t been able to get over the tragedy. Other survivors, however, focus on the reconstruction and revival of Valdivia and of their lives. Pelusa Van de Maele was in Valdivia when the earthquake struck. [:xy]

[Act 12S][Disk 2 Track 11/7:00] ?La mayoria de los Valdivianos antiguos, todavia lloran todavia se quejan y todavia estan aplastados. Pero yo creo que eso no, eso tiene que darte fuerza para pasar esa etapa, porque es una etapa y eso le pasa a mucha gente no solamente a ti. No te puedes aduenar de la tragedia, de que terrible. Ya paso, ya estas vivo y puedes levantarte. Eso es lo mas importante. Fue algo positivo.

(Most old people in Valdivia still cry, still complain and are still crushed. But I think that that shouldn?t be, that it should give you strength to get over that stage, because it's a stage and it happened to many people?not just you. You can't hold on to the tragedy, to how terrible it was. It's over, you're alive and you can get up. That's the most important thing. In the end, it was something positive.)

[Rodrigo] After the earthquake, Pelusa fled to the island where the UACh has its campus to avoid the flooding. There, where her husband was a professor, she lived for over a year. They took over a small office and, with small children, they were able to survive until they could build a new house. [:xy]

She is now in the process of compiling a book of poetry about the earthquake and the tsunami. I visited her house one night, and amidst raspberry meringue cake she read us her favorite poem, ?Primavera hacia el sur,? ?Spring for the South?.

[Act 12S][Disk 2 Track 12/3:00] A few stanza of Poem, ?Primavera hacia el Sur? by Sara Vial [Fade down under next track]

[R] Written by Chilean ecologist Sara Vial, the poem talks of the spring being carried by boats to the devastated towns of southern Chile. It mentions how even though broken lamps have to be fixed and trees have to be bandaged, you shouldn?t hang on to the grief forever. It says that even though the city?s gone through much suffering, help is being sent from ports around the world and with courage, Valdivia and its people will recover. [:xy]

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