Winnipeggers commemorate 50th anniversary of Chilean military coup

Fifty years after a military coup d'état toppled a democratically elected government in Chile, Winnipeg's Chilean community commemorated the solemn anniversary.

Hundreds of Winnipeggers, many with and some without ties to the South American country, came together at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain on Monday evening to reflect on one of Chile's most historically significant events.

Bernardo Jorquera was in the Chilean capital of Santiago the day after the bombs inflicted damage at La Moneda presidential palace and military troops rebelled against socialist president Salvador Allende in September 1973.

Jorquera, who organized Monday's commemorative event, was detained by troops who were loyal to Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He says he spent about nine months in several locations; the last was the notorious Chacabuco concentration camp in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.

Jorquera remembers seeing so many of his fellow Chileans rounded up by Chilean military personnel, many of whom he never saw again.

"I was lucky I was not at my place," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Chileans went into exile or emigrated in the wake of the coup, including Jorquera.

Pinochet led Chile's military dictatorship from 1973-90 before he died at the age of 91. Jorquera feels there are still many people who support Pinochet and the government he built. 

Jorquera believes it's necessary for the Chilean and international community to remember the anniversary of the coup.

"It's very important, because if we forget about this, we're going to forget what to do in the future, and many, many things happened there that everybody has to remember that, or they have to know. Even after the coup, many Chileans grew up in Chile … and they don't know too much about the commemoration," he said.

"It's something to heal for us, and to tell the Canadian community that democracy is very important."

Like Jorquera, Carlos Sosa's family fled Chile.

His grandfather was a supporter of Allende. He too was detained and blacklisted.

"That had an impact. He's no longer around, but those stories continue to have an impact on me today," Sosa said on CBC Manitoba afternoon radio show Up To Speed.

Sosa's grandparents and father immigrated to Canada and landed in Winnipeg, but it wasn't always easy for them.

"For my grandfather, it was difficult for him to find employment because he had difficulty learning English," Sosa said.

"My grandmother also found it very difficult because she was separated. She had to live in Brazil before emigrating [to Canada] and had to go through numerous immigration applications to apply to be sponsored to emigrate to Canada as a refugee [arriving in 1976]."

Sosa's father was the first ambassador of the Chilean pavilion at Folklorama and was a member of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. But he always remembered his South American roots.

So does Sosa, and he, like his dad, takes advocacy work seriously. He works with an inner city organization to support tenants and their rights.

Sosa had several questions burning in the back of his mind before Monday evening's event. He's interested in learning more about the Chile his grandparents grew up in — the one before the coup.

"I'm looking forward to connecting with Chileans who knew my family growing up to tell me some of the stories that I don't know, because my grandfather, grandmother and father have all passed away," he said.