It isn’t a nice-looking bridge. 4 lanes of busy site visitors sprint throughout Puente Bulnes all through maximum hours. To the North, it buttresses towards two overpasses that govern to a bustling freeway. Under it, run the milky gray waters of the Mapocho River, then passing via downtown Santiago, Chile.
50 years in the past, in every other moment, this bridge was once a favourite execution website online for the army and police of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. These days, Aquiles Cordova is not going to let or not it’s forgotten—ever.
That is episode 62 of Tales of Resistance—a podcast produced via The Real News. Every date, we’ll convey you tales of resistance like this. Inspiration for cloudy occasions.
You’ll take a look at unique footage of Bulnes Bridge and the mural portray consultation there past due extreme occasion here on Michael Fox’s Patreon.
Please imagine supporting this podcast and Michael Fox’s reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you’ll be able to additionally see unique footage, video, and interviews.
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Written and produced via Michael Fox.
Transcript
Michael Fox (narrator): Aquiles Cordova followed a bridge.
It isn’t a nice-looking bridge. 4 lanes of busy site visitors sprint throughout Puente Bulnes all through maximum hours. To the North, it buttresses towards two overpasses that govern to a bustling freeway. Under it, run the milky gray waters of the Mapocho River, then passing via downtown Santiago. Chile.
Trash and discarded garments catch towards the rocky coastline or the concrete legs of the bridge. They flap within the wave. It reminds Aquiles of a future that no person needs to keep in mind, however which everybody should.
On particular days, Aquiles Cordova holds memorials.
As soon as a pace, he leads cleanup brigades.
Each and every so ceaselessly, he invitations muralists to come back. They paint the partitions. Plethora life-sized footage of faces and figures. Names and words like “Never Again.”
50 years in the past. In every other moment, this bridge was once a favourite execution website online for the army and police of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Loads had been shot and driven over the bridge into the speeding waters underneath, within the early months of the Pinochet dictatorship.
These days, Aquiles Cordova is not going to let or not it’s forgotten—ever.
For him, it’s non-public. The generation then the September eleventh coup, 1973, a tender Aquiles Cordova discovered himself at the fringe of Puente Bulnes, staring indisposed the barrel of a gun. A tender soldier at the alternative aspect, shouting orders.
Aquiles’s lifestyles flashed prior to his perceptible. He noticed all of it: beginning to provide. Like a film actual on top velocity.
And next… he was once allowed to travel. He was once one of the crucial fortunate ones.
Aquiles Cordova has gray hair now.
He’s going to by no means omit.
He received’t let any individual else omit both.
…
Hello other folks, thank you for listening. I’m your host Michael Fox.
I visited Puente Bulnes past due extreme occasion in Santiago, and coated one of the crucial mural portray actions there. It’s on the similar moment an attractive, unhappy and deadly playground, however the place hope is painted at the partitions, and the reminiscences are stored alive of the ones whose lives had been misplaced… in order that this terrifying future might by no means be repeated.
I’m posting some pictures of the bridge and the mural portray consultation on my Patreon. The hyperlink is within the display notes.
As at all times, when you like what you pay attention and revel in this podcast, please imagine turning into a subscriber on my Patreon. It’s only some bucks a pace. I’ve a ton of unique content material there, most effective to be had to my supporters. And each supporter in point of fact makes a extra.
That is episode 62 of Tales of Resistance, a podcast sequence produced via The Actual Information. Every date, I convey you tales of resistance and hope like this. Inspiration for cloudy occasions. If you happen to like what you pay attention, please subscribe, like, percentage, remark, or let fall a assessment.
Thank you for listening. Farewell upcoming moment.