04/02/2017 10:00am
The next day, Rafael and Renato bring us to the "Tres Alamos”, the concentration camp where they were cellmates. None of us is aware of what the Tres Alamos became. When we arrived, we find out a detention center for minors.
We meet the psychologist of the teenagers in a corridor when we were about to leave. His brother also was incarcerated in the Tres Alamos during the dictature, so he decides to help. He introduces us discreetly in the basement and improvises a visit.
" We have a complicated history, " says Rafael. " There is a museum of memory in Santiago, but we would like to open more commemoration places. Until last year, we could not even say "torture" in Chile. The official word to describe what happened to us was "illegitimate demand". "
“ Anyway, ” says Renato, “ What I remember at the Tres Alamos are the stupid nicknames we were using. It was fun. I was "el telefono" (the phone) because I was talking a lot. When Cococho made his white poncho with a blanket, you could only see his pink face, so we started to called him ”Chancho con puré" (Pork with smashed potatoes). There was another one limping to the side, so we called him something like “Fool the tile". We laughed well, fortunately : humor and solidarity saved us. "
The world is terrible but I do not know a better one.
Ingeborg Bachmann