Antofagasta

As the plane finally descended through the low stratus clouds, I looked out the window for signs of the ground, lights, the usual signs of life one see when descending at night over a metropolis. There was nothing. I couldn't even tell we were over water or land. Maybe I imagined it, but somehow I got the sense that we were over land and that it was brown. My beliefs were confirmed a minute later by our landing on a tarmac that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Cerro Moreno (Brown Hill) is a very small airport, back in the thirties this airport supported Panagra flights from New York to Buenos Aires. Back then people would get off the plane at night, and get set up at a house the airline had in town. My Grandfather managed Panagra's operations at the airport and in town. He had drivers, and a master chef, and was himself concierge, host and gentleman. But now this airport only supports domestic flights on Chilean airlines, and hospitality comes in the form of my Aunt greeting me once I found my bags.



This is the Lan Chile plane that made my Sky Airlines plane late. They use the same gate in Santiago, and Lan simply couldn't get their act together tonight. While we are beating up on Lan, let me tell you that besides costing more they gave my cousin a cold sandwich, while I got a hot meal on Sky. The flight attendants on both could stand to be friendlier.

The Atacama Desert surrounds the town, while being driven to the Capetanupulos homestead by my Aunt Mabel from Cerro Moreno, I confirmed that even at night the ground looked brown. I mean you could tell it was brown even though there was little light, it was like the platonic form of brown.

Maybe I'm not getting this across. Imagine a beach with brown sand. OK, now imagine a blue-green pacific next to it on one side, now give yourself a few hundred yards of dirt and then lay down gigantic brown hills. That is the outskirts of Antofagasta. See?



There are "colonies" of people here from England, Greece, Croatia, China and of course Spain. My ancestry is in this place is Greek-Mestizo. My great-grandfather, Juan (his name was Ivan in Greece) came to Antofagasta from a formerly Greek (now Turkish) island called Tenedos in 1910. My great-grandmother Rosa Contreras was born up the coast in Tocapilla, one of eight children. My mother's parents met here. This place, where I have been so few times in my life, has a big impact on who I am.

Antofagasta is a mining town currently in yet another boom cycle* and like the rest of Chile, globalization has cropped up here. The town, now 300,000 strong has doubled in population in the past two years. It is a hodgepodge of dilapidated two story buildings, new shopping malls and hi-rises. In addition to boasting two (count em!), two McDonalds, cheap internet (C$400/hour or about US$.80) can be had in shops around the town. I was too busy at the time shopping for a metal detector to post entries from there. Apparently none of the electronics stores carry metal detectors. After a couple of hours of searching, I instead tried a hardware store on a whim (La Ferreteria Industrial at Maipu 549) and bought the only detector they had for about fifty bucks.

If hi-rise apartments and metal detectors weren't signs enough, a visit to the local supermarkets clinched it. The last time I was in Antofagasta was 1983. Besides the cathedral being the tallest building in town there weren't any supermarkets. In those days you went to the local store for sundries (fruiteria or bottleria), and then the butcher (carneceria) if you wanted meat and so on. The Lider and Jumbo both strategically adjacent to the costanera have full service you would expect in the states, American brands, and intense competition for shoppers. Each one has different things going for it. The Lider is more "hip" and is resident in a mall built on the foundation of the defunct local brewery (it has a three story masonry facade of the old building in front of the modern lines of the mall). In it there is a multiplex and dozens of stores. Meanwhile at the Jumbo is more upscale and has easy access to Blockbuster, Domino's and two pharmacies. With Domino's, Blockbuster and cheap soda at ready access is it any wonder the Chileans are gaining weight?

To be fair I don't think this is all bad. To the north and south of town suburbs with 4 and 5 bedrooms are springing up like the desert flowers. The middle class in Antofagasta is obviously expanding. Even so signs of wage disparity are still evident. Bright murals found all over the town scream out for social justice.



This is actually not the best one, which I found when I didn't have my camera and couldn't find again, but it was moving, I was a socialist for a second ;).

My worry is that the fortunes of the town float on a river of copper. If that river dries up the fragile monolithic economy that props up this little haven of globalization could falter and shrivel like a desert flower.

* - first silver, then guano, then saltpeter, now copper