Some Art and Some History

On Tuesday and Wednesday we visited a four different museums in Santiago. A remarkable dose of art and history for us. Two art museums were within a few blocks from where we are staying. 

At Museo Ralli, the closest at just a block away, we had the whole museum to ourselves. 

Here I am catching a bit of gossip from the ladies. 

It housed a small (perfect for us) but impressive selection of primarily Latin American art.

There was also a section of European art that included a series of Chagall lithographs, some exquisite Dali sculptures, and some Miro pieces. It is a trans-national museum with other branches in Spain, Uruguay, and Israel. 

Just another short walk and we arrived at Museo de la Moda, was established in 2007 by Juan Yarur who converted his parents' modernist home, built by an architect inspired by Frank Loyd Wright.

The grandson of a textile and banking mogul, he scoured the world to put together a collection of more than 8,000 pieces of clothing. The current exhibit was a Marilyn Monroe collection. 

On Wednesday, this time armed with all the proper instructions about how to get to city center via bus and subway, we headed off to visit more museums. We have two sets of house keys but Jim didn't want to be burdened with the second set and figured we would be fine - I had previously insisted we each have a set in case we got separated. He assured me that wouldn't be necessary. 

I'm sure you have already figured out where this one is going...

Not that big of an adventure but he didn't make it out of the metro car quick enough at the transfer station, so there I was on the platform with him barreling off to the next station. Fortunately we are seasoned enough with subway travel to know, along with some non-verbal hand signals, that he would get off at the exit station and return and I would cross over to the other platform to greet him. So all worked out but we had a good laugh about it. 

Our first stop was to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derochos Humanos (the museum of memory and human rights). It is a very stark an modern structure that opened in 2010 as a memorial to the victims of Chile's military dictatorship (1973 - 1990). It was thorough, informative, heartbreaking and sobering. We were able to use English headphones as we viewed the many multimedia, pictorial, and document presentations that followed the buildup to the coup, the horrific violation of human rights, the various resistance movements, and ultimately the election that removed Pinochet from office. It reminded us somewhat of Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.  We walked out of there quite humbled about how little we previously known of what happened in Chile.  I guess we were self-aborbed college students at the time.  I did have some knowledge, but only based on reading Isabelle Allende's The House of the Spirits (thank you to Felicitas for recommending it) back in the late 80's - which I have just started re-reading this week.

We walked back to city center and for the last few blocks were alongside a police escorted motorcade - a weird experience after just focusing for several hours on a military coup...not sure who it was but  we happened upon the pomp and circumstance in front of this government building. 

Our final stop was the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. No photos inside but a fascinating collection depicting the artistic and symbolic legend of cultures throughout Latin America. In particular, we loved the textile exhibits. 

The museum designers must have known that tired feet would find their way, and created this courtyard with stones up on end, a geological foot massage even through our shoes. 

Exiting the museum we had an evening view of the Palacio de La Moneda - Chile's presidential headquarters, originally built as a mint. It was where President Salvadore Allende took his life during the military coup that ushered in the Pinochet regime. 

Our return metro ride was uneventful other than having to figure out which of the many streets and intersections would bring us to the proper bus line. It was not a simple task but given that I am writing this, you know we found our way. We rewarded ourselves with dinner out: 

No Pisco Sours tonight, just some great Chilean wine. Have to mix it up!