Salvador Allende (2004) Movie Script
That's almost all that's left from Salvador Allende,
president of Chile in 1970.
On September 11, 1973,
he was overthrown by a military coup.
In his lifeless body,
these objects were found...
scattered history.
The dictatorship of Pinochet
crushed that democracy
which had perfectioned itself
over two centuries,
and destroyed, day after day,
for 18 years, the country I knew.
Thousands of Chileans were
murdered and tortured
and hundreds of thousands went
into exile.
Searching in museums and archives,
only this fragment is on show
to the public.
OPTICAL SPECTACLES OF PRESIDEN SALVADOR ALLENDE,
FOUND IN THE MONEDA PALACE
AFTER THE BOMBARDMEN The appearance of the memory
is neither confortable nor voluntary,
it's always staggering.
Salvador Allende marked my life.
I wouldn't be what I am
had he not incarnated the utopia
of a fairer and freer world
that sweeped my country at that time.
I was there, actor and filmmaker.
The past doesn't pass,
it vibrates and moves with the twists
of my own life.
Here I am, in the same spot
that thirty years ago
said goodbye to me:
a simple wall near
the airport.
Held at the National Stadium,
submitted
to the machine of oblivion
that was put to work,
a sole desire encouraged me:
save the reels of "The Battle Of Chile"
which contained the proof of
the dream
we had lived with Allende.
I left the country with them
and when I finished the film,
my exile began.
Today I return
and beginning this new voyage
I find the man
that painted the walls and wrote
the name of Salvador Allende
in every street of Chile.
The walls contained and were of the people.
In Chile who does the media represent?
The right.
So, what do I know?
That the streets
for us are like the headlines
of the newspapers.
During the campaign of Popular Unity
government they played a big part.
What we did was conquer
the streets for Allende,
in a way that every wall in Chile
had to have his name, every single one!
This was the logo for at the time
of Allende's campaign.
"Vote for Allende. "
We acquired
strength in the streets and a
method of working.
That's where the "Ramona Parra"
brigades came from,
the mural brigades,
the street brigades.
During the dictatorship,
"Mono" Gonzlez
kept on painting
with the team he created 30 years ago.
"Mono" refused to leave
the country, lived the repression
and the political transition.
He never forgot anything, not a detail
of the times of Allende.
Like him, many people haven't
forgotten.
This has been badly stored for
a long time.
"Mono" keeps with care
the drawings
of the famous painter Roberto Matta
with whom he made
many murals for Popular Unity.
Power cultivates oblivion,
but underneath the blanket of amnesia
that covers the country,
memory emerges,
memory vibrates anew.
30 years ago, I was 10
and I worked for the campaign of Allende.
The day he won I wrote him a letter
and went to deliver it personally.
He took it and said,
"Now is when the hard times begin... "
A week later I received his answer,
a letter that has acompanied
me for all this years.
I see exile as a puzzle,
as a land that has become many tiny islands,
where each one
lives with his landscapes, with his memories.
I don't see exile as
an immense land where we all are.
I think it is a very intimate thing.
When I discover the painting of Emma,
I see the Chile I live,
A land fragmented in many pieces,
drifting islands that do not meet.
When returning, one...
one thinks he will find what he left.
That's not true.
And how can you live
if you feel like a foreigner
in your country?
Where do you live?
In an utopia,
in a place I create
to keep going, because it can
be very hard,
this thing of being anywhere.
I see it as a ship without a port,
a ship that is just...
drifting...
When I first saw Salvador Allende,
with Pablo Neruda, I was very young, and I just went by
Then, coming back with my film degree,
it was the people's face what I wanted to film.
Allende was there,
he was part of the human landscape
of this story,
but I didn't realise that there would
be no story without him.
Today, his figure keeps growing in my mind
I need to know who was this man,
how can one be revolutionary and democrat at the same time.
When I found this album,
I entered a party of another time,
the Chile of my childhood...
of the sweetness and the sound of the wind
in the trees.
Images eaten away.
The family of "Mama Rosa",
Allende's wet nurse,
buried this album for 20 years,
so that the dictatorship did not destroy it.
Here, Allende,
"the Chicho" as we called him,
celebrates her 92nd birthday with her.
After the dictatorship,
the album was dug up by Anita, "Mama Rosa's" daughter,
who is 87 today.
When "Chicho"...
was little
My mum made him this suit.
- He has curls.
- He is curly...
he was blonde,
he was very handsome.
But he pulled my hair,
he was wicked.
To you, was Salvador
Allende like a brother?
Like a brother,
we grew up together.
Until when...
he went off to become a doctor.
And how was he as a child?
He was a fighter.
He played with the top, with marbles,...
He made speeches.
Very beautiful speeches
from an early age; about anything.
Allende felt a strong admiration
for his grandfather,
Don Ramn Allende Padn,
who had been a doctor,
- he had taken part in the Pacific war,
and repeated with pride these things,
He had been the creator of the first
secular school in Chile
And was a great Freemason,
Serenssimo of Freemasonry in Chile.
And a man with whom Allende
really felt identified...
and definitely had a great impact
in the life and political orientation of Allende.
Erm,... his father,
had been a solicitor, and...
he 'skipped' the figure of his father.
On the other hand, his mother,
really, he professed her an enormous
affection, tenderness and a great love.
I took her home many times.
When I left her, she would always
say to me: "Take care of Salvador for me.
Take care of him".
And did you?
No, that would be exaggerated. I just...
felt great affection for him.
VALPARAISO, HOMETOWN OF SALVADOR ALLENDE
Allende knew the works of Marx
some Lenin, too.
But fundamentally, Allende was,
in my opinion...
a man inspired by the French Revolution.
He believed in the three values
proclaimed by the French Revolution.
And where did he get his marxism from, then?
That is if he was a marxist...
I don't think one can say he wasn't.
What I know, for many times
we discussed just the
two of us, about philosophy,
politics, art,...
Because Allende was a cultured man,
he didn't have, shall we say...
only one source of insparation,
but many.
So you didn't talk about marxism?
No!
- Then, why..?
- What he once did tell me...
as a mayor, he said,
because I was a communist,
"Drop the dictatorship of the proletariat".
After that he invited me, and
he said: "Look, Sergio,
the dictatorship of the proletariat
isn't in the government programme,
We'll not get to that."
So he wasn't a marxist.
No!
At least not a 'classical' marxist,
he wasn't.
And leninist?
That I'm pretty sure he wasn't.
Why?
Because he didn't agree with two
fundamental ideas of leninism.
First, the role of the single
party.
He never accepted that.
And secondly, the concept
of dictatorship of the proletariat.
And what does he take from marxism-leninism?
I would say two things: the preoccupation for
the workers and the poor,
and...
the idea of equality.
That is to say, he had a libertarian thought?
(i.e "Libertarian socialism")
Exactly. Libertarian. Well said, because...
and it's good we are having this
conversation in Valparaso,
because..., let's say,
at the end of childhood...
in his first teenage years,
Allende had a big influence
from the libertarian thinking
of an anarchist shoemaker
that lived in Valparaso.
Who exactly was Juan de Marci?
He was a simple shoemaker
of that time,
he arrived in Chile... a refugee.
Where was he from?
Erm... Italian.
Deep down he was, I'd say,
Allende's first teacher
as a social fighter.
- And did Allende tell you that?
- Allende. He was proud of it,
he talked about Juan de Marci
with great affection
What would they have talked about?
The anarchists of that decade...
from 1920 to '30, all that decade,
were, as I understand, and I'm...
quite sure, because my father was one of them,
erm... the ones that started the struggle
to awake class consciousness amid
the workers.
So we can say that the
old man that taught Allende
was one of those.
In 1926...
Salvador Allende starts medical school
The ER made him come into contact
with poverty and ignorance.
He was a deputy for Valparaso
aged 29, and co-founder
of the Socialist Party,
a workers' party which wasn't aligned
with Moscow.
He directed the campaign of Pedro Aguirre Cerda,
president of the third Popular Front
in the world, after the Spanish and French ones.
Allende was 30 when he was appointed
Health Minister in 1938.
The Popular Front was directed
by the bourgeoisie, it was reformist.
It's moto was:
"Bread, roof, and work".
It aspired to a greater social equality,
and wanted to stregthen the modern State.
This Front, served as a foundation...
for the future alliances
that supported Allende,
but this time dominated by
communists, and socialists.
Allende's life was a long
electoral campaign.
He was candidate to the presidency four times...
and other four as a deputy or senator.
Under the slogan "All steam ahead with Salvador",
he left Santiago on the first
victory train in 1952.
He was 44.
He travelled the entire country,
town by town, home by home,...
Then he met the real Chileans
He loved to listen,
to teach, to create consciousness, movement,
even knowing he couldn't win.
With good humour, he erased distances...
and made friends along the way.
I remember, because I was very young,
the feeling there was.
People felt radiant,
they came from the South, it was...
I don't know,
Going village by village,
meeting and talking to people.
with the attention that he gave them.
The people came gladly
And it lasted four weeks, I think
and he changed team twice or thrice.
Those who accompanied him were exhausted,
really, waking up early and staying
up until the night, they couldn't keep up.
And he was as fresh as a lettuce.
It was impressive, he had an
extraordinary vitality.
Communist Youth of Chile!
He was a very... and convinced people quickly.
He could convince an enemy, Allende.
Because he changed a proposal
they were presenting
for his own proposal
for his law and his projects
to the Senate.
Allende was a very...
sympathetic guy.
I talked to him...
eating some pie, with a little wine,
and he would tell jokes, fool around.
Some say he had another woman,
could be... Sometimes,...
it's good to have another for a change.
I say that...
just as I say that politicians have
a lot more ease...
to get to people, to women,
they are more sympathetic.
There... I think Allende had this,
And he made the people fall in love,...
captivated them, and he would go
on to become president.
Everything excited him...
He lived his life intensely
We went to Chiloe,
Valdivia, Puerto Montt,
thanks to the campaigns.
It was a always a big lesson,
really.
And he, even if there were only
2 or 3 people in a homestead,
he'd stop to talk to them,
two or three houses, wherever.
In Valparaso, we also went
on the hills,
walking, house to house.
You'd greet them, go in,
and you'd start to talk,
and thus our dialogue began.
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
PU, up you go! PU, up you go!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Finally, September 4th 1970,
Allende won the Presidency,
after 20 years of campaign.
He did not get an absolute majority.
There was no second turn on Chilean elections,
and Parliament had to swear him in.
His coalition was formed by marxists,
social-democrats and christians.
A wave of indignation took place in the country,...
and the Christian Democrats finally voted for Allende
in Congress.
This time the CIA's plan failed
but it became known that there were
civilians and military implicated.
Mr. Allende.
Mr. Allende.
Mr. Allende.
Result of the voting:
For the senator Salvador Allende,
153 votes.
Long live Chile, damn it!
Due to the results of the vote
The Congress Assembly proclaims
President of the Republic
the citizen Salvador Allende Gossens.
The session is finished.
If our land asks us,
we have to be ourselves,
us that built Chile,
so we must be off to work.
We shall take the reins of
all our business,
And let it be understood,
One shoulder, all together.
Because this time it isn't
about changing the president.
It will be that people that will
build a different Chile.
Because this time it isn't
about changing the president.
It will be that people that will
build a different Chile.
Excelency, your hand, Excelency!
I remember the freshness of the air,
the profound inspiration
that united us to one another,
and beyond, to the entire world.
We filmed this radiant dream,
with lucidity and fervour.
It was an entire society in love.
Along 43 years, this man convinced
all of the left
that the only way of getting there
was through peaceful means
While in Latin America, the violence...
and the guerrilla spread everywhere,
Allende created a mass movement
for electoral victory.
A little after, Allende won the
municipal elections as well.
He believed that the logical
result of democracy,
was building socialism.
To build this wall...
bring me every hand,
bring me every hand,
the blacks, their black hands,
the whites, their white hands.
A wall that goes...
from the beach to the hill,
from the beach to the hill,
from the hill to the beach,
there, beyond the horizon.
The left, the workers, the peasants,
the public servants,
the professionals, the technicians,
the intellectuals, triumphed in Chile.
On the night of victory,
200.000 people gathered together.
There wasn't a broken glass,
there wasn't a burnt car,
there was no adversary of ours,
who could even say we offended him,
not even verbally.
On the other hand, the defeated,
the far-right, has begun plotting,
has set up all this economic
sabotage,
and it has its mercenaries,
who set up bombs.
Now, then,
where is the democracy?
We shall create an
authentic democracy,
for the people, and not a minority,
as it is now, shall take part.
Now, when a people has conscience
of the aims it must reach,
this people is capable of sacrifices.
I'm sure the people of Chile is mature,
because it has already understood,
and will understand in the days to come,
that we, all of us, have to make sacrifices.
What for? To sow for the future.
The 2 or 3 first years will be hard
but on the basis of a straight, moral government,
where there are no privileges
nor concessions for minorities.
The people will respond.
This is the mandate I have.
The wholeness, the patriotism,
and the moral of the Chilean people.
In the South, thousands of peasants
took the lands,
and our camera ran after them.
To speed up the land reform,
the Ministry of Agriculture
worked on the countryside
The latifundia was being abolished,
and what impressed...
me the most was the speed
with which things were done.
To this day the formidable acceleration
of history moves me.
I have read you this record,
that means that in this farm in this moment,
the property of the land...
is transfered to the administration and
to the peasants,
by the hand over of...
the former owner,
D. Lorenzo Aste Aste.
Is that good?
Louder?
Eh?
I can't say I'm too happy
about giving away something I made,
it wouldn't be true;
but, unfortunately,
you are the responsible ones for
this reform, I did not want it.
I can't say I'm happy about
the way the handing over...
was done, but...
considering the circumstances, I agreed
hoping that the production is kept
up, if that is possible.
Support, support,
the popular government!
Workers, to power!
Workers, to power!
Popular Unity, against the criminal burgeois!
Popular Unity, against the criminal burgeois!
In every corner of the country and of the city
each man, woman, and child
participated in the creation
of a new life.
We were overwhelmed.
the camera registered many colective actions.
It was the age of the great
historical leaps.
Allende kept his political programme:
he nationalised factories
and monopolies.
Nationalised the banks,
the saltpeter, the steel, the coal and the copper.
He didn't forget his promises.
During the first year he created
a situation
of great prosperity.
The energy was tangible and could be felt.
Advance, without stop!
Advance, without stop!
Advance, without stop!
To the loyalty of the people
I shall respond with the loyalty
of a socialist militant;
and as the President of Chile,
I shall carry out impecably the
program of Popular Unity.
I feel like a foreigner
erring through a hostile geography.
I can't forget that the dictatorship
crushed life,
drowned the democratic process,
imposed money and consumerism
as the only values
But behind the coldness of this city,
there are persos, dreams, struggles,
which I must look for.
Me? I'm proud of him,
proud, proud. Deeply proud.
Still when I listen, and he speaks to the
young ones, still my heart skips a beat.
That is to say, that guy could say:
"These are my dreams and we are 'eaded there. "
And I felt I was part of that dream
I was part of it,
part of it, absolutely.
I believe those times we lived,
were the most beautiful of times.
You know why?
Because we had leaders,
we had dreams, we had an utopia,
we had a whole world to change.
That is why I say...
that we have to go with the young ones,
to build something different.
We may not live to see it, but we must...
give them dreams, values,
so that they forge their own
leadership,
their own movements.
And if the parties of the left
are worn out,
Well, they'll have to set up a new one;
But these ideas of revolution,...
of change,...
of overthrowing this system are legitimate.
And they will be legitimate all life.
What dishes did he like?
stewed chicken,
and pie.
And did the boy bring many friends...
to this table?
Many. Deputies,
senators, ministers,...
He'd tell me...
like 4 or 5 hours before coming:
"Ther'I Go", he'd say.
More than anything, he'd come
when he was running for the presidency,
then he brought up to a
hundred people.
But that was 30 years
ago now...
Was Salvador impacient?
Yes... he was quite nervous.
but you know, so many problems...
"Hurry up deary" he'd say
So many problems...
Last time I saw him,
he had a cup of coffee,
where my mother was...
at the hospital...
He was returning from Argentina.
He said: "By God, am I tired"...
"Haven't you a cup of coffee
somewhere around. "
Yes, I said, I have one.
It was... half past one in the morning,
he was just back from Argentina.
Allende isn't talked about much,
And people don't talk about him,
because Allende is like,...
a blow to their conscience
He broke...
the usual political style.
And I think that...
Allende, necessarily...
must be recovered; his ethical image
his moral lesson.
Because, I believe, there will
never be politics
worthy of its name,
as service to the commom interests,
and complete abandonment of the self
for the community.
That is what politics need
to reclaim itself.
But not a word is spoken
about this in Chile,
nobody talks about it.
So, at best,
even by people who respect him,
Allende is presented
as a dreamer.
And still, Salvador Allende
is, let's say...
kind of...
silenced, in his own country.
To me Salvador Allende represents
this: the history of
the workers in Chile.
How come you have kept
this knowledge,...
while most people haven't?
Because I...
I want to know what it means
to be a worker.
why does one fight,
where does one have to go
to reivindicate,
be part of the unions, stregthen
the working class' parties.
Thas. The workers.
That is important.
The Chilean worker is not taking
part of what is happening today,
of wealth, earnings...
He is marginalised from that.
After the first year of government, Allende
was visited by Fidel Castro.
Never before had Fidel Castro,
been in South America.
It was a commotion,
and the right was scandalized.
We have come to learn,
how do human society's...
laws behave.
We have come to see...
something extraordinary,
something extraordinary is happening
in Chile. An unique process,
Something more than unique. Unheard of!
Unheard of!
It's a process of change!
A revolutionary process,
where the revolutionaries...
are trying to carry out the
changes peacefully.
An unique process!
Practically the first in the
history of mankind.
Salvador Allende helped...
the armed struggle in Latin America.
He admired Fidel,
Ch, Miguel Enrquez.
He shared the courage and audacity
of them, his friends.
But the links of loyalty and respect,
never clouded his convictions.
To Salvador Allende,
only the democratic path...
could create,
day by day, Socialism in Chile.
The first year was a great success
for Allende.
Half of the people identified
themselves with him.
But he also became the most
hated man by the right.
In October '72,
an enormous employers' strike
fell on Allende.
70.000 trucks and thousands of buses...
stopped running.
There was no petrol, food shortages,...
and some raw materials didn't
get to the factories.
The pretext was the lack of
American spare parts.
But this was an aggressive political strike.
Nothing less than the first step in
the bourgeoisie's plan.
This halt shall last 'till we triumph.
If this means the fall of Allende,
so much the better, so much the better for Chile.
The strike was a nerve-hacking war.
The opposition created terrible ...
difficulties for everyday life,
its results, sometimes dramatic,
were blamed on the government.
It was like playing the cop
and the thief at the same time.
I promise here,
as a Chilean and as a trucker,
that this struggle will go on to the end.
Now, the end may be
very close or very far away.
The enemies of Allende almost
won the battle.
But no factory closed,
no train stopped running,
the ports stayed open,
the public services carried
on working.
Allende named General Carlos Prats
Minister of Interior and put
two other military in his government.
The strike was called off.
Allende advanced, unstopped
by the obstacles.
Despite all this, the
more radical left
reproached that he trusted
the generals more than the workers.
- I don't like militaries in government
- Why?
Because they aren't a part
of the democratic system.
And why did Allende want militaries?
The situation was too grave.
It was necessary,
for just a circumstancial moment...
the authority to restablish things.
I hope it's not a permanent thing...
just for a little time.
At the end of 1972, Allende spoke
at the United Nations
no only dennouncing the US
de-stabilization
but to indicate something
much more serious:
the lack of control over
multinationals and
their harmful role.
This was just before the
neo-liberalism,
that today dominates the world.
We are before
a truly frontal conflict
between the large multinational
corporations and the States.
They are being under threat
in their most fundamental
political,
economical and military
decisions by global corporations
that do not depend on any State,
and whose activities
are not fiscalised by and do
not answer to any Parliament,
or any institution that
represents the commom interest.
In a word:
the very political structure
of the world
is being undermined.
The large multinational corporations
not only go against the interests
of developing countries,
their dominating and uncontrolled action
exists also in the industrialised nations
where they establish themselves.
It is our trust in ourselves,
that which increases our faith
in the great values of Mankind,
in the certainty that these values
shall prevail,
that they cannot be destroyed!
Despite millions of American dollars,
despite the wear and tear,
in the elections of March '73,
Popular Unity won the 43,4% of the votes.
The opposition was far from the 2/3s it needed
to legally impeach Allende.
The bourgeoisie couldn't believe
what was happening
and went out to celebrate a victory
they never won.
Let the president be officially accused
and let them impeach him May 21,
because he's made the country
crumble to dust.
This is a corrupt and degenerate
government,
corrupt and degenerate,
full of dirt!
Filthy communists out of Chile!
On May 21 we shall have, God willing,
the cleanest government ever,
with democracy and without the rotten
marxist communists. God damn them!
On May 21, 3 months before the coup,
the President gives account
of his government
before the congress.
Allende still believes the legal
way is the only way.
I still hear the words that set
his political line,
said in 1971:
"Chile is the first nation on Earth
which sets up a model of transition
towards socialism".
Two years later,
Allende repeats it with conviction.
The world sees in us
the simultaneous realisation
of the most transcendental
aspirations which interest
Civilization:
the struggle of a people for dignity,
to advance to socialism
with pluralist liberties
and tolerance to ideas and creeds.
It is the struggle of a people to
dominate
internal violence and the
external aggressions.
I shall fulfill my duty
and will use every resource
of the State,
but there will not
be a civil war in this country!
However, the political forces had
already defined themselves in this:
the direction of Christian
Democracy
has already joined the strategy
of the overthrowing.
It's parliamentaries are here,
but they do not listen
whilst the right, with its
physical absence
demostrates it coupist tendency.
A month later we recorded
a regiment
which uprose itself.
But it still wasn't the moment
for the coup.
Leonardo Henricksen,
an Argentinian cameraman,
records his own death.
Just after the copper strike,
the truckers were about to
start a new one.
In the factories, the impatience
of the workers grew.
We were asked for organization,
organize the workers,
create industrial 'belts',
organize every front.
Comrades, we have organized
fronts by townships;
we have organized workers' fronts,
unions;
"cordons" too, and we're still
with the same thing, boy
"it's not the time",
there is a legislative power
and we must accept the judicial
power. We still say,
the comrade president may ask us
for patience,
that we go on organizing.
But, what for?
What is his fight plan?
'Till when?
I ask you, comrade:
Do you not trust the people's power?
Do you not trust the Unions?
Us workers that this friday went
in front of comrade Allende
to cheer and aplaud him.
Does he not trust the
organizations we have formed?
Do you not know the class
composition
which exists today in the
armed force?
Do you not know that most
officers are for the coup?
You all know that we,
the working class, have won
power with this government,
but not all the power.
And we agree that we have to find
the adequate way to deal
with our problems.
But lest we forget, comrades,
that there is a government
presided by comrade Allende,
and that we must obey it;
that there a workers' organization,
and that there are organizations
the class-parties,
that also lead us.
I, comrade!
the conclusions of the 500 workers
of the containers factory are:
stregthen the industrial belts,
the communal councils,
stregthenthe neighbourhood assemblies,
stregthenthe Price and Supply Assemblies
and all the community' organisations.
Evidently, we say:
we must prepare ourselves in some way.
We cannot hide our heads in the sand.
We must go out and see what happens
and go against any attempt
of military coup against the government
that we have led to power.
So it is, it is true that
there were comrades,
willing to give away their lives.
It's true! There was
passion to defend the government.
But we never had,
never, a popular army
capable of being victorious.
We had comrades with class
consciousness,
very stimulating, by the way,
but we never had an army.
Remember that we marched
with sticks, with sticks!
We looked like "boys scouts".
We are talking of 1973!
What does that mean?
If the people have broomsticks,
they will never face an army,
they don't have the means.
It may have passion and stregth,
but not the means.
It may have consciousness and even
reason,
but not the means!
We never believed that,
the armed forces stood
by the constitution.
We'd have to ask Corvalan
why did he say it?
Because that paralysed people.
There was a moment when the people
of Chile believed
the cry "Soldier, friend,
the people is with you".
We had the streets painted with that.
We supposed Allende could handle
the situation with his hands.
But he couldn't.
Allende was a gentlemen. He believed
that all those outcasts
were also
honourable gentlemen.
Allende wasn't a revolutionary.
He wasn't able of facing
the circumstances.
Was Popular Unity's program revolutionary?
- It was revolutionary.
- So Allende was also a revolutionary!
The socialists, the communists
and Popular Unity
aspired to keep a democratic
system
of government suppoting
the growth
of the capitalist economy.
What you are saying is grave,
very grave. Do you know why?
Because you are distorting History.
We have a tendency of caricaturizing
revolutionaries, like Che Guevara:
Comrades with a rifle,
that take up a rucksack,
go up to the hills
and make the Revolution
taking power by assault.
How was power taken in Chile?
The legal way, the electoral way,
the process determinated it was such.
It wasn't a cell that felt revolutionary
and felt it should be that way.
There was the people who had
unleashed
this process.
We must not forget,
that the final aim of Popular
Unity was to lay down the bases
for Chile to become socialist
and that is revolutionary.
There is no historical project
in Latin America like PU's.
Create, create, popular power!
The coup attempt increased the
divisions in the left.
The conflict was "popular power",
a away of self-management
which wanted the armed defence
of the process
The communists, with Allende,
wanted to stregthen themselves
without breaking the legality.
The socialists threatened to leave
the government
if there wasn't an armed strategy
for taking power.
At least that's what they said.
No more conciliation,
it's time to fight!
No more conciliation,
it's time to fight!
I want to speak.
We need more unity
inside Popular Unity!
We need more unity
to use a revolutionary
language that can be understood!
And we must call on the revolutionary
forces which aren't
in Popular Unity to join with us
to advance with historical responsibility
to the socialist revolution!
We must stregthen popular power,
We must stregthen the communal commands!
We must stregthen the industrial belts,
not as a paralel power to the government,
but as popular forces
with the strength of your government,
the popular government!
Near Valparaso, I found the buses
that helped Allende.
Those which didn't go on strike
because they belonged to the State.
This vision makes us ask ourselves:
How could we have canalised
the popular power
to have carried on?
Nothing.
The forces played alone,
each on its own.
Allende's message was heard,
it got to the people, but
wasn't turned into organisation.
Each party of the left impulsed
their own tactics,
without listening to their militants,
to their basis.
Allende's loneliness was palpable.
From outside, Cuba was willing
to support him with weapons
and men, while the Soviet Union
denied any important economical aid.
He who doesn't jump is burgeois!
He who doesn't jump is burgeois!
Despite all the dificulties,
despite the American money,
the parliamentary blockade,
the employers' strikes,
the economical boycott,
the terrorist propaganda,
the hatred of the right,
the middle-classes' panic,
Allende's support grew, there
were thousands and thousands of us
who went out on the streets,
conscious and willing,
believing it was possible to
create a freer and fairer world.
This is the mystery to solve,
it still surprises us today
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Popular Unity!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
I tell you, comrades,
comrades of so many years,
I tell you calmly,
with all tranquility:
I'm not made to be an apostle,
nor am I made to be a mesiah,
or martyr,
I'm a social fighter that
is carrying out a duty,
the duty the people gave me,
but understand,
that those who want to go
back in History
and do not respect the majoritary
will of Chile.
Without being a martyr,
Let them know that I shall not
give a single step back!
I will leave the Moneda
when I have carried out the people's mandate!
I have no alternative,
Only by shooting me
will they stop my will
of carrying out the people's programme!
I believed we lacked courage,
in the way that, maybe,
if we knew the coup was coming,
dunno, dunno...
but have looked for a gun,
or maybe even attacked a police station!
That day, the 11th, I remember
they blocked the way and we came up
here to the hills
to a house to think what to do.
Going through the streets the
peole that knew him,
identified Vuskovic,
Andrade,
who was a deputy, and they shouted:
"We'll call the police to
come and take you. "
We separated,
and a group went to the
"Bella vista" church,
where there was a Chilean
flag raised celebrating the coup.
And we stood there watching
men playing football
without worrying about
what was happening.
And we wanted
to plan something, what do we do?
My God, what do we do? Where do we go?
I believe
we had nothing for sure.
People said there were guns,
but we didn't have anything
because the politics of
the left-wing parties,
which by that time had grown a lot
communists, socialists, radicals,
MAPU, MIR,... they didn't have
anything in their HQs.
Then again, had we had guns,
and attacked, they'd probably
have killed us all
because they had tanks, planes, everything.
I believe Allende
showed he was brave, showed
he'd fight to the end.
But I believe
he'd have been more useful alive, Allende.
Allende would have helped us
a lot more being alive:
the dictatorship wouldn't have
been so strong.
because with Allende dead,
he was dead,
and alive at an Embassy, or out
of the country
with all the presidential scrolls,
he would have helped us,
the dictatorship wouldn't have been as strong.
I believe the people
should have gone to the Moneda
to defend it.
- But there were no weapons.
- Doesn't matter.
The weapons don't matter.
I don't think
they'd have killed all the people,
defending their president.
The people should have gone out
on the streets.
Maybe you are right.
We will never know.
When they moved the body of Salvador Allende
from Valparaso to the general
cemetery, were you there?
- Yes.
- What did you feel?
Ah, feelings of seeing my father's
memory go by.
Moving,
watching pass by
the figure of a man
who really put all he had in
for my interests,
those of my family, my children
my grandchildren,
the people of Chile's,
my neighbours'.
Why did it remind you of
your father?
Because I appreciated Salvador Allende's
spirit very much,
and my father was very comprehensive,
A man who helped me a lot.
And he was an anarquist,
He helped me become what I am,
what he was then,
until he died.
I'll keep a good memory.
Of Allende too.
A man
who helped do for Chile
what my father
had done for me.
Workers of my fatherland:
I want to thank the loyalty
you have always shown,
the trust you have deposited
in a man
who was just an interpetre of the
cries for justice.
Surelly Radio Magallanes
will be shut down
and the calm metal of my voice
will not get to you.
It doesn't matter.
Other men shall overcome
this bitter and grey moment,
where treason tries to impose itself.
Long live Chile, long live the people!
Long live the workers!
These are my last words and I am sure
that my sacrifice will not be in vain.
Death is not the end.
It's necessary to go back to that
voluntary act of Salvador Allende,
last defender of the Moneda.
His suicide was neither desperate nor romantic.
It was a realist act
that showed that politics
does not have to bow down before the impossible.
I have to start again,
to recommence.
- Good Day.
- Good Day.
We are making a survey
we wanted to know, were you
a witness of the bombardment of
Allende's house 30 years ago?
- No, try the neighbours.
- Thnaks.
I was at school,
2nd grade.
We wanted to know if you were
a witness of the bombing
of Allende's house 30 years ago?
Me, yes. Yes...
Yes? Can we make you a few questions?
Impossible. I can't now. I'm late
and I have to go.
- Yes?
- Good day, madame.
Excuse us, we are making a survey
to see if the people here saw
the bombardment
of Allende's house 30 years ago?
No, thank you.
What is it about?
We wanted to know if you saw
the bombardment, 30 years ago,
of Allende's house?
I can't answer that
because I wasn't here.
- You didn't live here?
- No!
Well, thank you very much.
They say they came in afterwards?
Ah, yes... 'Course,
they pillaged it!
But I don't know who it was.
They took the paintings and everything.
Who could it have been?
Today, the house that was the official
residency of the president,
is retirement house for the
Chilean Air Force.
It's a secret museum, a place of amnesia.
Crossing the mirror of dirty
conscience, the memory emerges.
Yes, here there was a moment
of armed resistance, weapons were found
but nothing that justified the
barbarity of the pillaging,
The hatred thrown against this house.
And they knew, by the way,
by the time they were bombing,
that the president wasn't here.
The president was speaking from
the microphones of the Moneda.
So, the bombardment was done
knowing that
the president wasn't here,
Only his wife was here.
The neighbours took paintings,
jewels,
underwear, personnal photos.
Afterwards the military took the rest.
To this day, Chile has not
reflected about his.
Only a few objects managed
to be recovered by the family.
Let's see!
Exactly, this is the one.
This is the room
where the President of the Republic slept.
In this door,
Pinochet was promoted
when that Sunday,
after talking to him, he said
he wanted him to be coordinator
of the Armed Forces,
of the Army especially
to put down any coup attempt
that went against individual
rights and the Constitution.
The day after the bombardment,
Allende's widow was taken
in a military plane to
to bury her husband at Via del Mar.
She wasn't allowed to see Allende's remains,
which were laid down in an
unmarked tomb
Hortensia Bussi, the "Tencha",
who is today 87 years old,
became the central figure of the
international campaign
of solidarity with Chile.
I think that
Allende lived his presidency
is great loneliness.
It's true he had a group of friends and
colaborators
who were very loyal and close to him.
In this group there were two women:
Beatriz, the "Tati",
his eldest daughter, a doctor like him,
loyal colaborator and critic,
she accompanied him all his life.
She shot herself in Havana in 1977.
And Miria Contreras, the "Payita",
his personnal secretary.
"La Paya" was...
of an incredible warmth.
And such tenderness, she captivated,
as much for her beauty as for her tenderness,
she really captivated Allende.
She was with him in the last
electoral campaign,
and, when he gets to power,
she becomes his personnal secretary,
moreover she was in such a position,
even though she simpathised
with the left wing tendency
of the Socialist Party or the MIR,
despite that,
all political parties trusted her.
And why do you not feel important?
No, I don't thing I played any
important part...
in all those things.
All I did was
always support him, you know,
so that he had...
a friend, someone he could trust.
But this dedication was precisely
a very substantial part of his
strength,
of his energy, in the last phase, I think.
Yes, sure. It was important
to him, but to him...
that doesn't make me special.
I believe it was one of the most
beautiful love stories in the country
No, you are exaggerating,...
But... well...
About the historical bit,
you are putting me here
because you from this side (?)...
The President's office was here,
more or less in this direction.
From here the president took the phone,
and... on three occasions adressed
the Chilean people.
The president was like this,
here, and talked on the telephone, like this.
And...
it has been said this speech
that was his legacy...
the last speech,
the president didn't have nothing written.
I didn't notice any had notes, nothing.
After that speech,
there was a meeting, in a room
called the Toesca room.
- And there he says "Well, the air
strike is about to begin,...
I don't want martyrs...
so I have asked for a deal."
Which wasn't respected, of course.
"But he who can't defend himself, should go.
I will stay, for it is my duty as President.
The President does not abandon the Moneda.
And every woman is going, no questions about it. "
At the end of the meeting nobody left, everyone stayed.
And the women had to be sent away,
practically by force.
and the "Paya" hid herself.
When it's imminent, when there
is nothing left to do,
The Moneda is in flames,
then Allende says:
"Well, we'll give ourselves up,...
make a line and go down, one by one. "
And he repeats: Empty pockets.
I got at the end, first goes the Paya. "
And that is how it was,
we made a line...
the military were already...
on the stairways.
There were about 30 of us,
and I was at the end...
and that's how I saw the moment...
Allende shot himself,
not the very moment,
but I see him dead.
Because I hear the shot, no?
Enrique Huerta, who was the palace's
intendant:
"The president is dead. "
Then I turn around and I see
the president, dead,
and there Patxi Gijn turns back,
and I get pushed out
and Patxi stays with the president...
dead.
- But you saw him.
- Yes, I saw him dead, yes.
Well he was sitting in an armchair,
with his back to Morand,
and was... wore a grey jacket
with a sweater,
no glasses,
he had the machine gun between his legs,
and had his head open,
cracked and bursted .
Now we are in the place
that corresponds to where President
Allende spent his last minutes
before his death.
- The building has been reshaped?
- It's been completely reshaped
and this place where... It's an estimate
and there are witnesses that confirm it.
The past doesn't pass.
About our recent history,
there are few books.
There is no biography of Allende,
the files of power are still secret,
the arrogance of the victor lives.
September 11, 1973
is always present.
Salvador Allende loved life,
and life loved him.
With this life in our minds
we go on acting, thinking,
and inventing the future.
The past doesn't pass.
The river inverts the course of its stream
The water from the waterfalls goes up.
The people start to walk backwards.
The horses walk backwards.
The military break ranks.
The bullets leave the flesh.
The bullets go into the barrels.
The officers hostle their guns.
The current goes into the power plugs.
The tortured stop shaking.
The tortured close their mouths.
The concentration camps are emptied
The disappeared appear.
The dead leave their tombs.
The airplanes fly backwards.
The rockets go up into the airplanes.
Allende shoots,
the fires go out.
He takes of his helmet
The Moneda reconstructs itself.
His skull recomposes itself.
He goes to the balcony
Allende returns to Thomas More.
The detained walk backwards
from the stadia.
September 11!
The Armed Forces respect
the Constitution.
The military return to their barracks.
Neruda is reborn!
Vctor Jara plays the guitar,
sings!
The workers march, singing:
"We shall win".
president of Chile in 1970.
On September 11, 1973,
he was overthrown by a military coup.
In his lifeless body,
these objects were found...
scattered history.
The dictatorship of Pinochet
crushed that democracy
which had perfectioned itself
over two centuries,
and destroyed, day after day,
for 18 years, the country I knew.
Thousands of Chileans were
murdered and tortured
and hundreds of thousands went
into exile.
Searching in museums and archives,
only this fragment is on show
to the public.
OPTICAL SPECTACLES OF PRESIDEN SALVADOR ALLENDE,
FOUND IN THE MONEDA PALACE
AFTER THE BOMBARDMEN The appearance of the memory
is neither confortable nor voluntary,
it's always staggering.
Salvador Allende marked my life.
I wouldn't be what I am
had he not incarnated the utopia
of a fairer and freer world
that sweeped my country at that time.
I was there, actor and filmmaker.
The past doesn't pass,
it vibrates and moves with the twists
of my own life.
Here I am, in the same spot
that thirty years ago
said goodbye to me:
a simple wall near
the airport.
Held at the National Stadium,
submitted
to the machine of oblivion
that was put to work,
a sole desire encouraged me:
save the reels of "The Battle Of Chile"
which contained the proof of
the dream
we had lived with Allende.
I left the country with them
and when I finished the film,
my exile began.
Today I return
and beginning this new voyage
I find the man
that painted the walls and wrote
the name of Salvador Allende
in every street of Chile.
The walls contained and were of the people.
In Chile who does the media represent?
The right.
So, what do I know?
That the streets
for us are like the headlines
of the newspapers.
During the campaign of Popular Unity
government they played a big part.
What we did was conquer
the streets for Allende,
in a way that every wall in Chile
had to have his name, every single one!
This was the logo for at the time
of Allende's campaign.
"Vote for Allende. "
We acquired
strength in the streets and a
method of working.
That's where the "Ramona Parra"
brigades came from,
the mural brigades,
the street brigades.
During the dictatorship,
"Mono" Gonzlez
kept on painting
with the team he created 30 years ago.
"Mono" refused to leave
the country, lived the repression
and the political transition.
He never forgot anything, not a detail
of the times of Allende.
Like him, many people haven't
forgotten.
This has been badly stored for
a long time.
"Mono" keeps with care
the drawings
of the famous painter Roberto Matta
with whom he made
many murals for Popular Unity.
Power cultivates oblivion,
but underneath the blanket of amnesia
that covers the country,
memory emerges,
memory vibrates anew.
30 years ago, I was 10
and I worked for the campaign of Allende.
The day he won I wrote him a letter
and went to deliver it personally.
He took it and said,
"Now is when the hard times begin... "
A week later I received his answer,
a letter that has acompanied
me for all this years.
I see exile as a puzzle,
as a land that has become many tiny islands,
where each one
lives with his landscapes, with his memories.
I don't see exile as
an immense land where we all are.
I think it is a very intimate thing.
When I discover the painting of Emma,
I see the Chile I live,
A land fragmented in many pieces,
drifting islands that do not meet.
When returning, one...
one thinks he will find what he left.
That's not true.
And how can you live
if you feel like a foreigner
in your country?
Where do you live?
In an utopia,
in a place I create
to keep going, because it can
be very hard,
this thing of being anywhere.
I see it as a ship without a port,
a ship that is just...
drifting...
When I first saw Salvador Allende,
with Pablo Neruda, I was very young, and I just went by
Then, coming back with my film degree,
it was the people's face what I wanted to film.
Allende was there,
he was part of the human landscape
of this story,
but I didn't realise that there would
be no story without him.
Today, his figure keeps growing in my mind
I need to know who was this man,
how can one be revolutionary and democrat at the same time.
When I found this album,
I entered a party of another time,
the Chile of my childhood...
of the sweetness and the sound of the wind
in the trees.
Images eaten away.
The family of "Mama Rosa",
Allende's wet nurse,
buried this album for 20 years,
so that the dictatorship did not destroy it.
Here, Allende,
"the Chicho" as we called him,
celebrates her 92nd birthday with her.
After the dictatorship,
the album was dug up by Anita, "Mama Rosa's" daughter,
who is 87 today.
When "Chicho"...
was little
My mum made him this suit.
- He has curls.
- He is curly...
he was blonde,
he was very handsome.
But he pulled my hair,
he was wicked.
To you, was Salvador
Allende like a brother?
Like a brother,
we grew up together.
Until when...
he went off to become a doctor.
And how was he as a child?
He was a fighter.
He played with the top, with marbles,...
He made speeches.
Very beautiful speeches
from an early age; about anything.
Allende felt a strong admiration
for his grandfather,
Don Ramn Allende Padn,
who had been a doctor,
- he had taken part in the Pacific war,
and repeated with pride these things,
He had been the creator of the first
secular school in Chile
And was a great Freemason,
Serenssimo of Freemasonry in Chile.
And a man with whom Allende
really felt identified...
and definitely had a great impact
in the life and political orientation of Allende.
Erm,... his father,
had been a solicitor, and...
he 'skipped' the figure of his father.
On the other hand, his mother,
really, he professed her an enormous
affection, tenderness and a great love.
I took her home many times.
When I left her, she would always
say to me: "Take care of Salvador for me.
Take care of him".
And did you?
No, that would be exaggerated. I just...
felt great affection for him.
VALPARAISO, HOMETOWN OF SALVADOR ALLENDE
Allende knew the works of Marx
some Lenin, too.
But fundamentally, Allende was,
in my opinion...
a man inspired by the French Revolution.
He believed in the three values
proclaimed by the French Revolution.
And where did he get his marxism from, then?
That is if he was a marxist...
I don't think one can say he wasn't.
What I know, for many times
we discussed just the
two of us, about philosophy,
politics, art,...
Because Allende was a cultured man,
he didn't have, shall we say...
only one source of insparation,
but many.
So you didn't talk about marxism?
No!
- Then, why..?
- What he once did tell me...
as a mayor, he said,
because I was a communist,
"Drop the dictatorship of the proletariat".
After that he invited me, and
he said: "Look, Sergio,
the dictatorship of the proletariat
isn't in the government programme,
We'll not get to that."
So he wasn't a marxist.
No!
At least not a 'classical' marxist,
he wasn't.
And leninist?
That I'm pretty sure he wasn't.
Why?
Because he didn't agree with two
fundamental ideas of leninism.
First, the role of the single
party.
He never accepted that.
And secondly, the concept
of dictatorship of the proletariat.
And what does he take from marxism-leninism?
I would say two things: the preoccupation for
the workers and the poor,
and...
the idea of equality.
That is to say, he had a libertarian thought?
(i.e "Libertarian socialism")
Exactly. Libertarian. Well said, because...
and it's good we are having this
conversation in Valparaso,
because..., let's say,
at the end of childhood...
in his first teenage years,
Allende had a big influence
from the libertarian thinking
of an anarchist shoemaker
that lived in Valparaso.
Who exactly was Juan de Marci?
He was a simple shoemaker
of that time,
he arrived in Chile... a refugee.
Where was he from?
Erm... Italian.
Deep down he was, I'd say,
Allende's first teacher
as a social fighter.
- And did Allende tell you that?
- Allende. He was proud of it,
he talked about Juan de Marci
with great affection
What would they have talked about?
The anarchists of that decade...
from 1920 to '30, all that decade,
were, as I understand, and I'm...
quite sure, because my father was one of them,
erm... the ones that started the struggle
to awake class consciousness amid
the workers.
So we can say that the
old man that taught Allende
was one of those.
In 1926...
Salvador Allende starts medical school
The ER made him come into contact
with poverty and ignorance.
He was a deputy for Valparaso
aged 29, and co-founder
of the Socialist Party,
a workers' party which wasn't aligned
with Moscow.
He directed the campaign of Pedro Aguirre Cerda,
president of the third Popular Front
in the world, after the Spanish and French ones.
Allende was 30 when he was appointed
Health Minister in 1938.
The Popular Front was directed
by the bourgeoisie, it was reformist.
It's moto was:
"Bread, roof, and work".
It aspired to a greater social equality,
and wanted to stregthen the modern State.
This Front, served as a foundation...
for the future alliances
that supported Allende,
but this time dominated by
communists, and socialists.
Allende's life was a long
electoral campaign.
He was candidate to the presidency four times...
and other four as a deputy or senator.
Under the slogan "All steam ahead with Salvador",
he left Santiago on the first
victory train in 1952.
He was 44.
He travelled the entire country,
town by town, home by home,...
Then he met the real Chileans
He loved to listen,
to teach, to create consciousness, movement,
even knowing he couldn't win.
With good humour, he erased distances...
and made friends along the way.
I remember, because I was very young,
the feeling there was.
People felt radiant,
they came from the South, it was...
I don't know,
Going village by village,
meeting and talking to people.
with the attention that he gave them.
The people came gladly
And it lasted four weeks, I think
and he changed team twice or thrice.
Those who accompanied him were exhausted,
really, waking up early and staying
up until the night, they couldn't keep up.
And he was as fresh as a lettuce.
It was impressive, he had an
extraordinary vitality.
Communist Youth of Chile!
He was a very... and convinced people quickly.
He could convince an enemy, Allende.
Because he changed a proposal
they were presenting
for his own proposal
for his law and his projects
to the Senate.
Allende was a very...
sympathetic guy.
I talked to him...
eating some pie, with a little wine,
and he would tell jokes, fool around.
Some say he had another woman,
could be... Sometimes,...
it's good to have another for a change.
I say that...
just as I say that politicians have
a lot more ease...
to get to people, to women,
they are more sympathetic.
There... I think Allende had this,
And he made the people fall in love,...
captivated them, and he would go
on to become president.
Everything excited him...
He lived his life intensely
We went to Chiloe,
Valdivia, Puerto Montt,
thanks to the campaigns.
It was a always a big lesson,
really.
And he, even if there were only
2 or 3 people in a homestead,
he'd stop to talk to them,
two or three houses, wherever.
In Valparaso, we also went
on the hills,
walking, house to house.
You'd greet them, go in,
and you'd start to talk,
and thus our dialogue began.
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
PU, up you go! PU, up you go!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Finally, September 4th 1970,
Allende won the Presidency,
after 20 years of campaign.
He did not get an absolute majority.
There was no second turn on Chilean elections,
and Parliament had to swear him in.
His coalition was formed by marxists,
social-democrats and christians.
A wave of indignation took place in the country,...
and the Christian Democrats finally voted for Allende
in Congress.
This time the CIA's plan failed
but it became known that there were
civilians and military implicated.
Mr. Allende.
Mr. Allende.
Mr. Allende.
Result of the voting:
For the senator Salvador Allende,
153 votes.
Long live Chile, damn it!
Due to the results of the vote
The Congress Assembly proclaims
President of the Republic
the citizen Salvador Allende Gossens.
The session is finished.
If our land asks us,
we have to be ourselves,
us that built Chile,
so we must be off to work.
We shall take the reins of
all our business,
And let it be understood,
One shoulder, all together.
Because this time it isn't
about changing the president.
It will be that people that will
build a different Chile.
Because this time it isn't
about changing the president.
It will be that people that will
build a different Chile.
Excelency, your hand, Excelency!
I remember the freshness of the air,
the profound inspiration
that united us to one another,
and beyond, to the entire world.
We filmed this radiant dream,
with lucidity and fervour.
It was an entire society in love.
Along 43 years, this man convinced
all of the left
that the only way of getting there
was through peaceful means
While in Latin America, the violence...
and the guerrilla spread everywhere,
Allende created a mass movement
for electoral victory.
A little after, Allende won the
municipal elections as well.
He believed that the logical
result of democracy,
was building socialism.
To build this wall...
bring me every hand,
bring me every hand,
the blacks, their black hands,
the whites, their white hands.
A wall that goes...
from the beach to the hill,
from the beach to the hill,
from the hill to the beach,
there, beyond the horizon.
The left, the workers, the peasants,
the public servants,
the professionals, the technicians,
the intellectuals, triumphed in Chile.
On the night of victory,
200.000 people gathered together.
There wasn't a broken glass,
there wasn't a burnt car,
there was no adversary of ours,
who could even say we offended him,
not even verbally.
On the other hand, the defeated,
the far-right, has begun plotting,
has set up all this economic
sabotage,
and it has its mercenaries,
who set up bombs.
Now, then,
where is the democracy?
We shall create an
authentic democracy,
for the people, and not a minority,
as it is now, shall take part.
Now, when a people has conscience
of the aims it must reach,
this people is capable of sacrifices.
I'm sure the people of Chile is mature,
because it has already understood,
and will understand in the days to come,
that we, all of us, have to make sacrifices.
What for? To sow for the future.
The 2 or 3 first years will be hard
but on the basis of a straight, moral government,
where there are no privileges
nor concessions for minorities.
The people will respond.
This is the mandate I have.
The wholeness, the patriotism,
and the moral of the Chilean people.
In the South, thousands of peasants
took the lands,
and our camera ran after them.
To speed up the land reform,
the Ministry of Agriculture
worked on the countryside
The latifundia was being abolished,
and what impressed...
me the most was the speed
with which things were done.
To this day the formidable acceleration
of history moves me.
I have read you this record,
that means that in this farm in this moment,
the property of the land...
is transfered to the administration and
to the peasants,
by the hand over of...
the former owner,
D. Lorenzo Aste Aste.
Is that good?
Louder?
Eh?
I can't say I'm too happy
about giving away something I made,
it wouldn't be true;
but, unfortunately,
you are the responsible ones for
this reform, I did not want it.
I can't say I'm happy about
the way the handing over...
was done, but...
considering the circumstances, I agreed
hoping that the production is kept
up, if that is possible.
Support, support,
the popular government!
Workers, to power!
Workers, to power!
Popular Unity, against the criminal burgeois!
Popular Unity, against the criminal burgeois!
In every corner of the country and of the city
each man, woman, and child
participated in the creation
of a new life.
We were overwhelmed.
the camera registered many colective actions.
It was the age of the great
historical leaps.
Allende kept his political programme:
he nationalised factories
and monopolies.
Nationalised the banks,
the saltpeter, the steel, the coal and the copper.
He didn't forget his promises.
During the first year he created
a situation
of great prosperity.
The energy was tangible and could be felt.
Advance, without stop!
Advance, without stop!
Advance, without stop!
To the loyalty of the people
I shall respond with the loyalty
of a socialist militant;
and as the President of Chile,
I shall carry out impecably the
program of Popular Unity.
I feel like a foreigner
erring through a hostile geography.
I can't forget that the dictatorship
crushed life,
drowned the democratic process,
imposed money and consumerism
as the only values
But behind the coldness of this city,
there are persos, dreams, struggles,
which I must look for.
Me? I'm proud of him,
proud, proud. Deeply proud.
Still when I listen, and he speaks to the
young ones, still my heart skips a beat.
That is to say, that guy could say:
"These are my dreams and we are 'eaded there. "
And I felt I was part of that dream
I was part of it,
part of it, absolutely.
I believe those times we lived,
were the most beautiful of times.
You know why?
Because we had leaders,
we had dreams, we had an utopia,
we had a whole world to change.
That is why I say...
that we have to go with the young ones,
to build something different.
We may not live to see it, but we must...
give them dreams, values,
so that they forge their own
leadership,
their own movements.
And if the parties of the left
are worn out,
Well, they'll have to set up a new one;
But these ideas of revolution,...
of change,...
of overthrowing this system are legitimate.
And they will be legitimate all life.
What dishes did he like?
stewed chicken,
and pie.
And did the boy bring many friends...
to this table?
Many. Deputies,
senators, ministers,...
He'd tell me...
like 4 or 5 hours before coming:
"Ther'I Go", he'd say.
More than anything, he'd come
when he was running for the presidency,
then he brought up to a
hundred people.
But that was 30 years
ago now...
Was Salvador impacient?
Yes... he was quite nervous.
but you know, so many problems...
"Hurry up deary" he'd say
So many problems...
Last time I saw him,
he had a cup of coffee,
where my mother was...
at the hospital...
He was returning from Argentina.
He said: "By God, am I tired"...
"Haven't you a cup of coffee
somewhere around. "
Yes, I said, I have one.
It was... half past one in the morning,
he was just back from Argentina.
Allende isn't talked about much,
And people don't talk about him,
because Allende is like,...
a blow to their conscience
He broke...
the usual political style.
And I think that...
Allende, necessarily...
must be recovered; his ethical image
his moral lesson.
Because, I believe, there will
never be politics
worthy of its name,
as service to the commom interests,
and complete abandonment of the self
for the community.
That is what politics need
to reclaim itself.
But not a word is spoken
about this in Chile,
nobody talks about it.
So, at best,
even by people who respect him,
Allende is presented
as a dreamer.
And still, Salvador Allende
is, let's say...
kind of...
silenced, in his own country.
To me Salvador Allende represents
this: the history of
the workers in Chile.
How come you have kept
this knowledge,...
while most people haven't?
Because I...
I want to know what it means
to be a worker.
why does one fight,
where does one have to go
to reivindicate,
be part of the unions, stregthen
the working class' parties.
Thas. The workers.
That is important.
The Chilean worker is not taking
part of what is happening today,
of wealth, earnings...
He is marginalised from that.
After the first year of government, Allende
was visited by Fidel Castro.
Never before had Fidel Castro,
been in South America.
It was a commotion,
and the right was scandalized.
We have come to learn,
how do human society's...
laws behave.
We have come to see...
something extraordinary,
something extraordinary is happening
in Chile. An unique process,
Something more than unique. Unheard of!
Unheard of!
It's a process of change!
A revolutionary process,
where the revolutionaries...
are trying to carry out the
changes peacefully.
An unique process!
Practically the first in the
history of mankind.
Salvador Allende helped...
the armed struggle in Latin America.
He admired Fidel,
Ch, Miguel Enrquez.
He shared the courage and audacity
of them, his friends.
But the links of loyalty and respect,
never clouded his convictions.
To Salvador Allende,
only the democratic path...
could create,
day by day, Socialism in Chile.
The first year was a great success
for Allende.
Half of the people identified
themselves with him.
But he also became the most
hated man by the right.
In October '72,
an enormous employers' strike
fell on Allende.
70.000 trucks and thousands of buses...
stopped running.
There was no petrol, food shortages,...
and some raw materials didn't
get to the factories.
The pretext was the lack of
American spare parts.
But this was an aggressive political strike.
Nothing less than the first step in
the bourgeoisie's plan.
This halt shall last 'till we triumph.
If this means the fall of Allende,
so much the better, so much the better for Chile.
The strike was a nerve-hacking war.
The opposition created terrible ...
difficulties for everyday life,
its results, sometimes dramatic,
were blamed on the government.
It was like playing the cop
and the thief at the same time.
I promise here,
as a Chilean and as a trucker,
that this struggle will go on to the end.
Now, the end may be
very close or very far away.
The enemies of Allende almost
won the battle.
But no factory closed,
no train stopped running,
the ports stayed open,
the public services carried
on working.
Allende named General Carlos Prats
Minister of Interior and put
two other military in his government.
The strike was called off.
Allende advanced, unstopped
by the obstacles.
Despite all this, the
more radical left
reproached that he trusted
the generals more than the workers.
- I don't like militaries in government
- Why?
Because they aren't a part
of the democratic system.
And why did Allende want militaries?
The situation was too grave.
It was necessary,
for just a circumstancial moment...
the authority to restablish things.
I hope it's not a permanent thing...
just for a little time.
At the end of 1972, Allende spoke
at the United Nations
no only dennouncing the US
de-stabilization
but to indicate something
much more serious:
the lack of control over
multinationals and
their harmful role.
This was just before the
neo-liberalism,
that today dominates the world.
We are before
a truly frontal conflict
between the large multinational
corporations and the States.
They are being under threat
in their most fundamental
political,
economical and military
decisions by global corporations
that do not depend on any State,
and whose activities
are not fiscalised by and do
not answer to any Parliament,
or any institution that
represents the commom interest.
In a word:
the very political structure
of the world
is being undermined.
The large multinational corporations
not only go against the interests
of developing countries,
their dominating and uncontrolled action
exists also in the industrialised nations
where they establish themselves.
It is our trust in ourselves,
that which increases our faith
in the great values of Mankind,
in the certainty that these values
shall prevail,
that they cannot be destroyed!
Despite millions of American dollars,
despite the wear and tear,
in the elections of March '73,
Popular Unity won the 43,4% of the votes.
The opposition was far from the 2/3s it needed
to legally impeach Allende.
The bourgeoisie couldn't believe
what was happening
and went out to celebrate a victory
they never won.
Let the president be officially accused
and let them impeach him May 21,
because he's made the country
crumble to dust.
This is a corrupt and degenerate
government,
corrupt and degenerate,
full of dirt!
Filthy communists out of Chile!
On May 21 we shall have, God willing,
the cleanest government ever,
with democracy and without the rotten
marxist communists. God damn them!
On May 21, 3 months before the coup,
the President gives account
of his government
before the congress.
Allende still believes the legal
way is the only way.
I still hear the words that set
his political line,
said in 1971:
"Chile is the first nation on Earth
which sets up a model of transition
towards socialism".
Two years later,
Allende repeats it with conviction.
The world sees in us
the simultaneous realisation
of the most transcendental
aspirations which interest
Civilization:
the struggle of a people for dignity,
to advance to socialism
with pluralist liberties
and tolerance to ideas and creeds.
It is the struggle of a people to
dominate
internal violence and the
external aggressions.
I shall fulfill my duty
and will use every resource
of the State,
but there will not
be a civil war in this country!
However, the political forces had
already defined themselves in this:
the direction of Christian
Democracy
has already joined the strategy
of the overthrowing.
It's parliamentaries are here,
but they do not listen
whilst the right, with its
physical absence
demostrates it coupist tendency.
A month later we recorded
a regiment
which uprose itself.
But it still wasn't the moment
for the coup.
Leonardo Henricksen,
an Argentinian cameraman,
records his own death.
Just after the copper strike,
the truckers were about to
start a new one.
In the factories, the impatience
of the workers grew.
We were asked for organization,
organize the workers,
create industrial 'belts',
organize every front.
Comrades, we have organized
fronts by townships;
we have organized workers' fronts,
unions;
"cordons" too, and we're still
with the same thing, boy
"it's not the time",
there is a legislative power
and we must accept the judicial
power. We still say,
the comrade president may ask us
for patience,
that we go on organizing.
But, what for?
What is his fight plan?
'Till when?
I ask you, comrade:
Do you not trust the people's power?
Do you not trust the Unions?
Us workers that this friday went
in front of comrade Allende
to cheer and aplaud him.
Does he not trust the
organizations we have formed?
Do you not know the class
composition
which exists today in the
armed force?
Do you not know that most
officers are for the coup?
You all know that we,
the working class, have won
power with this government,
but not all the power.
And we agree that we have to find
the adequate way to deal
with our problems.
But lest we forget, comrades,
that there is a government
presided by comrade Allende,
and that we must obey it;
that there a workers' organization,
and that there are organizations
the class-parties,
that also lead us.
I, comrade!
the conclusions of the 500 workers
of the containers factory are:
stregthen the industrial belts,
the communal councils,
stregthenthe neighbourhood assemblies,
stregthenthe Price and Supply Assemblies
and all the community' organisations.
Evidently, we say:
we must prepare ourselves in some way.
We cannot hide our heads in the sand.
We must go out and see what happens
and go against any attempt
of military coup against the government
that we have led to power.
So it is, it is true that
there were comrades,
willing to give away their lives.
It's true! There was
passion to defend the government.
But we never had,
never, a popular army
capable of being victorious.
We had comrades with class
consciousness,
very stimulating, by the way,
but we never had an army.
Remember that we marched
with sticks, with sticks!
We looked like "boys scouts".
We are talking of 1973!
What does that mean?
If the people have broomsticks,
they will never face an army,
they don't have the means.
It may have passion and stregth,
but not the means.
It may have consciousness and even
reason,
but not the means!
We never believed that,
the armed forces stood
by the constitution.
We'd have to ask Corvalan
why did he say it?
Because that paralysed people.
There was a moment when the people
of Chile believed
the cry "Soldier, friend,
the people is with you".
We had the streets painted with that.
We supposed Allende could handle
the situation with his hands.
But he couldn't.
Allende was a gentlemen. He believed
that all those outcasts
were also
honourable gentlemen.
Allende wasn't a revolutionary.
He wasn't able of facing
the circumstances.
Was Popular Unity's program revolutionary?
- It was revolutionary.
- So Allende was also a revolutionary!
The socialists, the communists
and Popular Unity
aspired to keep a democratic
system
of government suppoting
the growth
of the capitalist economy.
What you are saying is grave,
very grave. Do you know why?
Because you are distorting History.
We have a tendency of caricaturizing
revolutionaries, like Che Guevara:
Comrades with a rifle,
that take up a rucksack,
go up to the hills
and make the Revolution
taking power by assault.
How was power taken in Chile?
The legal way, the electoral way,
the process determinated it was such.
It wasn't a cell that felt revolutionary
and felt it should be that way.
There was the people who had
unleashed
this process.
We must not forget,
that the final aim of Popular
Unity was to lay down the bases
for Chile to become socialist
and that is revolutionary.
There is no historical project
in Latin America like PU's.
Create, create, popular power!
The coup attempt increased the
divisions in the left.
The conflict was "popular power",
a away of self-management
which wanted the armed defence
of the process
The communists, with Allende,
wanted to stregthen themselves
without breaking the legality.
The socialists threatened to leave
the government
if there wasn't an armed strategy
for taking power.
At least that's what they said.
No more conciliation,
it's time to fight!
No more conciliation,
it's time to fight!
I want to speak.
We need more unity
inside Popular Unity!
We need more unity
to use a revolutionary
language that can be understood!
And we must call on the revolutionary
forces which aren't
in Popular Unity to join with us
to advance with historical responsibility
to the socialist revolution!
We must stregthen popular power,
We must stregthen the communal commands!
We must stregthen the industrial belts,
not as a paralel power to the government,
but as popular forces
with the strength of your government,
the popular government!
Near Valparaso, I found the buses
that helped Allende.
Those which didn't go on strike
because they belonged to the State.
This vision makes us ask ourselves:
How could we have canalised
the popular power
to have carried on?
Nothing.
The forces played alone,
each on its own.
Allende's message was heard,
it got to the people, but
wasn't turned into organisation.
Each party of the left impulsed
their own tactics,
without listening to their militants,
to their basis.
Allende's loneliness was palpable.
From outside, Cuba was willing
to support him with weapons
and men, while the Soviet Union
denied any important economical aid.
He who doesn't jump is burgeois!
He who doesn't jump is burgeois!
Despite all the dificulties,
despite the American money,
the parliamentary blockade,
the employers' strikes,
the economical boycott,
the terrorist propaganda,
the hatred of the right,
the middle-classes' panic,
Allende's support grew, there
were thousands and thousands of us
who went out on the streets,
conscious and willing,
believing it was possible to
create a freer and fairer world.
This is the mystery to solve,
it still surprises us today
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
Popular Unity!
Allende, Allende,
the people defends you!
I tell you, comrades,
comrades of so many years,
I tell you calmly,
with all tranquility:
I'm not made to be an apostle,
nor am I made to be a mesiah,
or martyr,
I'm a social fighter that
is carrying out a duty,
the duty the people gave me,
but understand,
that those who want to go
back in History
and do not respect the majoritary
will of Chile.
Without being a martyr,
Let them know that I shall not
give a single step back!
I will leave the Moneda
when I have carried out the people's mandate!
I have no alternative,
Only by shooting me
will they stop my will
of carrying out the people's programme!
I believed we lacked courage,
in the way that, maybe,
if we knew the coup was coming,
dunno, dunno...
but have looked for a gun,
or maybe even attacked a police station!
That day, the 11th, I remember
they blocked the way and we came up
here to the hills
to a house to think what to do.
Going through the streets the
peole that knew him,
identified Vuskovic,
Andrade,
who was a deputy, and they shouted:
"We'll call the police to
come and take you. "
We separated,
and a group went to the
"Bella vista" church,
where there was a Chilean
flag raised celebrating the coup.
And we stood there watching
men playing football
without worrying about
what was happening.
And we wanted
to plan something, what do we do?
My God, what do we do? Where do we go?
I believe
we had nothing for sure.
People said there were guns,
but we didn't have anything
because the politics of
the left-wing parties,
which by that time had grown a lot
communists, socialists, radicals,
MAPU, MIR,... they didn't have
anything in their HQs.
Then again, had we had guns,
and attacked, they'd probably
have killed us all
because they had tanks, planes, everything.
I believe Allende
showed he was brave, showed
he'd fight to the end.
But I believe
he'd have been more useful alive, Allende.
Allende would have helped us
a lot more being alive:
the dictatorship wouldn't have
been so strong.
because with Allende dead,
he was dead,
and alive at an Embassy, or out
of the country
with all the presidential scrolls,
he would have helped us,
the dictatorship wouldn't have been as strong.
I believe the people
should have gone to the Moneda
to defend it.
- But there were no weapons.
- Doesn't matter.
The weapons don't matter.
I don't think
they'd have killed all the people,
defending their president.
The people should have gone out
on the streets.
Maybe you are right.
We will never know.
When they moved the body of Salvador Allende
from Valparaso to the general
cemetery, were you there?
- Yes.
- What did you feel?
Ah, feelings of seeing my father's
memory go by.
Moving,
watching pass by
the figure of a man
who really put all he had in
for my interests,
those of my family, my children
my grandchildren,
the people of Chile's,
my neighbours'.
Why did it remind you of
your father?
Because I appreciated Salvador Allende's
spirit very much,
and my father was very comprehensive,
A man who helped me a lot.
And he was an anarquist,
He helped me become what I am,
what he was then,
until he died.
I'll keep a good memory.
Of Allende too.
A man
who helped do for Chile
what my father
had done for me.
Workers of my fatherland:
I want to thank the loyalty
you have always shown,
the trust you have deposited
in a man
who was just an interpetre of the
cries for justice.
Surelly Radio Magallanes
will be shut down
and the calm metal of my voice
will not get to you.
It doesn't matter.
Other men shall overcome
this bitter and grey moment,
where treason tries to impose itself.
Long live Chile, long live the people!
Long live the workers!
These are my last words and I am sure
that my sacrifice will not be in vain.
Death is not the end.
It's necessary to go back to that
voluntary act of Salvador Allende,
last defender of the Moneda.
His suicide was neither desperate nor romantic.
It was a realist act
that showed that politics
does not have to bow down before the impossible.
I have to start again,
to recommence.
- Good Day.
- Good Day.
We are making a survey
we wanted to know, were you
a witness of the bombardment of
Allende's house 30 years ago?
- No, try the neighbours.
- Thnaks.
I was at school,
2nd grade.
We wanted to know if you were
a witness of the bombing
of Allende's house 30 years ago?
Me, yes. Yes...
Yes? Can we make you a few questions?
Impossible. I can't now. I'm late
and I have to go.
- Yes?
- Good day, madame.
Excuse us, we are making a survey
to see if the people here saw
the bombardment
of Allende's house 30 years ago?
No, thank you.
What is it about?
We wanted to know if you saw
the bombardment, 30 years ago,
of Allende's house?
I can't answer that
because I wasn't here.
- You didn't live here?
- No!
Well, thank you very much.
They say they came in afterwards?
Ah, yes... 'Course,
they pillaged it!
But I don't know who it was.
They took the paintings and everything.
Who could it have been?
Today, the house that was the official
residency of the president,
is retirement house for the
Chilean Air Force.
It's a secret museum, a place of amnesia.
Crossing the mirror of dirty
conscience, the memory emerges.
Yes, here there was a moment
of armed resistance, weapons were found
but nothing that justified the
barbarity of the pillaging,
The hatred thrown against this house.
And they knew, by the way,
by the time they were bombing,
that the president wasn't here.
The president was speaking from
the microphones of the Moneda.
So, the bombardment was done
knowing that
the president wasn't here,
Only his wife was here.
The neighbours took paintings,
jewels,
underwear, personnal photos.
Afterwards the military took the rest.
To this day, Chile has not
reflected about his.
Only a few objects managed
to be recovered by the family.
Let's see!
Exactly, this is the one.
This is the room
where the President of the Republic slept.
In this door,
Pinochet was promoted
when that Sunday,
after talking to him, he said
he wanted him to be coordinator
of the Armed Forces,
of the Army especially
to put down any coup attempt
that went against individual
rights and the Constitution.
The day after the bombardment,
Allende's widow was taken
in a military plane to
to bury her husband at Via del Mar.
She wasn't allowed to see Allende's remains,
which were laid down in an
unmarked tomb
Hortensia Bussi, the "Tencha",
who is today 87 years old,
became the central figure of the
international campaign
of solidarity with Chile.
I think that
Allende lived his presidency
is great loneliness.
It's true he had a group of friends and
colaborators
who were very loyal and close to him.
In this group there were two women:
Beatriz, the "Tati",
his eldest daughter, a doctor like him,
loyal colaborator and critic,
she accompanied him all his life.
She shot herself in Havana in 1977.
And Miria Contreras, the "Payita",
his personnal secretary.
"La Paya" was...
of an incredible warmth.
And such tenderness, she captivated,
as much for her beauty as for her tenderness,
she really captivated Allende.
She was with him in the last
electoral campaign,
and, when he gets to power,
she becomes his personnal secretary,
moreover she was in such a position,
even though she simpathised
with the left wing tendency
of the Socialist Party or the MIR,
despite that,
all political parties trusted her.
And why do you not feel important?
No, I don't thing I played any
important part...
in all those things.
All I did was
always support him, you know,
so that he had...
a friend, someone he could trust.
But this dedication was precisely
a very substantial part of his
strength,
of his energy, in the last phase, I think.
Yes, sure. It was important
to him, but to him...
that doesn't make me special.
I believe it was one of the most
beautiful love stories in the country
No, you are exaggerating,...
But... well...
About the historical bit,
you are putting me here
because you from this side (?)...
The President's office was here,
more or less in this direction.
From here the president took the phone,
and... on three occasions adressed
the Chilean people.
The president was like this,
here, and talked on the telephone, like this.
And...
it has been said this speech
that was his legacy...
the last speech,
the president didn't have nothing written.
I didn't notice any had notes, nothing.
After that speech,
there was a meeting, in a room
called the Toesca room.
- And there he says "Well, the air
strike is about to begin,...
I don't want martyrs...
so I have asked for a deal."
Which wasn't respected, of course.
"But he who can't defend himself, should go.
I will stay, for it is my duty as President.
The President does not abandon the Moneda.
And every woman is going, no questions about it. "
At the end of the meeting nobody left, everyone stayed.
And the women had to be sent away,
practically by force.
and the "Paya" hid herself.
When it's imminent, when there
is nothing left to do,
The Moneda is in flames,
then Allende says:
"Well, we'll give ourselves up,...
make a line and go down, one by one. "
And he repeats: Empty pockets.
I got at the end, first goes the Paya. "
And that is how it was,
we made a line...
the military were already...
on the stairways.
There were about 30 of us,
and I was at the end...
and that's how I saw the moment...
Allende shot himself,
not the very moment,
but I see him dead.
Because I hear the shot, no?
Enrique Huerta, who was the palace's
intendant:
"The president is dead. "
Then I turn around and I see
the president, dead,
and there Patxi Gijn turns back,
and I get pushed out
and Patxi stays with the president...
dead.
- But you saw him.
- Yes, I saw him dead, yes.
Well he was sitting in an armchair,
with his back to Morand,
and was... wore a grey jacket
with a sweater,
no glasses,
he had the machine gun between his legs,
and had his head open,
cracked and bursted .
Now we are in the place
that corresponds to where President
Allende spent his last minutes
before his death.
- The building has been reshaped?
- It's been completely reshaped
and this place where... It's an estimate
and there are witnesses that confirm it.
The past doesn't pass.
About our recent history,
there are few books.
There is no biography of Allende,
the files of power are still secret,
the arrogance of the victor lives.
September 11, 1973
is always present.
Salvador Allende loved life,
and life loved him.
With this life in our minds
we go on acting, thinking,
and inventing the future.
The past doesn't pass.
The river inverts the course of its stream
The water from the waterfalls goes up.
The people start to walk backwards.
The horses walk backwards.
The military break ranks.
The bullets leave the flesh.
The bullets go into the barrels.
The officers hostle their guns.
The current goes into the power plugs.
The tortured stop shaking.
The tortured close their mouths.
The concentration camps are emptied
The disappeared appear.
The dead leave their tombs.
The airplanes fly backwards.
The rockets go up into the airplanes.
Allende shoots,
the fires go out.
He takes of his helmet
The Moneda reconstructs itself.
His skull recomposes itself.
He goes to the balcony
Allende returns to Thomas More.
The detained walk backwards
from the stadia.
September 11!
The Armed Forces respect
the Constitution.
The military return to their barracks.
Neruda is reborn!
Vctor Jara plays the guitar,
sings!
The workers march, singing:
"We shall win".