Names/Characters of the Republican Exile in Chile: Winnipeg — Va al Paraíso? — Riñihue/Valdivia

Abstract

From an interdisciplinary view, this work aims to give three perspectives to approach the migratory phenomenon of exile in Chile, as a product of the Spanish Civil War.

The first, called “Winnipeg”, will refer mainly to the prowess between the Chilean and Republican exiles. Its main characters are the poet Pablo Neruda and the president Pedro Aguirre Cerda.

The second, called “Va al paraíso?”, is inspired by the city of Valparaíso, the port where Winnipeg arrived. “Va al paraíso?” will have a sense of where we are going... and if the arrival to this city-port is landing in a hypothetical paradise. Can a new life on another continent be as in paradise?

Thirdly, baptized as “Riñihue/Valdivia”, we will turn to a town and a lake of the same name in southern Chile: Riñihue. It is a community that is very close to the city of Valdivia, and that it is the pole where one of the most violent cataclysms, ever registered in the history of humanity. Leopoldo Castedo —who arrived in Valparaíso exiled in Winnipeg— made the only known documentary, linked to this powerful telluric movement: earthquake and tidal wave.