metapaso.com blog

I got back from a late lunch to find the Santiago Times newsroom a blur of activity. While Charlie and I were peacefully enjoying the delicacies of Peruvian cuisine, Chile’s former dictator General Augusto Pinochet passed away at the age of 91.

Local Chilean television already began twin simulcasts of the days unfolding events, one half of the screen tuned to the Plaza Italia, where a the initial group of hundreds of Pinochet detractors began to gather, the other half of the screen focused on the swelling of supporters around the military hospital where the former general spent his final days.

Sometimes you walk past something without noticing, your mind focused on something else, until some kind of warning flag goes off in your head and you retrace your steps to see what the heck your subconsious was paying attention to while you were daydreaming along. These kind of grand perspective tricks are one of my favorites. As I walked along the avenue across the river, I only glanced at the mural on the far bank and kept walking…then it struck me, WHOA! I took the photos slightly off of perspective. Hopefully when Melanie and I return to Santiago, we can get a good shot of this one.

Okay, so I may be giving away a few hints as to my mental age when I spot these things, but I have found kids’ games and kids’ culture to be one of the most fascinating aspects of cultural continuity.  That is to say, from nursery rhymes to games of tag, the things kids do vary by country and language, yet the same region/language will often pass these games onto children without direct instruction from their parents.  Before the internet, how were these items kept in our cultural memory?  Check this Picking Who is It out for a peek into the past from a website dedicated to the Games Kids Play.