The Parallel Chile: an Open Letter to Eugenio Barba

Abstract

On 11 September 1973 the Chilean armed forces, led by General Augusto Pinochet, overthrew the democratically elected Socialist–Communist coalition government of President Salvador Allende Gossens. The coup marked the beginning of severe repression against leftists, trade unionists, journalists, and artists, many of whom were exiled, killed, or merely ‘disappeared’ after being arrested. This letter focuses on the years following the coup: it was written almost one year before the plebiscite on 5 October 1988 when Chileans voted against Pinochet continuing in power as president for another eight years, preparing the way for the elections of December 1989. Despite these hopeful developments – and previous coverage of theatre under the dictatorship, by Catherine Boyle in NTQ 15 (1988) and Enzo Cozzi in NTQ 22 (1989) – we felt it important to publish this moving account by a Chilean actively involved in the struggle, written to Eugenio Barba following the UNESCO-sponsored meeting on Latin American theatre they both attended in Lima, Peru, in April 1987. Its author, Hector Noguera, is a professor in the Theatre Department of Santiago's Catholic University as well as director of the university's professional theatre company, a founding member of several independent groups where he continues to direct and act, and president of the International Theatre Institute in Chile.