Arquitectura Ecológica

Valparaiso

Yesterday Christian and I went to Valparaiso to meet more families whose houses were destroyed. We tried to call the muni (the city government) to get some information about what sectors were most damaged, but they gave us the typical Chilean ¨I´ll call you right back¨. We´re still waiting. So, we decided to just drive around and look for ourselves.

We stopped and ask a man who owns a newsstand (some practical advice about Chile: if you ever want information ask the people at the newsstands or the people who park cars, they know everything). The man told us about family whose house was totally destroyed and actually slid down the hill. The house wasn´t destroyed by the earthquake but from an aftershock.

We drove to the address and saw the hole where the house had been and an elderly couple sitting on the curb. We parked our car and met Doris, la dueña de casa. She and her husband lived in that house for forty years. They told me that the house was severely damage after the earthquake; however they continued to live in it. It was only a few days ago during one of the stronger aftershocks when they ran out of the house and watched it fall down the hillside.

Doris told me that we were not the only ones that had traveled to meet them. Onlookers come to the cerro to see the house that had fallen. Doris told me that they come they take pictures and then they leave. No one has that has come has offered to help them in any way. Actually, the only people in all Valparaiso that hadn´t come to see the house were the city inspectors. One week after the earthquake, with an article in the paper and video of the destruction on the news, and still no word from the government.

Doris and her neighbors encouraged us to take pictures of the fallen structure. One of her neighbors actually took my camera and climbed down to the rubble to get a close up. The only picture I didn´t take was one of Doris and her husband. They were so solemn as they watched people gawk and photograph what was once their house, I couldn´t make a further spectacle of them.

The first picture is what is left of the house. The second picture shows the hole between neighboring houses where her house fell. The third picture is us talking to Doris while people drive up, stop, look, and then leave. The final picture is of the sign that the family made. It reads ¨We´re Chileans too, when will help come for us¨.