By Pedro Algorta
(Editor’s note: The following testimonial was written by Pedro Algorta, a survivor of the catastrophic Andes plane crash of 38 years ago. Addressing the miners at the time of their rescue, Algorta remembers that day on the anniversary of the tragedy. Originally published in La Nacion.)
On October 13, 38 years ago, our plane crashed on its way across the Andes. This October 13, we find ourselves awaiting the rescue of the 33 miners.
We spent more than 70 days surviving in the open, lost more than 3600 meters up, surrounded by rocks, ice and snow, surrounded by our friends killed in the accident and our only shelter the remains of the crashed plane. When we left, close to Christmas, we had changed. We had gone through a defining experience. Our families who were searching for us had also changed. We all had to adjust.
The miners have also spent nearly 70 days, lost in the bottom of the mountain, without seeing the light of day. Probably the worst were the first 18 days, when they did not know if they would be found or not. Days when they must have felt like they were alone, when they had to ration their food, not knowing whether they were in a place where they could be reached. Then, once contact was established, that umbilical cord to the outside world, the restless and militant waiting; trying to find the best possible way, doing what they could to stay lucid, trying to stay in control of the situation and preparing for rescue .
The anniversary of our crash forces us to look back and remember the horror of the tragedy and our friends who did not return. But it also forces us to remember that 38 years have passed and the 16 of us who survived the mountain are still alive and well today, and we have normal lives, with successes and failures, good and bad times. We have lived much since the mountain. Looking back, while our accident in the Andes and our struggle for survival remain in our memories, the images are blurred and eclipsed by all the experiences we have lived in these past 38 years. The families we built; our wives, whom some of us had not met yet; the children we did not yet have; our later work and everything we have done, everything we have loved and those who have loved us; 38 years later, all these things make the accident in the Andes only one more incident in our lives.
I am sure that when we left the mountain our parents, along with their tremendous emotion at seeing us returned alive, had great anxiety about what would happen to us later on, how the ghosts of our experience would chase us through our lives. These fears were not realized and thanks to them and all the people who given us their love and understanding at every stage, we have not had the nightmares that some expected.
I hope in many years, the miners who are now out of their hole can remember this time with peace, and that you will have almost forgotten. And I hope they can remember the moments of anguish in the mine without shuddering, and also the intense moments that they will have soon: the time of reunion with loved ones, the difficult adjustments necessary to live with a family again, to be assailed by the media and specialists of the world. Surely people will make movies and write books, people will know the names of some of them, we will see them on television telling about their experience: what they felt, what they did, what they experienced.
But luckily, all of that will pass, and sooner or later they will return to their routine and once again be threading the needle through the thread of normal life, in silence and solitude, and they will have the option to do many other things, to live the rest of their lives with great passion and return to their private lives, so that in many years, they may also feel that the memory of their survival in the mine also becomes blurred and eclipsed by the much stronger memories of all that they have not lived yet.
SOURCE: LA NACION
Translated by Kathryn Bibler ( editor@santiagotimes.cl This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
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