1986_11 The Daily Collegian November 1986

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'
, Monday, Nov. 3, 1986,
(B^/i
CHILE
Continued from page 2
pursuing a master's degree in communi¬
cations at Stanford, on leave from his job
Catholic U niversity of Chile, in Valparaiso.
Figueroa had kdnown for several weeks
that the coup was immirient. His source of
up-to-date information was Radio Cuba
up-to-date in«orm.»!ii>n w.is Kudi" C»i:xi
which could be heard by short-wave radio.
Nonetheless, the Allende government's
fall come as a shock.
"Radio Cuba was the only source."
Figueroa said. "They even gave the names
of the officers that were, in charge of
repression. Where they got the information.
\I don't, know."
^viJfg'ueroa's first thoughts were of his
family. His wife. Marisol. and his 2-year-
old son, Xavier, weren't with him because
Marisol was pregnant with his daughter,
Maite, and they couldn't afford to have
Vhe baby in the U nited States. It took four
aayftfbT Figueroa to find out if thev were
all fight.
"The day of the coup, I knew my future
in Chile was over. I know I didn't have a
job waiting for me and 1 knew I couldn't
go back and work under those circum¬
stances. It was against my principles.
'Gosh, now I don't have a scholarship." I
thought.'How will 1 feed my family wheh\
they come here? How will I pay for the/
house I'm renting? How will I get a job?/
Figueroa was able to bring hi
here with the aid of the Ford Found;
which helped cut bureaucratic delays and
provide emotional support.
Figueroa  also   helped   many   of  the
it a job?/*
lis fa/fiily
und/tion.
Chilean intelligensia. supporters of
Allende's socialist government, escape
after the coup.
Figueroa was no stranger to e.\pa¬
triotism. His parents. Spanish nationals
of Basque descent, fled the Franco regime
after the Spanish Civil War.
Figueroa grew up in Valparaiso^ and
earned a degree in chemistry and the
equivalent of a single-subject teaching
credential at Catholic University. After
teaching high school for six years, he was
given a teaching assistaaWrhp at Catholic
University in 1970: Within three years he-
was Dean of the School of Education.
At the time. Chile was undergoing
social reforms similar to the civil rights
movement in the United States. A rising
political consciousness in the country was
centered around the universities. Figueroa
said.
"Students were taking a more active
role in addressing important issues in the
nation — in-a way. a little bit of moving
the older generation, of'rocking the boat.'
" Figueroa said. "From that rocking thc
boat, our major problem was a set of
expectations that were too high for what
the (socialist Allende) regime was able to
achieve.
"It was a very active period. The youth
were very idealistic — people were really
willing to change the world. For the first
time, the youth were able to take a vital
role in changing thc nation."    '
Figueroa scoffs at the widely held notion
that Allende was a totalitarian. "Allende
was the most democratic president Chile
ever had. He was so democratic that 10
days before the coup, opposition news¬
papers were attacking the president. And
1
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he protected thc right of those newspapers
to attack him."
Figueroa was unable to return to Chile
until I97v8, when he went.to visit his ailing
father-in-law.
"My friends were crying when they saw
me. literally crying, because they hadn't
seen me since the coup. They thought I
was dead."
But the national consciousness had
changed since the coup. Th«a Chilean
people were now more materialistic than
idealistic. Figueroa said.
"The first question people asked me was
'How much money are you making?'"
They never asked'How are you. how's life
there?'
"That was the kind of mentality that
had settled in. In 1978 the youth were just
involved in having a good time."
But people were also fearful of the
violent methods oy repression Pinochet
used. Blacklisted people were shunned to
avoid guilt by association.
"I hadafriend(in 1978) who was always
alone. I was the only one talking to him. I
was open enough to say. 'Why don't we
have a drink together?' I was the only
one...
"They create a pattern of fear in people's
lives — isolation, segregation, discrimina¬
tion — in such a way that opposition is
suddenly over. Everybody's talking about
exactly what you want them to talk about."
Figueroa said.
"I was always with my family (in 1978)"
he said. "They were conscious enough to
see that maybe something could happen
to me. So they were always with me.
"You don't know what kind of infor¬
mation they have about you. you don't
know what kind of danger you're in.
"1 still hesitate to go. Yoju say, *l live in .
America, I'm a legal resident of this
nation. I 'm a professor at a university' — it
doesn't count. Bullets don't have concern
about tenure."
Figueroa lived in Mexico City from
1976 to 1980. working for the Mexican
government as well as teaching social
sciences at two universities. Mexican uni¬
versity graduates are required to spend a
year working for the government, and
Figueroa was in charge of coordinating
needs with students' skills on a national
level: After being bedridden for two
months in 1980 with hepatitis. Figueroa
decided he needed a change.
"Living in Mexico City can be very
traumatic. It's not a city where you can
have a good family life - it's too big.
Everything takes two hours. You want to
get to a place three blocks away, it takes
two hours; you want to go across town, it
takes two hours. I got sick of tha*."
His bout with hepatitis gave Figueroa
time to reassess his goals, to "step out of the
rhythm I was into and see where I was
going in life." He1 left Mexico to earn his
Ph. I), in international education at Stanford
before coming to CSUF.
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