Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin

136 Pages·2013·19.24 MB·English

by  Marquez Gabriel Garcia

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Clandestine
t>e in chile
Adventures OF
MieuEL LiniN
11
ISBN 0-flDSD-033E-3 FPT >%l
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CLANDESTINE IN
After twelve years in exile. Chiles leading
—
film director, Miguel Littin, returned in
—
disguise to shoot a clandestinefilm about
Pinochets Chile. His voice and experience are
recorded here by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel
Garcia Mdrquez.
Miguel Littin, permanently exiled by
Chilesdictator, illegallyenteredhisnativecoun-
try in the fall of 1985, disguised as a Uruguayan
businessman. Formerly dark, bearded, and
—
portly, his new persona reflected in this
—
revealing first-person account finds him
slimmed down, beardless, and light-haired.
Littins laugh, his walk, and each ofhis gesturas
were newly learned. While simultaneously
directingfive film crews on several locations, he
becameanactorplayingarolethatrequiredper-
fection: anything less would spell exposure. His
purpose: to film his beloved, despoiled country
asitistoday, torecordthe"abominablesilences"
of a country under siege. So successful was his
disguise that the filmmakers own mother failed
torecognizehimonasurprisevisittohervillage.
The experience and sentiments of a man
who traded hisown identity for an invented one
turn out to be another form of disguise in the
hands of the Nobel Prize winner for literature,
Gabriel GarciaMarquez. Beyondrecountingthe
dailylivingofaclandestinelifein dangerouscir-
cumstances, this remarkable story contains lay-
ers of experience and meaning to reveal what
happenstoanindividualwhenhetakesonanew
identity. Intelligence, wisdom, humor, and sub-
tlety inform Garcia Marquezs writing ^i give
this important contemporary ad- the
unmistakable mark ofliterature.
(Continuedonbackflap)
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Far-ranging bird, aloft
you seemed
suspended
between continents
over lost seas;
aflick
of a wing,
a bell clap
offeathers:
majestically, you changed
your course afraction
and, triumphant and true,
continued on your implacable,
lonely
route.

THEADVENTURES OF MIGUEL LITTIN
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Translated by Asa Zatz
Henry Holt and Company New York
Copyright s 1986 by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Translation copyright © 1987 by Asa Zatz
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereofin any form.
First published in the United States in 1987 by
Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 521 Fifth Avenue,
New York, New York 10175.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Originally published in Colombia under the title
La aventura deMiguelLittin, clandestino en Chile.
Library-ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, 1928-
Clandestine in Chile.
Translation of: La aventura de Miguel Littin,
clandestino en Chile.
— —
1. Chile Politics and government 1970-
2. Chile—Description and travel—1981-
3. Littin, Miguel. 4. Moving-pictureproducers and
directors-Chile-Biography. I. Littin, Miguel.
II. Title.
F3100.G37513 1987 983'.064 87-39
ISBN: 0-8050-0322-3
FirstAmerican Edition
Designed by Susan Hood
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
987654321
10
Excerpt from "Ode to the Voyager Albatross" copyright
© 1973 by the Estate ofPablo Neruda; translationcopyright
® 1987 by Margaret Peden.
Photographscourtesy of Miguel Littin.
ISBN D-flOSD-03EE-3
Hero, I said; no one
will erect
on the soil
ofsome public plaza
your inspiring
statue,
no one.
Instead, amid
somber official laurels
will be installed
a mustached man
infrock coat or with sword,
a man who killed
a peasant woman
in the war,
a man who with a single
bloody shell
demolished
a schoolfor
little girls,
a man who usurped
the Indians'
lands,
a hunter
of doves,
exterminator
of black swans. . . .
don*t expect
them to erect
a monument
to yourfeats;
and while
melancholy spectators
gathered around your remains,
plucking
afeather,
a petal, a message
from a hurricane,
I walked away,
so that
at least
your memory,
without a stone, without a statue,
might on these linesfly
for the last time into
space,
and yourflight stay close to the sea.