Juan Carlos

Juan Carlos Gonzalez with a toast of Chilean wine. He is the father of two sons with his wife Patty.

july 4th at 64 Walnut streett

Today is July 4th in the United States. It is at this our family home on 64 Walnut Street that we had many cookout to celebrate this day, the day of Independence of the United States.
Mom would prepare steaks, potatoe salads and other tasty food for this day for the entire family to enjoy. We thank Mom and Dad for everything.

The Gonzalez Family

In the Maryknoll parish of La Asuncion, the parishioners thought that we Maryknollers priests , Brothers and Sisters would leave and go back to the United States during these difficult times in Chile.

In fact their was a sign by the Concepcion airpot, "Yankees Go Home"... but we never did.
The Chilean people were very kind to us an couldn't do enough for us. They try to make us feel at home during these difficult times..

The photo above is ot the Gonzalez family in Villa San Martin. The Mother Sra. Carmen would invite me over to her home many times and I became a son of the family. She and Tito her husband have four children, Juan Carlos, Patty, Tito Jr and Paola. They are all married and have their own families.

I visited them last January and they thought that I would never return to Chile. Actually i had the same thoughts in my mind that I would not return as well.
But I was taken by surprise at all the changes that have taken place within the country since I left there in 1986.

My own parents came down to see me in Talcahuano and this family was a wonderful host to them even though my parents didn't know a word of Spanish.

Salvador Allende

Here is a monument to Salvador Allende at the Presidntial Palace of the Moneda.
The overthrow of the government was during the time of President Nixon and the Secretary of State Kissinger.
The United States was afraid of the spread of Socialism or Communism throughout Latin America in 1973..

Moneda in Santiago, Chile

This picture of me at the Moneda in chile was taken by a visitor also to the Presidential palace of Chile last January 2010.
In September 11th, 1973, this was occupied by the Socialist President Salvadore Allende.
There were a lot of problems in the country with strikes and people were not contented.
Food was also scarce as well.

The Presiedential palace was bombed around 8 in the morning. I at the time of this event was at our parish La Asuncion in Talcahuano.
I was asked by Father Manuel Mejia to go and pick up our cook. who lived in Huanpencillo
which was our neighboring Maryknoll parish of San Miguel (St. Michael) Father Richarfd Smith was in charged of the parish at the time.

At this time I had a very nice black beard which was closely cut and some people thought I looked like the famous Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In fact the Director of the North America language school in Concepcion, Chile thought I was a spy for the United States Government which I was not. I was teaching English as a second language there as well as at our own school of La Asuncion and also for workers at the American factory called Amoco which made steel ball bearings.

Well anyway, getting back to this adventure on traveling on September 11th to pick up our house cook, after being stopped many times on the road. I had to get out put my hands on top of the truck and give them my name and identifiction number. Everyone carries a card with name and number for identificatioin, here in Bolivia as well. It is like a license or a Social security card.

When I finally reached the apartment of Maria, she told me that there was a military take over by the Army general Pinochet. She would not be returning with me.
So she went with me to our parish house of San Miguel. I was deeply shaken at the time and I spent sometime in the bathroom. As you can imagine I was a nervous wreck.

Finally Father Manuel Mejia came by another road to pick me up and to bring me back to the parish La Asuncion.
On the television and radio the new Military government which was a dictatorship gave a list of restrictions that had to be observed by everyone.

The military even came to our school and told all the teaching staff on what we could teach and not to teach. There was a complete change.

I remember being in Concepcion, the city next to Talcahuano and all types of items that were missiing showed up in trucks, meat, toilet paper, soap, cigarettes and many other items suddenly appeared. It was amazing how so much was kept out of existence. Creating a lot of problems for the people at the time with these ratiions of food and supplies.

However there was also a curfew as well which was retrictions of movment at night. You had to get special permission to travel at night by the military or the police. And a light had to be kept on in the car.

to be continued..

The Navy Port in Talcahuano, Chile

Here is a photo of the Chilean Navy port in Talcahuano, Chile, that I had taken this photo last January 2010.

It is one of the best harbors along the Chilean coast. Talcahuano is and important navy base. It has a large fishing industry, and fish are canned and exported. It also has extensive dry- dock facilities, metallurgical plants and petroleum refineries, and it handles the exporting of the agriculture products of the interior.

Anchored on Talcahuano harbor is the Peruvian warship "Huasca", whose capture decisively established Chilean naval supremacy during the war of the Pacific (1875).

A lot of children from the navy families attended the La Asuncion school in La Higueras.

This area was under tight control by the navy when the military take over of the Moneda, the palace of the President Allende on September 11, 1973 in Santiago, Chile with the bombing of the Moneda, early that morning.

A very sad day for Chile and a day that I presonally will never forget.

Can it be

can it be?

can it be?
have I for so longforgotten to feed myself?
yes.for nigh a year now
I was slowly starving.getting lost in busy days,tossing aside the hungerthat chewed away inside.
yet, I did not die.by some quiet miracle
I made it to this momentof truth:
I nearly starved to death.
it was not my bodythat I failed to feed.i
it was my spirit,left alone for dayswithout nourishment or care.
and then one day
I paused to look within,shocked at what I found:
so thin of faith,so weak in understanding,so needy of encouragement.
my starving spirit cried the truth:
I can! I will!
I mustbe fed!