"We are headed for collective suicide"

Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, author of "Mundo del fin del mundo" (Stories from the End of the World) says that defending the environment is a political concern that underlies all of his work.

STRESA, Italy - An untiring traveler, Chile's Luis Sepúlveda (1949) is one of the world's most widely-read authors. Forced into exile three decades ago by his country's dictatorship, he has visited several continents, recounting his vision of reality, creating best-sellers along the way.

He has lived through bitter times, as when he was tortured during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) for his role as a personal guard of socialist president Salvador Allende. Or later when he traveled to Bolivia to try to fight the military regime, which inspired the short story "El campeón" (The Champion).

But he also discovered poetry in nature and its relationship with human beings. "The Old Man Who Read Love Stories" is a book dedicated to the Brazilian Amazon environmental activist Chico Mendes, who was assassinated in 1988, and to the indigenous Shuar community of Ecuador, who he lived with for seven months.

With the international environmental watchdog Greenpeace he spent five years sailing the world's oceans, a journey that gave rise to "Mundo del find el mundo", a novel about whale hunting.

Sepúlveda now lives in Gijón, in northern Spain, and unlike some of his renowned compatriots who returned to Chile after the dictatorship ended 13 years ago, he does not plan to move back "home". In the novel "Nombre de torero" (Name of a Bullfighter), he explains his reasons.

Sepúlveda spoke with Tierramérica recently in the Italian city of Stresa, 50 km from Milan, where he took part in the Grinzane Film and Literature Festival.


- They say that after Gabriel García Márquez, you are the most widely read author in Spanish. Does that imply a greater commitment to your readers?
- A commitment to one's readers always exists. I don't believe in writers who say they write only for themselves. I like to be read. It is a great ethical and moral commitment, which obligates us to be more rigorous with literature and life itself. We have to be a moral reference point for young people as they join the world of readers. I would prefer that a 15-year-old has me as an example rather than a (George W.) Bush or a (Silvio) Berlusconi.

- What is your ethical position in life?
- Before being an author, I am a citizen with duties and rights. I am, for example, in favor of freedom of expression. That is my right. But to obtain it I have to comply with a duty that tells me that I must oppose with all my strength the monopolies, the concentration of the communications media in the hands of a few, and the nearly absolute power of the United States over communications. I have the duty to be anti-imperialist.

- In your books, nature is a protagonist. Why?
- I try to be very faithful to the era that has been my destiny to live. It is clear to me that human life is fragile and ephemeral. We are here on loan and we have the moral obligation to leave the Earth in the same state in which we found it, or better. But everything indicates it is just the opposite. We are headed towards a sort of collective suicide. It is a political concern that is latent in me and in all my work.

- What was your friendship with Chico Mendes like?
- I met Chico at a conference of Brazilian labor unionists in Sao Paulo, and there began a great friendship. I visited him once or twice a year. He was very friendly and profound. He was illiterate until age 16, when he met an injured old man, who he took care of. In exchange, the man taught him to read and write, and opened the doors of a fascinating world. Chico had a proposal for the Amazon that no scientist had ever come up with. He wanted Indians and whites to live and work together.

- For many people, globalization is the way to save the world. What do you think of the idea of the 'global village'?
- The mere idea of a global village brings with it a danger: the negation of diversity, which is precisely what makes life interesting.

- You directed the film "Nowhere", which can be inferred to be set in your country. Is the Chilean image of stability and development a mirage?
- Chile has an image that is pure marketing. Until 1973, Chile was an industrial power and society was advancing towards Swedish-style socialism. We wanted a welfare state, a broad, democratic and plural society. The North Americans didn't permit it and implanted a dictatorship and an atrocious economic model. After 13 years of democracy, there is brutal inequality: less than five percent of the Chilean population holds 90 percent of the wealth, while 95 percent shares the five percent that is left over.

- You were very close to the overthrown president Salvador Allende. Did his death have an impact on you?
- Yes, we were very close. I was a member of his personal team of guards and I held other posts in his government. His death had an impact on everyone's lives because he was an exemplary leader. Our goal was to improve the life of the Chileans, to gain time to create our own modernity. Allende understood that this was the cultural base that we needed in order to transform ourselves as a nation.

- In your latest book you return to your native country. How is that?
- Yes, the book will be published next year. It talks about the Chilean 1968, which was very special. Unlike the French '68, which lasted a month, and the Mexican, which ended with the massacre of students at Tlatelolco, our movement lasted from 1968 to 1970 and culminated with the election of Salvador Allende. It's titled "Un día, un país" (One Day, One Country).

* Francesca Colombo is a Tierramérica contributor.