--This Review appears on Amazon.com and was posted by "Mr. Fellini" under the customer reviews section on the book's page.--
Chile: The Other September 11" is one of the best books available on the tragic events that inaugurated an era of terror and fascism in the small Latin American country. This is an astounding document of what took place when radical right-wing general Augusto Pinochet lead a CIA-backed military coup against the government of ELECTED socialist president Salvador Allende. The most powerful statement the book makes is that now both Chile and the United States share the dreaded date of a Tuesday, September 11 as a day of horror and death, this is eloquently expressed in a memorable essay by Ariel Dorfman. In-between the chapters and in an important chronology the Nixon White House plot to distabalize Allende's government is detailed, showing how the U.S. in part was deeply responsible for the coup and horrors that fell on Chile. Some right-wingers here cringe, trying to make the book sound "one-sided," maybe it is, but the facts sure aren't. It is also ridiculous that some reviewers here try to discount the brilliant speech given by Fidel Castro shortly after the coup. Castro is a revolutionary leader, something hard to grasp through American eyes eventhough now sadly, we can grasp a taste of what Chile experienced with our own day of terrorism and murder. Castro's speech is both a memorable tribute to the Chilean spirit, the Chilean revolution, Allende, and the solidarity between Cuba and Chile, and yet Castro still gives a well-calculated warning about unarmed nations being defenseless against the tyranny of fascist intentions. The book also features some wonderful poetry that expresses the FEELINGS of what happened, this is an insightful style for the book considering Chile is the home of one of the world's great poets, Pablo Neruda, who's sad fate following the coup is detailed here by his wife. The two most powerful chapters belong to Joan Jara, wife of murdered Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, she writes about her final moments with her husband on the morning of the coup as they held each-other for the last time before he leaves for the city's university, never to be seen again except as a bloodied, murdered victim of the military rulers. Jara also shares here her husband's final poem, written while imprisoned in a horrific sports stadium turned torture center. "Chile: The Other September 11" should not be read by just Latin Americans or history buffs, it should be read by Americans not just as a look into what we've helped unleash on other nations, but as a warning of what we shouldn't allow to happen here. It is easy to dismiss the crimes of men like Pinochet as something from "over there," when in fact, it can happen here because human beings are human beings no matter where they reside. When we hear about "the war on terror" and some of the frightening stereotypes being developed around immigrants and others, it would be wise to read this book and see what happens when ideaological paranoia produces a state of terror and oppression. Chile politically has emerged from the darkness of the Pinochet regime, Michelle Bachelet is now the nation's first woman president (and head of Chile's socialist party), but reading this book, one realizes there are national scars that take longer time to heal. "Chile: The Other September 11" is a book that refuses to be ignored and shouldn't be ignored, it is a look at the past, and a document that helps better understand the present.
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