Chapter 2
The Guadaroli Agnelli in their adventure found Chile to take roots. And those roots bore fruits years later on me.
Probably the true story is, they arrived in Valparaiso, as many Italian emigrants, but the theory of the donkey is more funny and brave. Certainly i know is that the finally settled in Santiago his main resident, and in Cartagena, a town by the see 70 kms from Santiago, their business.
In 1912 they were totally mixed in society as it is shown on what i found; a list «of the names of so many people who generously contributed to the construction of the parish church of the Virgen Medianera in Cartagena. In gratitude for their immense cooperation, the names that appear to be registered in the invitation on the day of the solemn inauguration of the Temple, July 14, 1912. » In this event important people from Santiago shown off. Politics, doctors, business men, religious, etc and Ernestina and Ezelino were in the list as a married couple.
They regent an Hotel infront of the beach called Hotel Francia. Cartagena in those days lived the begining of the phenomeno and change of costumes in the elites society. They started to live their leisure time on going out to experience nature. The elite from Santiago choosed on those days Cartagena. This is a picture aswell of the chilean society that was based on oligarchies and working class.
The oligarchies, like the Colonies, have always believed that they had rights above the others. This could come from the medieval thoughts that we are not equals. Rich – Poor. The constant dualities of life on earth. The Essay «Disputes on the beach. Tourism, Society and Symbolic Violence at the beggining on the social oversize of the Cartagena Spa. 1930-1960» explains well the phenomenon. But the most significant event was, my family built one on the exclusive terrace on the beach for private use, cutting off local people’s access to the best beach of the area and displacing them to other distant beaches.
As you can imagine, the business went right and the children grown up. All the girls, Aida, Rosa, Angelica, Francisca and Raquel, the Guadaroli, married wealthy men, except Ernestina, my godmother. Who used to play the organ in the church in Santiago and start going out with the sacristan of the church, a humble guy of the neighborghood. They used to interact in clandestines dates for many years. Until Ernesta her mother, found Ismael in Ernestina´s room and start shouting : Ernestina, Ernestina!!! L’uomo, l’uomo !!! (the man, the man) With that episode they have to married as good christians and lived in a house at the old historic center of Santiago, nearby the church.
There were twins in the family, the youngest, Raquel and Rosa. And Irene died at 9. About the two guys, they were super handsome, blonde white skin and green eyes. Ernesto take the command in the hotel when Ezelino died, and Julio died in the I world war in Italy, fighting against the Germans, not far from Milano, in Padua. In one of the most heavy and bloody battles of this war. He traveled very young with a group of chilean-italian descendent, part of the Compañia de Bomberos de Santiago. They departed to fight for the motherland. He died.
Francisca who is my great-grandmother, married a businessman named Manuel Magnani that has a brother Oscar Magnani. Aida, married Oscar, so there was a double and deep linkage, two brothers with two sisters. Manuel died young, but it seems he was a sadic, so maybe better death than alive. The story tell that he used to hit my grandmother with seaweed on the beach. Because of his death, Oscar Magnani, that didnt have kids with Aida took the tutoring and education of Yolanda Magnani Guadaroli and my father Mario Alfredo.
My grandmother Yolanda was uptight as all of my great aunts and she become one more of the Guadaroli girls. My father was a country boy who lived in between Santiago, and Cartagena, at El Monte, a little town 30 kms from Santiago. He was brilliant in mathematics and drawing. And he was contemporary of James Dean, so he took interest on cars and motorcycles from very young.
Oscar Magnani, his uncle, was a very wealthy man in Chile and partner in some business with Aurelio Simonetti, the husband of Rosa. Curiosly they didnt have children aswell.
The Simonettis and Oscar Magnani were owners of Madeco, one of the most important enterprises in Chile. And they gave my father all the oportunities in life to make a career in the family business, but my father only cares about living life as free as James Dean.
This story looks like an italian sicilian story, but in fact it was in Chile.
