Chapter
8

Maybe, I´m mixing few years but please let me talk about the 90´s. This decade was fantastic. So funny and hilarious. We kept growing up steady and close to the nature. Because, Santiago was surrounded by nature. So, we kept leaving Santiago during the weekends. Often, Maria Jose and Anita Tielsen picked me to go to Reñaca, the beach. Anita´s mother had a fancy and comfortable apartment with a spectacular view over the Ocean, so we used it. The terrace was sunny and open to the oceanic wind. The last floor of 5, built as different terraces as stairs. We party a lot, going out to dance, through streets and avenues of this seaside town. 

A lot of people came from Santiago to spend the weekend, so we met a lot of people. There was a place called El Cesar, where great DJs played every night. And where I spent my last New Year´s Eve with Sebastian. 

I kept studying public relations and kept meeting nice people. Like my classmate, a very good friend named Loreto, from the most prudish school in Santiago, Colegio Los Andes. She was very Catholic but very wild at the same time. Someone who wanted to break free, in a good way. She was super nice and bright, but her mom annoyed her most of the time. I think it’s worse to have a crazy mother than a crazy father. With Loreto, we did the final public relations project, we traveled often to Viña del Mar to her parents’ apartment and some other trips outside the city.  Though, the most amazing adventure was in the south of Chile. That story i will tell it later. We stayed friends until I started dating girls.

 After finished my studies on PR, I decided to do a Diploma in Photography at the School of Design of Universidad Catolica de Chile.  The school was great, not far from home,  at Casona Lo Contador, an old house, from the Colony century, SXVI. With a very old architecture, but it has open spaces and a big patio in the center.

While learning and being a good student, my head teacher offered me a job at a super beautiful photography studio in Providencia.

I worked 1 year around for the photographer and learnt a lot. Specially on the black and white style, not exactly for his photo style, but because of his laboratory technique. The job was fine but I worked a lot, many hours, and many waits. It was not instant digital photography. The photo needed to be revealed.

I persevered and stayed. And I saved some money to travel after all.

With Sebastian things came bad because of me. I was still being immature. So, I met a girl. A super beautiful girl younger than me and I started to go out with her.

This time was fun and weird, because we went out for months and we didn´t talk about it. I was a chicken. First date, we kissed until dawn, that was the only thing we did. All though, the partner and the situation, I was conservative about first dates because of my catholic background : ) And then, we went out and we keep kissing but, I still had my boyfriend. This was fine for me, but at the end for them was not ok. With Casta, her name, we were like two good friends. My dad and family adored her. We went out in nature a lot and we used to ride a motorcycle.  A motorcycle we bring everywhere.

Once, we were in Vichuquen, a lake 3 hours from Santiago where her family had a house. We bring everything to spend a long weekend on the lake. The house was all for us, alone. Except for the neighbourg, who saw us kissing and going around together the whole weekend. Next week, back in Santiago to study Casta´s father called my father to spread the gossip. Drama was served. My father couldn´t understand what Casta´s father was telling by phone. After hanging out he asked me if it was true Im having an affair with my close friend. My answer was yes.

This was my first homosexual experience. [CLEARS THROAT] 

Even, I am writing for americans to know who we are, surely some chilean people with read these pages. And Chile is a kid in themes of Rights, thoughts and new thoughts A quick story to realize this. We were on a birthday party. All kind of nice people came to this event. One of them was a super important business man, young for the fortune he has, and with a small size for my surprise. In a moment of the night the theme of his gay son came on. He and his wife started telling the tragedy, explaining the kind of homosexuality had their son, etc They were on the climax of their confession and Other friend in the party started telling the story we all knew. Her little girl wanted to grow as a boy, and so she was growing like this on her school and life. So, for me and I think many other present this was a really a theme, not a boy going out with boys.

The gay world always was a theme in Chile, as in many countries, but here, the debate is clearly stucked on the pass century. There´s lot of things happening because in one sense, there´s more freedom, but the reception of these events on some part of the society are still less than zero.

Then, with Casta kept together for 1 year and a half. 

The most fun of this time, was a trip we made on winter 1991, with Punsi and Casta´s cousin Caroll. We traveled in two cars from Santiago to Arica, that are 2000 kms. A lot. We made it in 4 days making stops in beautiful places. On the second day, we started  crossing the Atacama desert. We used to got off the motorcycle from the truck, to ride in the flowery desert. And by night, we slept on the car in the middle of nothing. One night we were the four of us, arriving together on the border of a cliff to pass the night. The darkness was absolute and the sky was plenty of stars. All kind of stories you can imagen in a situation like that and we thought about extraterrestres. When we saw the car with the lights on and the doors open after a walk of recognition. Stories of UFOs are usually in Chile but I think this theme was and will be always a mystery.

Next day, Casta was driving in the most dry part of the dessert. That part is amazing. It´s hot and lonely. And, you never could imagine there´s a police control in the middle of nowhere. So, Casta didnt saw a police control in the middle of nowhere at all. Even it was a huge control. But because she was driving in another dimension. Lights and car sirenes woke me up. The police stopped the car and they took us to the Main Police office in a town called Maria Elena an old saltpeter from the 20s. They gave us a fine that we never paid and we became friends with all the people in town. We knew many beautiful places all with outstanding geography and we had so much fun. 

Punsi wanted to met another guy, a very handsome guy. Raul Pey. He was working there, maybe in a family business. We´ve arrived to his apartment, an attic infront of the Ocean with views to El Morro de Arica, an historic mountain. But the thing was when we arrived Raul was interested in me and not in Maria Inés. So, we came back to Santiago separated, the two of us on delayed. We visited many beaches from the north, we took the sun and we read a book of Vargas Llosa, La tia Julia y el Escribidor. 

But this was on the early nineties. Then the decade continued to unfold. 

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