Atacama

Firmly rooted in historical events and covering themes related to class, gender, trauma and survival, Atacama is the story of Manuel Garay and Lucía Céspedes, who are twelve years old in 1925, the year the Chilean Armed Forces perpetrated two massacres, one against striking saltpetre miners in La Coruña, the other against Peruvians living in Tacna.

Manuel is the oldest son of a communist miner/union leader and an anarchist organizer of working-class women; and Lucía is the only child of a socialite and the fascist army officer who orchestrated both mass killings. A fateful turn of events leads to Lucía befriending Manuel and his family, inextricably connecting them with a common denominator — Lucía’s father. Manuel and Lucía forge a childhood friendship that deepens as they come to understand how their lives are connected not only by the actions of Lucía’s father, but also an understanding of the other’s emotional predicaments and their commitment to social justice.

Spanning decades and taking us from Chile to Spain, France and Canada, Atacama delves deeply into the characters’ psyches and follows their journey to adulthood while tackling the dialectical relationship between historical events and the individual, and also addressing issues such as art and journalism vis à vis political ideals.

(carmenrodriguez.ca)