WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.110 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.110 --> 00:00:07.712 align:middle line:90% This also is from Chile. 00:00:07.712 --> 00:00:10.170 align:middle line:84% It's called "General Matthei Drives Home Through Santiago." 00:00:10.170 --> 00:00:11.420 align:middle line:90% General Matthei. 00:00:11.420 --> 00:00:14.160 align:middle line:84% The Junta there is made up of four generals, 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:17.070 align:middle line:84% and General Matthei is one of those lucky men. 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:22.500 align:middle line:84% And he's General of the Air Force. 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:25.830 align:middle line:84% Pinochet, who also calls himself President, 00:00:25.830 --> 00:00:26.880 align:middle line:90% was General of the Army. 00:00:26.880 --> 00:00:33.260 align:middle line:90% 00:00:33.260 --> 00:00:37.580 align:middle line:84% "General Matthei Drives Home Through Santiago." 00:00:37.580 --> 00:00:41.600 align:middle line:84% The part where General Matthei leaves his office, 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:43.640 align:middle line:90% I don't know about. 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:47.570 align:middle line:84% And when he gets home, that I don't know about either. 00:00:47.570 --> 00:00:50.690 align:middle line:84% Or if he had a hard day or easy day 00:00:50.690 --> 00:00:53.060 align:middle line:84% or if his secretary bent down in front of him 00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:55.340 align:middle line:84% so he could see her large breasts 00:00:55.340 --> 00:00:58.340 align:middle line:84% or if he has a secretary or if she has breasts-- 00:00:58.340 --> 00:01:01.040 align:middle line:84% all this remains shrouded in mystery. 00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:03.830 align:middle line:84% Likewise, when he got home, whether his four 00:01:03.830 --> 00:01:06.050 align:middle line:84% Dobermans romped out to greet him 00:01:06.050 --> 00:01:08.960 align:middle line:84% or if he spent his evening polishing his pistolas-- 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:11.240 align:middle line:90% this too is hidden from me. 00:01:11.240 --> 00:01:13.790 align:middle line:84% But I know for certain it takes 12 men to help 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:15.920 align:middle line:90% General Matthei drive home. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:19.040 align:middle line:84% It takes five vehicles-- two motorcycles with sirens 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:21.170 align:middle line:90% and three big gray cars. 00:01:21.170 --> 00:01:22.505 align:middle line:90% Were they Mercedes? 00:01:22.505 --> 00:01:25.280 align:middle line:84% They were going too fast to tell. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:28.940 align:middle line:84% As for why it is necessary for him to hurry home so rapidly, 00:01:28.940 --> 00:01:31.400 align:middle line:84% this too is a mystery, except that each day he 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:34.520 align:middle line:84% requires 12 men, five vehicles, and most 00:01:34.520 --> 00:01:37.130 align:middle line:90% of the speed in Santiago. 00:01:37.130 --> 00:01:39.980 align:middle line:84% It has been said his bowels were shot away in a duel 00:01:39.980 --> 00:01:42.990 align:middle line:84% and the poor general must spend his life rushing from bathroom 00:01:42.990 --> 00:01:43.490 align:middle line:90% to bathroom. 00:01:43.490 --> 00:01:48.680 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:51.170 align:middle line:84% It has been said that as General of the Air Force 00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:55.280 align:middle line:84% he fears the Earth as the wealthy fear the poor. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:56.870 align:middle line:84% Or perhaps he is jealous of his wife, 00:01:56.870 --> 00:01:59.930 align:middle line:84% or has bread baking in the oven, or is accustomed to watching 00:01:59.930 --> 00:02:02.780 align:middle line:84% the American cartoons on a TV at 7.30. 00:02:02.780 --> 00:02:04.400 align:middle line:84% But the other generals of the Junta 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:07.490 align:middle line:84% also rush home at 100 kilometers per hour 00:02:07.490 --> 00:02:08.990 align:middle line:90% down the crowded avenidas. 00:02:08.990 --> 00:02:11.790 align:middle line:84% Surely they are not all jealous of their wives. 00:02:11.790 --> 00:02:14.900 align:middle line:84% So again the curtain of mystery is lowered before us. 00:02:14.900 --> 00:02:17.090 align:middle line:84% But yesterday, as I was driving home 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:19.790 align:middle line:84% and the general was driving home and about a million 00:02:19.790 --> 00:02:23.040 align:middle line:84% other residents of Santiago were also going home, 00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:26.120 align:middle line:84% I saw the small humiliation of a middle-aged woman 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:29.210 align:middle line:84% in a small red Fiat who was neither beautiful, 00:02:29.210 --> 00:02:31.130 align:middle line:90% nor was she driving fast. 00:02:31.130 --> 00:02:34.040 align:middle line:84% Maybe she was thinking about her dinner, 00:02:34.040 --> 00:02:37.580 align:middle line:84% or maybe her car radio was turned up 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:39.530 align:middle line:84% and she was singing to the music. 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:42.350 align:middle line:84% In any case, she didn't hear the sirens. 00:02:42.350 --> 00:02:45.410 align:middle line:84% The military policeman riding the first motorcycle 00:02:45.410 --> 00:02:48.530 align:middle line:84% wore white leather gauntlets that nearly reached his elbows. 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:50.840 align:middle line:84% And when the red Fiat had the audacity 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:54.110 align:middle line:84% not to scramble for the curb, he swerved around it 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:58.310 align:middle line:84% and smashed his fist down hard on the red Fiat's hood. 00:02:58.310 --> 00:03:02.150 align:middle line:84% For an instant, that was the loudest noise in Santiago. 00:03:02.150 --> 00:03:04.340 align:middle line:84% Did the red Fiat leap several feet in the air? 00:03:04.340 --> 00:03:05.900 align:middle line:90% I believe it did. 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:08.900 align:middle line:84% Then it braked and swerved right, and dozens of other cars 00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:11.360 align:middle line:84% braked and swerved right and blew their horns, 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:15.410 align:middle line:84% and in that moment, the general was gone. 00:03:15.410 --> 00:03:19.500 align:middle line:84% I wish I could say all this led to some small tragedy. 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:22.400 align:middle line:84% That the red Fiat smashed the cart of a man selling bread 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:26.090 align:middle line:84% or ran over a dog or the woman swallowed her teeth. 00:03:26.090 --> 00:03:27.980 align:middle line:84% But this was a normal evening in late spring, 00:03:27.980 --> 00:03:31.160 align:middle line:84% and the sky was as blue as ever, and the lowering sun 00:03:31.160 --> 00:03:34.010 align:middle line:84% had just begun to redden the tips of the snowcapped Andes. 00:03:34.010 --> 00:03:36.680 align:middle line:84% And in another moment, the tangled cars 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:39.500 align:middle line:84% straightened themselves out, and the woman in the red Fiat 00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:42.530 align:middle line:90% simply drove home. 00:03:42.530 --> 00:03:46.670 align:middle line:84% When she arrived, maybe she told her husband about the general, 00:03:46.670 --> 00:03:48.860 align:middle line:84% and maybe he went out and stared at the Fiat 00:03:48.860 --> 00:03:51.500 align:middle line:84% but saw nothing but a smear in the dust on the-- 00:03:51.500 --> 00:03:55.640 align:middle line:84% but saw nothing but a smear in the dust on the red hood. 00:03:55.640 --> 00:03:58.430 align:middle line:84% But maybe he looked at it, and the rest of his family 00:03:58.430 --> 00:03:59.270 align:middle line:90% looked at it. 00:03:59.270 --> 00:04:01.310 align:middle line:84% And maybe he mentioned it to some friends, 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:03.980 align:middle line:90% and they looked at it too. 00:04:03.980 --> 00:04:08.180 align:middle line:84% And someday, when General Matthei is shot and dragged 00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:10.760 align:middle line:84% by his heels through the streets, 00:04:10.760 --> 00:04:15.290 align:middle line:84% this man will think of his red Fiat and suck his teeth 00:04:15.290 --> 00:04:19.310 align:middle line:84% and, in a way that is typical of the people of Santiago, 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:23.690 align:middle line:84% he'll half roll and half shrug one of his shoulders 00:04:23.690 --> 00:04:28.000 align:middle line:84% as if letting a heavy strap at last slide from it. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.080 align:middle line:90%