| Following the Trail of the Urban Miracle Seekers II. Who Are the Animitas The animitas are usually those who have suffered a violent and unjust death in the streets of major cities. They tend to be the victims of horrific murders, traffic accidents, state executions and anybody background else whose death has captured people's imaginations by its sheer injustice. Examples of some popular animitas in Santiago are: Carmencita, a young girl killed and murdered in a public park fifty years ago; Romualdito, a man robbed and killed a century ago upon his discharge from the hospital after a prolonged illness; the "Jackal of Nahueltoro" an executed criminal who had repented of his gruesome crimes and undergone a radical change during his time in prison; and some of the desaparecidos--those people believed to have been brutally killed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. |
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©2005, 2006, 2007 Lydia Nakashima Degarrod All rights reserved. |