Time Travel for Amateurs

I'm reeeeeally supposed to be getting caught up on my novel after spending three days sitting on the beach and eating steaks, but I had to share this because it's too incredible.  Look at these two pictures and then take a look at this article that Tim sent me today from Montevideo's newspaper, El Pais.  

In case you don't speak Spanish (welcome to the sad, pathetic club) the general gist is that 40 years ago today, about 100 yards from my house, there was a terrible helicopter accident that killed 8 people and injured 40 others while a crowd of thousands watched.  This morning in Pocitos (we are right on the edge of the neighborhoods of Pocitos and Buceo) there was a memorial for the victims of the event--both those who died and those who were traumatized by it.

This from the illustrious Google Translate: "That day, as part of the 154 anniversary of the Navy, test on the capabilities of helicopters in rescue work was scheduled. The event generated great expectations. About 20,000 people attended."

First, I just think this old photograph is amazing. That's where I live. From where I'm sitting right now, I can see where the photographer who took this picture was standing!

Photo credit: El Pais

Second, I'm totally one of those people who walks around freaked out by the idea that there are skeletons inside of all of our bodies.  So along the same note, I'm totally, insanely fascinated thinking about what took place on the ground we walk all over every day.  In Uruguay it's an especially fascinating exercise.  For better or worse, even the mall sits on the site of the prison where thousands of political prisoners were held and tortured during Uruguay's military dictatorship. You have to walk through the prison gates in order to get in. And, "The former prison administration building now houses a McDonald’s and a Don Pepperone restaurant with patio seating." There is an admitted element of the grotesque to all of this, but it is impossibe not to find it interesting, and important--I think--not to forget.

I was admittedly a little bored by Uruguay when we first got here and it's my own fault for being that way.  This is not a place that flashes its history around on its sleeve and makes a tourist attraction out of everything. However, once you begin to learn the history of the place, you understand why and you can't help but appreciate how much people here value their day to day lives. It's kind of nice that Uruguay doesn't pretend to be reducible to just one souvenir image: the Eiffel tower, the White House, the Hollywood sign.

Uruguay is a small country. It's incredible to think how an event like the one in the photo above would have affected people and what they might have thought, especially taking place as it did during a time when Uruguayans were "disappearing"because of their political beliefs.

This is why I love to travel. I love to see the beautiful and absurd and sometimes horribly sad things that happen in the world and how other people deal with them. Seeing a picture like this makes me wonder how many people who were there that day--standing on the beach I look at every day--I've passed in the street, and if they look at my building and think about how it wasn't here once. It's like traveling in time as well as space.