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ktronhow the hell did i just sink more than 4 hours into looking up various bits of chilean history?
well, ok, so it helps that i started knowing almost nothing about south american history in general except what i learned in evita... and, well, a few vague ideas like "simon bolivar was important" and "conquistadors claimed everything they could for the sake of the 3 g's: glory, god, and gold." the tennessee school systems have failed me. (i'll also admit that they haven't made me take any history that included that part of the globe since 8th grade.)
all i really wanted to know was why leprosy wasn't a problem in chile... the unexplained comment (again, in the motorcycle diaries) struck me as odd.
i still haven't figured that one out. but now i know a lot more than i did. especially about easter island, strangely... it tends to come up in searches for leprosy and chile; when it was all a big sheep-farm run by evil foreigners, before they discovered the magics of tourism, they had a leper colony... and somehow, from there, i ended up looking up various conquistadors, who-killed-whos, etc. pedro de valdivia's a fun one - went in to help francisco pizarro find and kill diego de almagro (and got payed with a silver mine, mind you, not gold!), almagro's men then got angry and killed pizarro, meanwhile valdivia was taking over almagro's beat and trying to conquer chile and doing a far better job at it, then, oops, lautoro, a former captured-native and personal servant of valdivia who learned all kinds of military strategy from him and ran away, leads a rebellion resulting in valdivia's capture and subsequent (according to legend, anyway) death and staking... then they ate his heart. it's got a certain soap opera-esque allure...
oh well. if i'm going to waste four hours at the computer, at least it was educational for once... maybe i shouldn't try to take notes next time i start to read a book.
oh yeah, and happy 4th. obviously, i'm not doing much. (although the dogs are starting to drive me nuts, barking at the pre-dark firecrackers being set off...) but i hope it's sunny and fantastic for everybody else... off to mow the lawn now!
well, ok, so it helps that i started knowing almost nothing about south american history in general except what i learned in evita... and, well, a few vague ideas like "simon bolivar was important" and "conquistadors claimed everything they could for the sake of the 3 g's: glory, god, and gold." the tennessee school systems have failed me. (i'll also admit that they haven't made me take any history that included that part of the globe since 8th grade.)
all i really wanted to know was why leprosy wasn't a problem in chile... the unexplained comment (again, in the motorcycle diaries) struck me as odd.
i still haven't figured that one out. but now i know a lot more than i did. especially about easter island, strangely... it tends to come up in searches for leprosy and chile; when it was all a big sheep-farm run by evil foreigners, before they discovered the magics of tourism, they had a leper colony... and somehow, from there, i ended up looking up various conquistadors, who-killed-whos, etc. pedro de valdivia's a fun one - went in to help francisco pizarro find and kill diego de almagro (and got payed with a silver mine, mind you, not gold!), almagro's men then got angry and killed pizarro, meanwhile valdivia was taking over almagro's beat and trying to conquer chile and doing a far better job at it, then, oops, lautoro, a former captured-native and personal servant of valdivia who learned all kinds of military strategy from him and ran away, leads a rebellion resulting in valdivia's capture and subsequent (according to legend, anyway) death and staking... then they ate his heart. it's got a certain soap opera-esque allure...
oh well. if i'm going to waste four hours at the computer, at least it was educational for once... maybe i shouldn't try to take notes next time i start to read a book.
oh yeah, and happy 4th. obviously, i'm not doing much. (although the dogs are starting to drive me nuts, barking at the pre-dark firecrackers being set off...) but i hope it's sunny and fantastic for everybody else... off to mow the lawn now!
