Sept. 11 Has Another Meaning In Most of Latin America

Sept. 11 Has Another Meaning In Most of Latin America

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

Your article this morning, more an editorial than an article, on "September 11 [being] just another day at the office" displays an appalling degree of Gringo chauvinism. It is almost certainly forgotten by your writer, but is well remembered throughout Latin America that the date also marks an anniversary that is quite important to Latin Americans, and all but forgotten by the Gringos — the date in 1973 when the United States overthrew a democratically elected, representative government in Chile and installed a brutal right-wing authoritarian dictatorship friendly to its interests that ultimately killed more people in that country than were killed in Manhattan a quarter century later, subjected 10 times that number to excruciating torture and caused nearly a quarter million to flee into exile, and traumatized a continent. And, of course, Chile isn't the only Latin American country where this has occurred.

Because it happened to them, this is the anniversary that is ultimately far more important to Latin Americans than is the one of which you are complaining that is going unobserved. Demanding that Latins observe your trauma while completely ignoring theirs is appallingly insensitive and demonstrative of the kind of nationalist chauvinism for which the Gringos have become so well known and often disliked.

If your writer would set aside his Gringo nationalism for a moment and reflect on the history of the region in which he lives and the frequently sordid involvement of the United States in it, he would not only not offend Latin American sensitivities with such articles, but might benefit from it with a sense of perspective.

Scott Bidstrup
Cartago