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Witness Seminar and Open Forum Series (No 3)Chile and Scotland: 30 Years On - Panel ProfilesCarlos Arredondo-Ortiz - Carlos Arredondo is a multi-instrumentalist and self-taught Chilean “Cancionista” whose music has been developed entirely in Scotland very much in isolation. His thoughts have been shaped by his own life experiences as a working person from the industrial barrios of Santiago. He worked there for many years at Tizona, a guitar factory, where he learned to play guitar. He has also learned from his rich experience as a foreigner in Scotland. Carlos has been inspired by the great Chilean folklorists Violet Parra and Victor Jara, the New Song traditions of the Americas of the 60s and 70s, the Cuban revolution, the Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevara, and the dramatic end of Chilean democracy by the bloody coup led by Pinochet in September of 1973. He has performed all over Scotland, in Britain, and abroad since 1974. The distinguished Scottish Scholar, Hamish Henderson, said of him - “The brutal fascist coup which killed Allende and Victor Jara soon led to the dispersal through the world of many fine poets, songwriters and musicians. A distinguished figure among these exiles is Carlos Arredondo who settled in Scotland. He soon began to make a mark in the Scottish folk scene.” Jan Fairley - Jan Fairley went to Chile in September 1971 immediately after finishing a B.A. Hons in Language and Literature at Essex University. Between 1971 and 73 she designed and taught literature, history and culture courses at the Catholic University, Temuco. During that period through mutual friends she met members of Inti Illimani and then Quilapayún. After the coup d’état she had to leave Chile and once safely home worked like many in the Chile Solidarity campaign in London with the Chile Lucha Committee. In 1975 she went to Oxford to do an M.Phil in Latin American Studies, writing a thesis on the ‘New Song’ Movement, interviewing all those musicians by then in exile (Angel and Isabel Parra, Patricio Manns, Osvaldo Rodriguez, Sergio Ortega, Quilapayún, Inti Illimani). She went on to do a Ph.D in Ethnomusicology in Edinburgh on the composition and performances of Chilean exile group Karaxú! In 1991 at the invitation of Joan Jara she returned to Chile to make a BBC radio documentary on the Purification of the Chile Stadium where Víctor Jara had last been seen alive. In 1994 she was invited back as Visiting Professor in Musicology at the University of Chile, Santiago. In July 2003 she went to make ‘Chile, Heart and Soul’, a documentary for BBC Radio 3 on the cultural scene in Chile 30 years after the coup d’état. She works as a freelance music writer, broadcaster, editor and occasional lecturer. Sandy Hobbs (Chair) - Sandy was born in Aberdeen in 1937, attended Aberdeen University where he graduated in Psychology in 1958 and where he did post-graduate studies. He became a member of the Aberdeen Humanist Group and later the CND and the Aberdeen Left Club that was a cultural as well as a political society. This brought Sandy into contact with people like E.P.Thompson and Stuart Hall, Norman and Janey Buchan and Arnold Wesker, who was campaigning for labour movement involvement in the arts. Sandy joined the Young Socialists and the Labour Party in about 1959 and was a member for around 12 years, though, in his own words "not always a very loyal one", He was also a member of the Fife Socialist League, led by Lawrence Daly, who stood against the official Labour candidate in the 1959 General Election. In 1961 he married Lois Kemp who was a fellow student with a background in the Labour Movement, and a leading member of Student CND. Later Sandy became active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Solidarity with Vietnam Campaign. He also took an active part in trade unionism and the College Lecturers Associations. For a time Sandy worked for the radical newspaper, The Glasgow News, and was a member of the Chile Committee for Human Rights supporting refugees from the regime of Pinochet in Chile. In recent years he has dropped out of active politics and concentrates on research, writing and publishing. Currently Sandy is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Division of Psychology (School of Social Sciences) at the University of Paisley. He also has an archive and special collection deposited with Glasgow Caledonian University Research Collections. Oscar Mendoza - 49 years old, married, 2 sons. Currently working for the Community Fund (lottery distributor funding the charitable, voluntary and community sector). Graduate in Social Sciences with masters in Social Science Research. Detained by Chilean military at the end of September 1973, held in military barracks, the National Stadium and the Santiago penitentiary. Sentenced by military 'war tribunal' to 18 months in jail and 18 months in exile. Expelled in May 1975 with a prohibition to return and settled in Scotland ever since. Was a university student at the time, but was given up by informer because of close personal ties to the family of president Allende's private secretary. Following his arrest, all of Oscar's immediate family (excluding his brother who had taken refuge in an embassy) were detained and questioned by DINA personnel. Oscar was finally legally allowed to return to Chile in 1987, when his name was deleted from the "Listado Nacional" – the national listing of Chileans in exile whose return to Chile was prohibited by the military. Philip O'Brien – Phil is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at University of Glasgow, previously in Institute of Latin American Studies before it was shut down. Philip was in Chile 1966–1968; in 1968 with ODI/Ford Foundation scholarship, and was radicalised by the 1968 events in Chile. He offered support and help to Chilean refugees follwing the Coup in 1973. Author of various joint books and articles on Chile and Latin America including Allende's Chile; Chile - State and Revolution; Pinochet; The Latin American Debt. Chair Chile Solidarity Campaign – Scotland, and later Argentinean Campaign. Philip is a frequent visitor to Chile. Robert Somerville – In September 1973 Bob Somerville, then Senior Shop Steward and a member of the Works Committee at East Kilbride Rolls Royce, raised a motion protesting against the junta takeover of the democratically elected Chilean Government. The motion was passed unanimously. At some point soon afterwards eight Avon 207 jet engines belonging to Chilean Hawker Hunters arrived at East Kilbride for maintenance. On 22 March 1974, the union committee spread the word across the shop floor that work on them was to cease. For the next four and a half years despite threats from Rolls Royce and fury from Chile, court rulings, and interventions by successive Prime Ministers, half the engines (the other half were sent to another factory and then back to Chile) slowly rusted in their crates in a small yard towards the back of the East Kilbride plant. On 26 August 1978, by now useless, they were removed in mysterious circumstances early one Sunday morning and not seen again. They ended up back in Chile, it was said at the time, with covert British government assistance. The part played by Bob Somerville as a trade unionist is reported in the book Pinochet in Picadilly (Andy Beckett, Faber and Faber). Such was the respect of the Chilean people for the support of the trade unionists, that Allende’s widow, Hortenese, came to Glasgow in 1979 to thank all those who had offered their help. Bob retired from Rolls Royce in 2001 and by that time he was factory convener.
Phil O'Brien, Jan Fairley, Sandy Hobbs, Bob Somerville, Oscar Mendoza and Carlos Arredondo-Ortiz
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