I'm sure that anyone who has arrived in Santiago has seen the brightly colored statue of the two women in the park at the end of the old quarter. I had never known that this statue represents two real people, sisters who lived in Santiago for years and who took a stroll in the park at 2 pm sharp every day. The picture here actually looks like the statue: http://elpais.com/diario/2008/04/17/gal ... 50215.html
Even more fascinating, and tragic, is the fact that these two sisters had three brothers who were members of the anarchist labor union the CNT. One of the brothers was killed by the Fascist forces, and two managed to escape. And that's when the sisters' nightmare began, because the Fascists kept coming back to the home to get the family to confess to the brothers' whereabouts and the sisters were treated very poorly -- sent naked through the streets, and according to this article, perhaps even tortured and/or raped. This treatment went on through the 40s after Franco won the war, but then the brothers were captured and the sisters left alone. But the treatment had left its mark, making them perhaps mentally unbalanced. And from then on, they took to dressing up in a slightly outrageous way, parading through the park, and perhaps symbolized a bit of rebellion against the status quo. They died in the 1980s.
How interesting. The article has more detail, but this is the gist of it (Maybe falcon can work his auto-translate magic on it). Buen camino, Laurie
Even more fascinating, and tragic, is the fact that these two sisters had three brothers who were members of the anarchist labor union the CNT. One of the brothers was killed by the Fascist forces, and two managed to escape. And that's when the sisters' nightmare began, because the Fascists kept coming back to the home to get the family to confess to the brothers' whereabouts and the sisters were treated very poorly -- sent naked through the streets, and according to this article, perhaps even tortured and/or raped. This treatment went on through the 40s after Franco won the war, but then the brothers were captured and the sisters left alone. But the treatment had left its mark, making them perhaps mentally unbalanced. And from then on, they took to dressing up in a slightly outrageous way, parading through the park, and perhaps symbolized a bit of rebellion against the status quo. They died in the 1980s.
How interesting. The article has more detail, but this is the gist of it (Maybe falcon can work his auto-translate magic on it). Buen camino, Laurie