Kathleen Osberger lived in Chile working as a substitute fourth and fifth-grade teacher and sheltering political dissidents following the United States CIA-assisted coup invasion of Chile in 1973, Osberger said.
Payson Library, School of Public Policy’s (SPP) Diversity and Belonging Committee and SPP Christianity and Public Policy student organization co-sponsored the event “I Survived: a first-hand account of Chile’s military dictatorship in 1975,” where Osberger spoke, in the Surfboard Room on March 5.
She experienced terror arriving in Santiago, Chile in 1975. At 22 years old, after graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Osberger moved to Chile.
“All around the room [airport] were men — military guards with automatic weapons — and they weren’t just standing there with their weapons,” Osberger said. “They were swinging the weapons around, checking out who was coming in [into Chile].”
She was part of Notre Dame’s first class of undergraduate women to study at the college, Osberger said.
“So, you can imagine that that was a little challenging in itself,” Osberger said.
Osberger said she participated in many unique opportunities through Notre Dame. One in particular included joining a group of five recently graduated students traveling to Chile for various work opportunities, she said. Out of five people, Osberger was the only female.
Prior to moving to Chile, Osberger lived in Spain under Dictator Francisco Franco and in Panama under Dictator Omar Torrijos, but she said she had never experienced a dictatorship as extreme as what she encountered in Chile.
She said she traveled ahead of the group to begin her role as a substitute teacher in Chile’s capital and largest city, Santiago.
When she arrived, it was two years into Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s reign, she said. Prior to Pinochet, Salvador Allende was president of Chile. The U.S., during Richard Nixon‘s presidency had tampered with a couple of Chile’s elections but specifically the 1970 election, when Allende became president, according to NPR. In 1973, the U.S., under the direction of Nixon, organized a coup that brought an end to the 130-year-old democracy, Osberger said.
The U.S.’s CIA-assisted coup invasion of Chile took place Sept. 11, 1973, Osberger said. Osberger pointed to the irony of the date Sept. 11. The 9/11 in 2001 is remembered as an attack on democracy, but in 1973, the United States was toppling Chile’s democracy, Osberger said.
“So, the stories do echo in history, and I think you need to pay attention to it,” Osberger said.
Today, Chile continues to struggle to assemble its own constitution — one not enforced or influenced by the U.S. government, Osberger said.
“Sometimes, we think we can break something and put it back together,” Osberger said.
Following the death of Allende, Pinochet emerged as Chile’s dictator. Pinochet reigned for 17 years, Osberger said. After the coup, 27,500 people were tortured, 3,000 were executed and 3,000 disappeared, Osberger said.
“It’s very hard to put the pieces back together again,” Osberger said.
In the midst of the country’s turmoil, Osberger said she found herself unintentionally at the center. Osberger lived with a group of religious women who were safekeeping individuals sought after by Pinochet’s secret police, she said.
Osberger said she shared a story of being chased and captured by the secret police because of her association with political dissidents. She said she was taken by them and blindfolded in the back of a car she didn’t think she had much longer to live.
“I spoke to God with a directness and sincerity I never conceived of before,” Osberger said.
She was spared, but many weren’t so lucky.
The entirety of Osberger’s story and experiences while living in Chile can be read in her book, “I Surrender: A Memoir of Chile’s Dictatorship, 1975.”
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Contact Rachel Flynn via email: rachel.flynn@pepperdine.edu
