prior probability

In addition to visiting a plethora of wonderful bookstores, I walked to Barrio Bella Vista from my hotel in the historic city center and rode the funicular railway to the highest point in Santiago de Chile: Cerro San Cristóbal.

She was not only my first Spanish instructor at UC Santa Barbara (I enrolled in two of her Intermediate Spanish classes during my freshman year in college); she also introduced me to the literary works of Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriela Mistral, and Pablo Neruda. In a word, Dr Ascarrunz de Gilman changed my intellectual life forever; because of her, I decided to major in Spanish literature in order to read more of these great Latin American authors! Also, I still remember how one day she showed the class a picture of a fountain in Santiago de Chile featuring Neptune, the Roman god of freshwater and the sea. (For a history of this fountain in Spanish, see here.) Now, many years later, I finally had the opportunity to visit this landlocked Neptune. Gracias Graciela …

Translation: Faces of Santiago, Chile

I am a huge fan of tango music, so I was super-lucky to see the Argentine tango orquestra Astillero perform live at the Teatro Nescafé de las Artes in Santiago on Sunday, May 29, their first-ever performance in Chile. Below is one of their compositions:

I am interrupting my series of Chilean blog posts to mark Memorial Day, a federal holiday in the USA to mourn and honor the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who died while serving their country. But what about civilian deaths? This headline from 2017 caught my attention (see below); full report here:

“More Americans killed by guns since 1968 than in all U.S. wars — combined“

Hola! I am attending a workshop on Adam Smith for young Latin American scholars, and my favorite paper by far was one on “The Meanings of the Word ‘Trade'” by Leonardo André Paes Müller. His paper brought back memories of my favorite paper at the Adam Smith conference in Madison, Wisconsin in 2021: Sarah Skwire’s paper “As If: Clueless about the Invisible Hand.” (See here and here.) Below are two slides from Paes Müller’s talk:

This Chilean band combines rock music with traditional Chilean folk songs. Their name “Los Bunkers” pays tribute to their musical idols: The Beatles, The Kinks, Los Jokers, and Los Sonnys. (For an overview of the Chilean rock scene, see here.)