About Andrew Cusack
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Goosesteps and Pickelhaubes
The Republic of Chile’s Annual ‘Parada Militar’
WHILE MANY NATIONS have thrown time-honored traditions and ceremonies to the wind, they remain central to the South American nation of Chile. Through the wisdom of its leaders, be they civil, military, Liberal, Conservative, Radical, Socialist, or Christian Democrat, this republic on the Pacific has not sampled the bitter taste of war since 1883 when they snatched the last remnants of Bolivia’s coastline. (Bolivia, now landlocked and ever holding a grudge, still maintains a small navy in defiance of geography). Having steered clear of the suicidal bloodlust which consumed much of the Western world during the Twentieth Century (say what you will about the deaths of the Allende/Pinochet years, they are far fewer than our dead of the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam), Chile feels free to continue in the best of its European traditions free from emotional hangups.
For we in the Anglo-American world, goosesteps and pickelhaubes evoke nasty images of Prussian militarism and Nazi hegemony. While the pickelhaube is actually of Prussian origin, having been designed in 1842 by Frederick William IV, the revolutionary Hitler eventually banished them as fusty remnants of the ancien regime. And, while Hitler did popularize the goosestep, this particular form of march has its origins in old Imperial Russia.
Chile is a nation composed of settlers from almost every European country, and has adapted and melded its traditions and culture thencefrom. The ‘Father of the Country’ was an Irishman by the name of Bernardo O’Higgins, while the founder of the Chilean Navy was the 10th Earl of Dundonald. Later immigrants brought influence from Germany, Italy, and other countries, while the founding influence of Spain remained.
Every year, Chile celebrates the ‘Day of the Glories of the Armed Forces’ on September 19, the day following Chile’s Independence Day of September 18 commemorating the 1810 junta. The civil leaders of the land and high-ranking military officers assemble at a stand on the Campos de Marte in the Parque O’Higgins in Santiago and review a long parade of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Carabineros, Chile’s gendarmerie-style national police.
I’ve always loved a parade, and there is no parade like a military parade, so I decided to share with you a few views of Chile’s annual parada militar. One gets the impression that just before we put the Third Reich out of business, they contracted a huge surplus uniform sale to the Chileans which has left them a bountiful supply of uniforms to this day. Indeed, judging by some of the uniforms, one might even get the impression that the same happened earlier in the century when we (lamentably) forced the Kaiser to close shop. But the Chileans will continue to wear their uniforms with pride, and who can blame them? They look good.
The Andes form a scenic backdrop for the Parada Militar.
Now-former president Ricardo Lagos gives a rather papal greeting in this shot from a previous year’s parade.
Soldiers with plumed pickelhaubes await the parade.
Some video footage from YouTube:
The sailors and officers of the Chilean Navy march, singing the song of the Armed Forces. (1:17)
The cadets from the O’Higgins military academy parade to the Radetzky March, followed (about five minutes in) by cadets of the Prado naval academy. (8:27)
Cadets from the Air Force academy, followed by those of the Carabineros academy. (7:10)
Army soldiers marching in the uniform of the Pacific War of the 1880’s. (1:09)
Pickelhaubed troops marching in the rehearsal of the Parada Militar. (0:17)
Cadets of the Escuela Naval.
A military band.
Ladies of the Chilean Army.
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Andrew – doesn’t the now former President Ricardo Lagos bearing a resemblance to the now former NYC Mayor Edward I Koch?
Chile´s independence day is February 18 of 1818. September 18 of 1810 was the First “Junta de Gobierno”, and the people who formed it was ABSOLUTELY loyal to the king, Fernando VII.
Bernardo O’Higgings was not an Irishman, but rather the bastard son of one. Not that it matters at all. His mother was Chilean. Although educated in Europe, Bernardo O’Higgings is very Chilean.
WE ARE THE REAL CHILEANS !!!…WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY AND HATE COMMUNISM…WE LOVE OUR’S FATHERS FLAG , WE ARE A HUMBLE COUNTRY BUT PROUD !!!…THERE’S NO RECORD OF SURRENDER BY CHILEAN SOLDIERS…THEY JUST DIE OR WIN…NO OTHER CHOICE…EVERY BODY IN CHILE KNOWS THAT…BETTER DEAD THAN TO BE A COWARD !!!
EX CHILEAN AIR FORCE PILOT
FLYING CESSNA A-37 FOR MY COUNTRY AT THE AGE OF 20 …JUST LIKE RAF BATTLE OF BRITTAIN PILOTS…WE WERE THE “FEW” OF OUR LOVED COUNTRY.
Thank You! for posting this!!
I must say that this is one of the celebrations that Chileans are most proud of and worth watching!!!
AFTER BEING DESPISED FOR 20 YEARS BY THE LEFT GOVERNMENT…THE CHILEAN SOLDIERS WERE SENT TO THE PROVINCES RUINED BY THE 27 FEB. EARTHQUAKE…DELAYED 36 HOURS BECAUSE THE LEFT POLITICIANS DIDN’T WANT TO SEE SOLDIERS DOING GOOD IN PICS ALL ARROUND THE WORLD…( ” IT WAS HARD FOR US TO CONSIDER ENDING OUR TERM WITH SOLDIERS ON THE STREETS ” ).
THE SOLDIERS WERE WELCOMED WITH TEARS , APPLAUSES AND HONKING FROM CARS AND BYSTANDERS…THEY RESTORED ORDER AFTER THE CAOS OF 3 DAYS…AND THEY WERE THANKED BY THE POORS AND HUMBLE…YES…THE CHILEAN SOLDIERS ARE THE SON OF THIS NOBLE AND POOR CHILEANS …USED TO HARDSHIPS…AS THEIR HARD FIGTHING SPANISH SOLDIERS AND ARAUCANO INDIANS THAT NEVER EVER SURRENDED AND FIGHTED FOR 300 YEARS…FROM WHOM THEY DESCEND !
TODAY CHILE CHANGED TO A CENTER RIGTH GOVERNMENT…ALL THE PEOPLE WANTED THE CHANGE…TIRED OF LEFT ARRONGANCE AND RAMPING INEPTITUDE…WE WON WITH 53 %…AND EVEN LEFT PEOPLE NOW WANT ORDER AND PROGRESS TO BE RESTORED !
KINDEST REGARDS
GIANCARLO
i am ding a report on the chilean cultures and this article/pictures was a beautiful edition. thanks!
I am from Ireland and I think that the Chilean Army have the smartest uniform of any nation. They look as a soldier should.
Congratulations on the rescue of your brave miners.
THANKS ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS ON CHILEAN MILITARY.
MY SON CHRISTIAN , WAS AN INFANTRY OFFICER , AIRBORNE AND COMMANDO , HE SERVED IN THE PRINCE OF WALES ROYAL FUSILIERS FOR 9 MONTHS IN BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA.
IT WAS NATURAL THAT HE WANTED TO BE AN INFANTRY OFFICER , HIS GRANDFATHER ( KLAUS ) SERVED IN THE HITLER JUNGED AT AGE 14 WHEN GERMANY WAS BEING DEFEATED ( HE DUG ANTITANK TRENCHES , RUSSIAN FRONT 1945 )…KLAUS FATHER WAS A NOBLEMAN WHO JOINED THE WAFFEN SS ALL OUT FOR LOVE OF HIS COUNTRY …HE COMITED SUICIDE ON HIS STATE ( BIG LAND ON FORMER EAST PRUSSIA ) AFTER BEING SENT ON LEAVE FROM THE RUSSIAN FRONT , IT WAS SAID THAT HE COULDN’T STAND THE ATROCITIES DONE IN RUSSIA …SO I GUESS A LOTS OF GERMANS STILL WERE CONSCIOUS OF THINGS BEING DONE.
MY GRANDFATHER WAS AN ITALIAN HERO IN THE ALPS ( WW I ).. HE ALSO VOLUNTEERED FOR AFRICA …IN THE END HE WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH ALL THE POLITICS INVOLVED AND SAID …” SOLDIERS WILL SUFFER THE MISTAKES OF BASTARDS SITTING COMFORTABLY AT THEIR OFFICES “…HE WAS AWARDED THE HIGHEST DECORATION FOR VALOR IN ITALY…THE GOLDEN MEDAL FOR VALOR…IT’S USUALLY POSTHUMOUS..HE NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT HE DID OR ACHIEVED…ONLY THAT THEY STARVED AND FROZE IN THE ALPS…NOW AS A PILOT EVERY TIME I CROSS THE ALPS AND LAND IN BRESCIA ( BOEING 747 )…I REMEMBER THE SACRIFICES AND MISERY OF THE ITALIAN SOLDIERS COMMITTED TO 11 DISASTROUS OFFENSIVES IN THE ISONZO FRONT.
KINDEST REGARDS
GIANCARLO
Thank you all very much for your kind commentaries about our members of the Chilean Army, Navy and Air Force.
Our country is very proud of our past, history, culture, tradition. Actually, we have been very lucky for the different
people that came to live and work here, in many activities.
Chile was discovered and conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century, and their descendants and later generations were the owners of the land and the organizers of Chile as a new country. Since the 19th century a lot of Scots, English. Irish, German, French, Belgians, Croats, came here to establish themselves, alone or with family, and melt with the Spanish conquerors heirs that formed the Chilean nation. So, fortunately, Chile is a mixture of European bloods, also with a tiny amount of native people blood drops.
During the Independence War against Spain ( 1814-1818), Bernardo O’Higgins invited Lord Thomas Cochrane to assume the organization and Command of the Chilean Navy, and so, our Navy was formed under the British example and tradition, and a lot of the current Chilean Navy Officers, have a mixture of the bloods aforesaid mentioned.
Actually, the Chilean Army, after the Pacific War against Peruvians and Bolivians (1879-1881) was reformed according to the Prussian system of warfare, and the Officers taught under the Prussian warfare organization.
Our Air Force, is a modern one, and originally their pilots trained at the USA.
Currently, we are living difficult times, for our Democracy
is under open intents of the extreme Left parties, under the command of the Communist party, trying to change the Chilean Political Constitution, though a majority of the citizens are opposing those intentions, and the Boric’s Government, notwithstanding they are a minority backed by the Communist Party, continue to press for a Constitutional change.
Fortunately, the people and citizenship -the people who has the right to vote – is supporting a Right majority of representatives to be in charge of writing the New Constitution.
Thank you Andrew for your story on the Chilean Military Parade.I am Chilean and a fan of this Parade.I am also the daughter of a Chilean Army officer who is now sadly dead.I have tried to see this magnificent event,not a tacky reality show, every year despite the fact that I live and have my heart in two countries where I reside Chile and The UK.The Parade,as I said before,it is not just a show to entertain or intimidate an audience or other countries,but to show we have brave people who will be able to sacrifice their lives for the sake of other compatriots and citizens of other neighbouring nations in times of disasters.These brave individuals are the first ones who attend when ordinary citizens are experiencing terrible tragedies, such as devastating earthquakes,Tsunamies and they are the ones who protect civilians against crime.However it is absolutely unfair from the part of other of your commentators here to attribute current President Mr Boric of extreme leftwing political agenda as he belongs to a more modern progressive group of young politicians.Mr Boric firmly believes in the integration of formerly discriminated groups such as women and indigenous poeple in important posts in the current government and in other public services.Let not forget his views and support towards implementing reforms to fight against climate change.There are mistakes on the way,however,previous governments have also made a number of terribly mistakes and have used others less fortunate people’s tragedies,eg Chilean miner’s tragedy for political selfish advantage and cheap propaganda to divert people’s attention from what really mattered to Chileans at the time.The above is just an example.Now Chile is going forward.It is sad to see that some of my compatriots are using every type of media to disqualified our current President and try to use all platforms to disseminate negative, poorly informed publicity.However, this is not new. Certain polical parties and interested groups,the majority right wing who had vested and financial interests did the same during the 1970s which ended up with the worst dictatorial regime Chile had ever experience.Let’s not forget the past and learn from it.Nobody wants to go back, but learned from mistakes and move forward.With the above in mind,I look forward to seeing the Great Chilean Army Parade this September 2023 and feel proud we still have people willing to sacrifice their lives to keep us safe.