Chilean culture — geographically extreme, Mapuche-Spanish blend. Wines, Nobel poets, Pinochet trauma, recovery.
Language
Chilean Spanish — distinctive accent, voseo in some regions. Mapudungun (Mapuche) in south. Indigenous influence in vocabulary.
Literature — Nobel
Gabriela Mistral — Nobel 1945 (first Latin American). Pablo Neruda — Nobel 1971. Isabel Allende, Roberto Bolaño, Ariel Dorfman, Antonio Skármeta — world authors.
Music
Cueca — national dance. Violeta Parra — folklore. Víctor Jara — Nueva Canción Chilena (murdered in dictatorship). Inti-Illimani, Quilapayún — political folk. Chilean rock: Los Prisioneros, Los Bunkers.
Wine
Top world wine industry. Central Valley — Maipo, Colchagua, Casablanca. Carmenère — exclusive Chilean variety (lost in Europe post-phylloxera). Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc.
Cuisine
Empanadas — national food. Pastel de choclo, cazuela, completos (hot dogs), southern curanto. Pisco — national alcohol (also Peruvian). Pacific seafood.
Pinochet and Memory
Military dictatorship 1973-1990 — 3000 dead and disappeared. Memory Museum Santiago. Cinema: The Frontier, NO (2012 Oscar nomination), A Fantastic Woman (Oscar 2018).
Patagonia
Unique geography — from Atacama (driest world) to Patagonian glaciers. Mapuche in south — living indigenous culture. Easter Island (Rapa Nui) UNESCO — mysterious moai.