A day the earth stood still and CNN was the only channel to watch. I wrote this post in 2018, I am sharing it today because it still holds true.
In my parents’ generation, it was where you were the days that President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Junior were shot. For those of us born later, it is where we were September 11, 2001. Oddly, Evan and I were in Spanish class that morning in Santiago, Chile. At the morning break around 10:15 am, several people checked their email and the latest news in the computer center of the language school. (Hay un enlace para leerlo en español abajo.)
I was chatting with a student from California, when across the room man at a computer wailed, “Oh my God!” cupping his hand over his mouth and pointing at the computer screen. I continued talking, thinking he was overreacting to celebrity news.
The woman at the console next to him said, “A plane hit the Twin Towers!” Although the photo on her monitor would confirm what she said, it felt like the radio “War of the Worlds” and seemed impossibly false, absurd. The truth of it hit me. My sister lived in New York… Deep rumbling grief threatened to boil.
All twenty-three of us; the nineteen from the United States, one from Russia, two from Germany, and one from Australia, crowded around the screens trying to get a view of the footage and stories. Santiago and New York City are on the same time zone that time of year. We watched video of the plane that hit the second tower. Shortly after, the World Trade Center towers imploded. I began crying and holding onto Evan. Sobbing and hugging spread throughout the school like a flood. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.
Evan and I walked home. At a pay phone on the way, I phoned my mother with a calling card. I learned that my sister who lived in Brooklyn and commuted to Manhattan weekdays was out of town with her boyfriend who worked in the financial district. What a relief! Evan and I sat in the apartment we shared with Señora P, glued to CNN coverage of the event for the rest of the day. As US citizens we felt so isolated, away from our country during this period of mourning. We talked about whether to return stateside immediately, or stay in South America. The next week conversing over dinners, and we decided to remain for a year in Santiago as we planned.
For the next three months, every Chilean we met asked about our family and friends back home, checking in, mindful about the personal nature of the tragedy. I was extremely touched by that. September 11th was already a day of mourning for Chileans. For that is the date in 1973 when Pinochet led the forces to oust and kill their democratically-elected President Allende. Pinochet was dictator for 17 years. Although it is clear to South Americans that a strong hand from the north aided the coup, in 2001 no one held that against us. To Chileans, our humanity was more important than international politics. We were treated with compassion, as citizens of a country that was grieving a great loss.
For me, the most extraordinary gift of traveling is to see others as people, rather than as a nationality or subgroup. Talking to one another, getting to know one another, understanding one another’s humanity. Many times it begins with a simple question, “¿Cómo te llamas?” (What’s your name?)
My condolences to all those who suffered the loss of someone they loved on this day, in the US, in Chile and around the world. May they and we know peace. –Rebecca
Para leer este ensayo en español, haz un clic en el 11 Septiembre, Fuera de los EEUU.
Fake Flamenco 
What a powerful experience, and described so well!
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So glad your sister was okay! A touching piece that you wrote, I too shall never forget that day. I was here in the US but I felt like I was in some war torn country from what I was seeing on TV, so much shock and unbelief!
Like you I also was so touched by the compassion of people and kindness. We need that back again. No one cared about race, religion, etc. we all bonded together in a time of national tragedy and we held each other up. We as a Country need to come together again!
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Thank you! I appreciate your comment. We are in need of some serious unity at the moment! I hope it will be for some positive event, however. : )
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You are welcome and I totally agree!
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Hugs. Im glad your sister was safe. xo
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Thank you so much. That was the one bright spot that day. I was so worried until I heard the good news from my mom. I appreciate the hugs, Rebecca
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Amazing how we remember exactly where we were on that day! I was living in Brazil at the time. How fortunate that your sister and her boyfriend were out of town on that day. Several Guyanese and Brazilians also died in the towers that day. Globally, it was a shared loss and grief.
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Yes it is one of those major news events; a watershed before and after. People from 62 countries lost their lives in the Twin Towers that day. We were very fortunate my sister and her boyfriend were out of town.
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I was very young when 9/11 took place. I don’t remember much about the event itself, but I definitely recall the following year when then-president George W. Bush declared the “war on terror” and sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. Watching such news on TV throughout my adolescence really shaped my generation of young adults, and I believe much of Bush’s decision has affected the nation to this day. Whether for better or for worse, 9/11 has no doubt influenced the nation to this day.
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Thank you for your comments, Rebecca. You are being very diplomatic about this difficult subject. I do wonder if Bush’s policies made us safer or further destabilized the region. We did not invade Saudi Arabia where most of the attackers came from, rather places where they did not come from. What history will say about those decisions, we will know in time. Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
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Thank you for sharing your perspective from far away that day and for the year thereafter. I’m so glad you felt supported by the Chileans. We certainly felt the support of the world here at home.
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Thanks for your comments, Janet. We were so touched at the Chileans’ support, when they had suffered their own 9/11/73 – the US backed coup that killed President Allende and thousands of others.
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Good to see this again.
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Thanks, Carolyn. It was life changing to be so far away, in so many ways.
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