Chile: “Strength Built with Hands” · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

The author of blog Palabras para gastar shares his impressions after a visit to cerro Merced [es], in Valparaíso, days after the devastating fire that destroyed the area:
There it was, a crowd moving along like ants, solving on the go, communicating with each other; not even asking for a lending hand but offering both. There ir was, besides the monument that commemorate the 1906 earthquake and the “Plaza del Recuerdo” [Remembrance Square], a stack of debris, rusted and scorched cans. Twisted as should be our conscience.
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And facing this shocking setting, solidarity shows itself in all its splendor. No alms; solidarity. Equal treat, like brothers.
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Strength, Valpo! Strength built with hands, no one that just gets pronounced or written. A mound of strength, damn it!