Description
Book SynopsisIf You Turn to Look Back combines memoir with political, social, and economic investigations of what it means to be an American and a citizen of the world. American influence is ubiquitous in South America, and If You Turn to Look Back explores these relationships in a personal context. For Tom Hazuka was once part of that influence, from 1978-1980 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile, first in the capital of Santiago, then in the far northern city of Arica, near the Peruvian border.
In a chain of events springing from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in 2003 Hazuka returned to Chile to examine changes in the country, the people and himself. He left Chile at twenty-four and returned at forty-seven. Every human knows what it's like to wonder where time goes, and to reflect on what has been gained and lost over the years.
One variable that has not changed for Hazuka is that he is an American. In South America, like it or not he is a representative in developing nations of the richest and most powerful country on the planet. The intricacies of that relationship and the dynamics it creates are the focus of If You Turn to Look Back.
Table of ContentsPreface--“ We Are in Pain” 5Chapter One--The Politics of Goodbye 8Chapter Two--Sweet and Right 14Chapter Three--Sea A Tranquility 19Chapter Four--The Gringo Advantage 26Chapter Five--Misma Mierda, Distintas Moscas 44Chapter Six--A Finite Window 51Chapter Seven--The Snows of Yesteryear 64Chapter Eight— The Broken House 83Chapter Nine--Pilgrimage to Pisagua 92Chapter Ten--The Past on Paper 105Chapter Eleven--On Time 120Chapter Twelve--Barriers: Broken Glass, Velvet Ropes and Dotted Lines 131Chapter Thirteen--Santiago Mon Amour 143Chapter Fourteen--The Concatenation Connection 168Epilogue 191Appendices 193
