University of Richmond Athletics
Spiders in Chile: Day 7
05/13/2026 | Football, General, Academic Services, Spider Performance
What's up Spiders,
Sadly today is bittersweet being our final day in Chile. This morning we started off pretty early, eating breakfast at 7:00 this morning. As usual, it was delicious. After eating we hopped on the road - our group conversations on the bus always are a great start to the day. Today, we rode past a building on fire with a plethora of first responders on the scene. This is where we learned that the Chilean firemen and women are all volunteers, who even must pay for their own equipment.
We began our morning by visiting the oldest church in Santiago, built in 1592 by the Franciscan Monks. This church has forgone no restorations being completely the same because of its strong infrastructure. It's beautiful architecture and religious importance, stand as a milestone on this iconic street. After visiting the church we walked down the street to Londres 38, a historical building also known as the "House of Bells" that held an estimated 2,000 people illegally. This secret detention center was originally a building owned by the socialist party under President Allende. The organization "DINA" bought this building for the party where they detained and interrogated many people after the coup. Over 98 people were killed, 81 of these people under 30, eight under 20, and 2 were even pregnant. We were fortunate to be able to revisit the inside of this site today, after viewing the outside earlier in the week.
Our guide Felipe gave us a very informative tour, providing us with important information and showing us the different floors of the building which all played various roles. This detention center housed prisoners from 1973-1975. The organization attempted to cover up their tracks by playing music to avoid neighbors from hearing prisoners screams. They also changed the buildings address, put up sculptures, and painted the walls to avoid any possible future investigations. As you move around outside you are able to see the names of these people along the bricks laid in front of the building. This memorial site is a way for family members of the detainees and the people of Chile to recognize the corruptive past and respect the ones who sacrificed their lives in such a sad time. Being able to visit this site on our last day in Chile was really impactful and made our experiences throughout this week, even more meaningful.Â
After leaving Londres 38, we made our next stop visiting La Pintana Community Center, where we met with a Sociologist named Nkulama, who migrated from Haiti with his family 16 years ago. He shared with us the importance of immigration and its processes in Chile. There are over 1,918,583 legal and illegal immigrants in Chile. With this fact, integration in Chile is a problem for immigrants and current residents. Most immigrants face troubles in the process of becoming a Chilean citizen. It takes up to two years to become a citizen, and you are not able to work in Chile during the process. Immigrants from certain areas such as the Caribbean find it hard to adopt Chilean culture and many do not speak or understand the language. They face racial discrimination, job discrimination, and name calling.
Nkulama spoke on the process of citizenship not being stable with the officials being able to ask any sort of questions not related to their process. Nkulama showed us solutions to these problems as well. A few being external funding, campaigns for police, developing a supportive network and providing courses that help people receive certification in the work force. These solutions are seen as major game changers for the community, and the community of La Pintana is a leader in this area, with many migrants finding this province as their home. Nkulama ended the discussion with the comparisons of the Chilean Police force and ICE in America. In Chile, the police force can ask questions to immigrants, but they cannot deport them as easy in America. There is a long process in which the initial country has to also reach out to the designated country receiving the immigrant. This makes it hard for deportation in Chile.
After our discussion we took a quick group picture and hopped right back on the road for lunch in the local community. As we drove around, it was obvious of the diversity in the La Pintana community. We were glad to be able to see how the many different ethnicities of this community have banned together to all help one another.  Lunch was amazing, I had grilled salmon with both rice and vegetables. The group's favorite part of lunch was the variety of options on menu to choose from. Once we finished eating, we looked back at our experiences in Chile, bringing up past stories and memories from the beginning of the trip. After we left the restaurant, Victor our driver and tour guide, decided to take us to one more neighborhood, Barrio Italia, which was more in the central part of the city, where we were able to walk around and acquire some end of trip souvenirs. It was such a nice warm day, so you know we had to conclude our trip in the city with ice cream. After enjoying our ice cream we left the city to head back to the hotel where we prepared for our night time flight back to the states.  Our guide, Kei, who has been with us this entire trip, ensured we made it to our gate on time and we were all very sad to say goodbye.  He taught us so much and brought about a host of knowledge, having visited 70 countries himself.  Many of us were on our first visit out of the country, but after this experience, it will surely not be our last!Â
Finally, I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who made this trip and experience possible. As student-athletes, having the opportunity to have an abroad experience is so big for us, and this for sure was life changing for all of us. We began as a group, not knowing everyone, and now at the end of the semester, we feel like family! Â
Thank you and Go Spiders!
Tramayne BullockÂ
FootballÂ
Â
