University of Richmond Athletics
Spiders in Chile: Day 3
05/05/2026 | General, Women's Swimming & Diving, Academic Services, Spider Performance
Good morning Spiders! Or should we say "¿Como amanecieron?," which is a popular Chilean phrase that means "How did you sleep?," or more literally, "How did the sun rise for you?"
We started our third day in Santiago with a visit to Caritas Chile, a religious NGO organization that has completed many human rights related initiatives. We had the opportunity to talk with executive director Lorenzo Figueroa León about Caritas' objectives, projects, and successes across the country. He explained to us that one of their main projects is related to natural disaster preparation, which is much needed since Chile is vulnerable to seven different types of disasters. During all their work, their main focus is on promoting human dignity and personal agency. They want to empower individuals to be independent and avoid them forever being dependent on their help. We were also interested to learn about Caritas' sports related initiatives; they have helped organize the formation of sports leagues for young boys and girls as well as adults. Señor Leon explained to us that they recognize how sports can promote both physical health and sense of community and belonging.
Next, we visited a local market to browse for souvenirs before eating lunch at La Serrana, an Italian-Chilean restaurant. Over lunch, we discussed our experience at Caritas and had a humorous chat about our struggles with flushing toilets here — it's more different from the US than you'd expect! We walked from lunch to Londres 38, a building that was used as a detention center during the Pinochet dictatorship of the late 20th century. Now, the building is a memorial site for "los desaparecidos", the people who were "disappeared" at this site. Unfortunately, we weren't able to tour the inside because the building is now closed due to a lack of funding.Â
In the afternoon, we toured the Estadio Nacional, Chile's national stadium. The arena is located in a park with many other athletic facilities, including an Olympic-sized pool that hosted the 2023 Pan-American games. Our tour focused primarily on memories surrounding the stadium's use as a detention center for two months after the military coup of 1973. It was a very heavy but interesting experience. What struck us most was the fact that the government has left one section of the stadium as it was in 1973, in contrast with the rest of the stadium that is modernly renovated. In that section, there is a large sign with the sentence "Un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro", which translates to: "A city without memory is a city without a future". The memories in the stadium are very personal to many Chileans, including our tour guide whose father was imprisoned there. Unfortunately for many other families and relatives, they are still looking for their "desaparecidos" — the missing — which are represented with blank plates alongside other names listed in the memorial.
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After the Estadio Nacional, we visited MOVILH. This organization is focused on the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. The director talked to us about how Chile has always been a progressive country in terms of same-sex marriage and trans rights, but under their recently elected administration, discrimination of LGBTQ+ individuals is on the rise. At the end of the visit, he gave us each copies of two children's books that MOVILH created about LGBTQ+ characters!Â
Our last activity before dinner was at a sports club facility at the University of San Sebastián, called Club Deportivo, where we met with Olympic bronze medalist and national soccer team member Christian Álvarez Valenzuela. We walked around the gigantic sports facilities where community members, children, and the university teams were engaging in activities, spoke with administrators and engaged with various teams.
We ended the night at a restaurant recommended by some friends of our guide, called Diablo. Here, we enjoyed reflecting upon our day over a delicious dinner with a view. See you again tomorrow!
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Presley Baber and Rachel VanderseaÂ
Swimming and Dive
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Players Mentioned
