The day poetry defeated a dictator

“In a measured narrative and simple language, Skármeta brings order to the tragedy and hope of those confusing times.” – El País

In The Day Poetry Defeated a Dictator, we follow the daily lives of two families whose lives are intimately and irrevocably linked to Chile's history and its awakening to freedom. On a Wednesday in 1988, Santos, a philosophy teacher at one of Santiago's most traditional schools, is taken away by the police during one of his classes. Arrests like that are not uncommon in Chile at the time, but for Nico, who witnesses the scene with the other students, this time is different. He is the teacher's son, and from that moment on, the only thing he can do is find a way to get his father back.

Nico's girlfriend supports him, but Patricia Bettini's family also feels the effects of the dictatorship established in 1973. Her father, Adrián Bettini, once a successful advertising executive, is now boycotted by the regime and survives by doing small informal jobs.

A light appears at the end of the tunnel: pressured by the international community, Pinochet announces a plebiscite through which the population will decide whether or not the general can run for a new term. This is a chance for Adrián to resume his career, and for Santos, like so many other victims of political repression, to find freedom.

While Nico searches for news about his father's whereabouts, fearing at every moment that he'll receive the worst possible news, Adrián takes over the "No" campaign for Pinochet's reelection. He has only fifteen minutes of TV advertising to transform Chile's history. Fifteen minutes, compared to Pinochet's fifteen years at the helm, to convince a nation that democracy is worth fighting for.

In The Day Poetry Defeated a Dictator , Antonio Skármeta, one of the most important Chilean authors of recent decades, weaves, with his delicate prose, a powerful narrative about the relationship between parents and children during difficult moments in history and about how joy managed to bring color back to a silenced country.