Warm reception in Chile

PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Bernardo Berdichewsky was in fear for his life when he fled his native Chile three decades ago. Recently, the Jewish Vancouverite returned to Santiago in what one observer called an exoneration of the noted sociologist.

Berdichewsky was a professor at the National University in Santiago and was active on campus supporting the democratically elected leftist leader Salvador Allende. When Allende was overthrown in an American-backed coup in 1973, the life of Berdichewsky – and millions of other Chileans – was thrown into turmoil.
Berdichewsky lost his position at the university in the aftermath of the coup, but warnings suggested worse was in store. His brother, a career military officer, was second-in-command of the Chilean air force. His brother suggested he leave the country as soon as possible.

"Listen, there are some things here that not even we can control," Berdichewsky recalls his brother warning him. The implication, Berdichewsky recently told the Bulletin, was that the DINA, Chile's secret police, were operating beyond legal or even military authority.

"I didn't wait to see what else would happen," said Berdichewsky. "I was afraid of the secret service."

Berdichewsky's work in academia had helped create a wide circle of associates worldwide and he was fortunate to land a one-term lecturing post at City University of New York. He fled Chile with his wife at the beginning of 1974.

Over the next couple of years, he managed to find temporary academic positions at various North American colleges and universities until he was offered a permanent post at Simon Fraser University, which, at the time, had the only Latin American studies program in British Columbia. He accepted a professorship there in 1979 and was soon accepted as a refugee in this country. He became a citizen in 1981.

Last November, he returned to Chile for the launch of his Spanish-language sociology textbook. Anthropologia Social: Introduccion was released in a gala homecoming that was bittersweet for Berdichewsky. Though his homeland is now under a democratic regime, many of his former associates and political allies were murdered by the right-wing government after the 1973 coup.

Fernando Duran, dean of the faculty of social sciences at the University of Chile, hosted the book launch and toasted Berdichewsky's return, calling it an exoneration of the man who fled and a homage to the accomplishments he has achieved since.

Over the past 20 years in Canada, Berdichewsky has played a central role in multicultural life. Not only has he served on the board of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region, he has also been national president of the Canadian Hispanic Congress. He has been associated with numerous volunteer and academic groups.

Berdichewsky taught at SFU until the university's mandatory retirement age, then spent almost another decade teaching at Capilano College. He retired in 1997, yet continues to write for academic journals.

Though his experience with the Chilean coup was a life-altering event, it was not the only time Berdichewsky was at the frontlines of history in the making. He and his wife were in Italy on their honeymoon in 1948, when they stumbled onto people who were involved in the aliyah bet, the illegal migration scheme taking Jewish displaced persons, mostly Holocaust survivors, to British Palestine.
Apparently on a whim, the Berdichewskys jumped on board a ship, where they were provided with forged British visas and they arrived in Palestine on May 14, 1948 – hours before the state of Israel was born. Family ties made the newlyweds return to Chile by the end of that year.

During his visit two months ago, old friends asked if he might consider spending his retirement in the land of his birth.

"People asked me do I want to come back," he said. "Not in a million years."

Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and commentator.

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