The Eagle and the Condor

As a reminder for the geographically challenged like myself, Chile is that long, skinny country on the west coast of South America. It stretches 2,670 miles north to south, but it’s only 217 miles at its widest point and 40 miles at its narrowest.

It’s an entire country of coastline with vast ocean to the west, the world’s driest desert in the north, and the Andes mountains to the east. It is also the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica. Chile more than any other land, seems to occupy all the elements from fire to ice.

From Chile’s oceanside cliffs, you might spot an Andean condor, the national bird. It makes me think of the ancient prophecy among many indigenous cultures of the Eagle and the Condor, which states that humanity will split into two paths — the path of the eagle, which represents masculine energies of the mind, and the path of the condor, embodied by feminine qualities of the heart. The prophecy says that the eagle will be so powerful for a time that it will almost crush the condor out of existence. But this will be followed by another time (that they say began around the year 1990 and will last 500 years) when the eagle and condor will fly side by side, and have the chance to reach enlightenment by balancing the masculine and feminine energies.

In the United States, we’ve been conditioned to worship the eagle — both literally and figuratively — and to fear the condor.

In the early 1970s, Chile was undergoing a miraculous period of economic and social growth. Democratically elected President Salvador Allende had implemented reforms that were vastly improving quality of life, especially for the poor and uneducated. Free milk for kids, better maternity care for mothers, better housing and more social programs were saving lives. As just one example, in the first two years of Allende’s presidency, the infant mortality rate fell 90%.

But sadly, the world wouldn’t get to see what would have happened if Allende were able to finish out his term as president. He was forced to end his own life in 1973, when he was ousted from power by a CIA-backed coup, which ushered in 17 years of right-wing conservative dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet.

Pedro Pascal’s mother, Verónica Pascal Ureta, was likely targeted as an enemy of the Pinochet dictatorship for her own views, but also because of her family ties: She was the cousin of President Allende’s nephew, Andrés Pascal Allende, an early leader of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left.

Because Allende identified as a Socialist, we in the US had been conditioned to fear the changes that were happening in Chile. But from everything I have read, socialism wasn’t being used as an anti-American political tool in this case, but it was being offered as a viable alternative to self-interested capitalism. Like the condor of the prophecy, Allende’s efforts were cut short by those of the Western mindset, who could only see the danger rather than the potential of living by the heart.

As we face similar issues in our world today, we’re collectively standing at the crossroads of another head vs. heart moment. Maybe like the prophecy predicts, there is a third way — a way of balance — led with new masculinity by men of my generation like Pedro Pascal.