Nostalgia for the Light: Background
1962: A team of American and European scientists explore the Atacama desert with a view to setting up astronomical observatories there.
1967: The first observatory is inaugurated on the heights of "Tololo." Soon afterwards it reveals the existence of the Antlia galaxy that will later enable the discovery of the age of the universe.
1969: Construction of the second observatory, "La Silla." First research on planets outside of the solar system: "Is there life anywhere else in the universe?"
In Santiago, Chile, Salvador Allende stands for the presidential elections with a radical programme.
1970: Allende is elected with 36% of the votes. He nationalises the copper, nitrate and other raw material mines that are in the desert. In Stockholm, Pablo Neruda receives the Nobel Prize. A third observatory, "Las Campanas," is inaugurated in the Atacama.
1972: The revolutionary politics of the government splits Chilean society in two. One side approves of Allende's reforms, the other rejects them. The probability of a civil war takes hold of the country. Nixon and Kissinger put all the weight of the U.S. into the balance, in order to sink the Chilean economy.
1973: Allende's coalition obtains 43.4 % of the votes in the legislative elections. The Right and the military's response is a coup d'état. Allende dies in the presidential palace. Backed by the government of the United States, Pinochet assumes power for the next18 years.
In the desert mines, 75 political prisoners are executed (in Calama and in other villages).
1976: Far removed from political events, the most powerful optical instrument in the whole of the southern hemisphere is installed at the "Tololo" site.
1979: The women of Calama secretly begin the search for the bodies of their loved ones.
1980: The dictatorship establishes a new constitution dedicated to a neoliberal economy. The beginning of massive anti-Pinochet protests. The first accounting of the death-toll of the dictatorship is completed: 3,000 executed and disappeared, 35 000 tortured, 800 secret prisons, 3,500 civil servants in charge of repression. One million people living in exile.
1986: Pinochet escapes an assassination attempt organised by a left-wing armed group. Halley's comet travels through the Chilean sky. The Challenger space shuttle explodes during take-off.
1987: The women of Calama go public with their search. A group of archaeologists teach them how to dig. They live obsessed with the memory of their disappeared loved-ones, and cannot fully mourn them until the bodies are found.
1988: Pinochet's is resoundingly defeated in a referendum organised to legitimise his government. He is forced to give up executive power two years later. He remains head of the army and proclaims himself "senator for life."
1990: Patricio Aylwin, of the Christian Democrat party, is elected the first President of the democratic political transition.
Near Calama a mass grave is discovered, in which are found only a few bone fragments of 26 disappeared prisoners. In Pisagua, on the coast, 19 intact bodies are unearthed.
The space telescope Hubble is launched into the cosmos.
1998: On the heights of "Páranal," the Very Large telescope VTL is put into action. It is equipped with a radioactive clock which enables it to measure the age of stars, and discovers the oldest known star, 13,200 million light years away (that is how many years it took for its light to reach us).
At the same time, Pinochet is arrested in London under an international warrant issued in Spain. He is accused of genocide, terrorism, and torture.
In the desert, near La Serena, 15 more bodies of the disappeared are exhumed.
1999: Pinochet returns to Chile, after being detained for nearly 500 days in the United Kingdom.
2002: In the Atacama desert, the inauguration of the "Gémini" observatory at the summit of Mount Pachón. At the "Páranal" observatory the first photograph of an extra-solar planet is taken.
2003: "La Silla's" HARPS telescope discovers 20 extra-solar planets (the exoplanets). The search for other celestial bodies on which life might exist is accelerated.
2004: The women of Calama inaugurate a monument in memory of the 26 people whose partial remains had been found. But, until the entire bodies are found, their mourning remains on hold.
2006: Michèle Bachelet, a socialist, is elected the first woman president of Chile.
Twenty-five bank accounts in Pinochet's name are discovered in the United States, with $28,000,000 in the accounts, stolen from the Chilean treasury. Pinochet dies in Santiago without having been brought to trial.
2007: At "La Silla", an exoplanet resembling the Earth is discovered, Gliese 581: water in liquid form is discovered, a sign of the possibility of life.
2008: The discovery of three bodies of the disappeared near Almagro, in the Atacama desert. A small group of women continue the search.
The "Paranal" and "La Silla" observatories confirm the existence of a black hole situated at the centre of our galaxy. Each night, this black hole travels over Atacama.
2010: Sebastián Piñera, the right-wing candidate, wins the presidential elections.
An earth quake (8.8 on the Richter scale) devastates southern Chile. One of the five strongest earthquakes ever registered.
