Spring 2011 Issue - Lehman College

Stranded in Chile
Lehman Alumni Take the Lead in Tourist Evacuation
What began as a long-awaited adventure
in another country turned into a test of resolve, courage, and
leadership skills this winter for three Lehman alumni and one
Lehman student.
Elías Alcántara (B.A., ‘08), Rafael Almanzar (B.A., ‘09), Elías Santiago
(B.S., ‘10), and art major Amanda Saviñón played a critical
role in helping to evacuate tourists stranded in the midst of a labor
strike in Puerto Natales, Chile. Their teamwork in this crisis won
them formal recognition from the U.S. State Department.
In early January, the friends assembled in Santiago, Chile, where
Alcántara is living after receiving the Organization of American
States Scholarship—one of only three students in the nation, and
the first Lehman student ever, to win this prestigious award. He is
pursuing a master’s degree in international studies at the University
of Chile, with additional help provided by a scholarship from the
Lehman College Foundation.
Before the group headed out for the Magallanes region of Chile,
Alcántara’s professor told him to be careful, alluding to news of
unrest in the area, related to rising gas prices. “He said, ‘It’s going
to be an interesting experience’,” remembers Alcántara.
When the four reached Puerto Natales, where they were scheduled
to stay only for three nights before embarking to Argentina on the
next leg of their trip, they were told that the roads would be closed
for protests. “There were four eighteen-wheelers blocking the road,”
says Alcántara. “We were told that we could walk, but couldn’t drive
in and out by car or bus. The closest Argentine border was twenty
kilometers away, and a friend recommended that we not walk.”
It wasn’t long before other tourists, representing a wide variety of
countries, learned of the blockade. The Lehman group recruited
a handful of them near their hostel so they could collectively file
a complaint with the local police. The police, however, replied that
the citizens of Puerto Natales were demonstrating legally, and the
blockade could not be removed.
Alcántara then returned to the hostel and contacted the U.S.
embassy, promising to relay whatever news he gathered to tourists
and assuming the role of spokesperson for the group. Arriving
later that day at the designated meeting location, he found that the
handful of tourists waiting for his update had grown to 600. “I let
them know that the U.S. Embassy was in contact with all the allied
countries’ embassies and that they were following the situation
closely,” he says. “I got some ‘boos’ from the crowd, but I urged
them to also call their embassies.”
Santiago, who graduated with a bachelor’s in computer information
systems, created a Facebook page to disseminate information
to the now 1,600 stranded tourists. The page, “Tourists Stuck
in Southern Patagonia, Chile,” quickly garnered more than 300
“friends” and was
populated with
updates in Spanish
and English. “I
gave out pieces
of paper with
the name of the
Facebook page,”
says Santiago. “I
wanted as much
Left: Elías Alcántara (B.A., ‘08) helps organize the
evacuation (Photo by Amanda Saviñón). Above: Meeting
with the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Santiago
following the evacuation are, from left, Rafael
Almanzar (B.A., ‘09), Elías Santiago (B.S., ‘10),
senior Amanda Saviñón, and Alcantára.
media as possible
to get word
of this so that we
could mobilize
faster.” He also
uploaded photos
and videos.
When the local school became the official Red Cross holding location,
Almanzar became the bilingual point person, helping people
to remain calm and passing on information that Alcántara gathered
during his hourly calls to the embassy; Alcántara had now become
the U.S. Embassy’s official spokesperson. Saviñón, who was spending
her spring semester at the University of Chile, documented the
situation with her camera and lent a helping hand where she could.
Later on, after buses had evacuated all the tourists out of the area,
the Lehman group met in Santiago with U.S. Embassy representatives
and were presented with certificates of appreciation for their
work. “It was cool that the people at the Embassy called us the
‘crisis’ team,” says Santiago. “After all of this, I wish I could learn a
lot more languages than I know now.”
Lehman Today/Spring 2011 19