Condors

Condors serve as a recurring image whose meaning shifts from a distant possibility in the mountain landscape to a threatening presence in Augusto Pinochet’s nightmare. Their circling flight makes the dictator, accustomed to command, imagine himself exposed and alone; the scene ends with his waking to reassurance that it was a dream.

Mountain Landscape

At the Cajón del Maipo, the dictator spends the morning looking toward the high peaks and hoping to see a condor overhead. The bird belongs to the open mountain view he studies from the terrace, a sight that contrasts with the political anxiety and domestic tension surrounding him. His attention to the sky makes the condor an anticipated part of the landscape before it becomes part of his dream.

From Distant Bird to Threat

Later, while asleep in the garden, Pinochet sees dark shapes circling above the mountains. At first he cannot be sure whether they are condors or eagles; as they approach, however, the birds focus on him. The dream reverses the direction of his gaze: instead of watching the peaks, he imagines himself watched from above, small and defenseless below the circling predators.

The nightmare escalates until he believes the birds are descending on him and tries to call for help. He wakes surrounded by bodyguards, while his secretary fans him with the newspaper and tells him he has had a nightmare. The episode gives the condor image a private, fearful dimension without making the imagined attack a waking event.

Recurrence and Contrast

Condors also appear among the miniature military forces arranged in Pinochet’s childhood room, alongside toy vehicles and armies lined up for battle. This earlier image places the bird within the childhood world of military toys and imagined conflict. In the later dream, the direction of power is reversed: the man associated with command becomes the isolated figure under threat.

The contrast between the hoped-for sight of a condor over the mountains and its transformation into a pursuer links the bird to the instability of Pinochet’s private perspective. It remains part of the surrounding landscape, but in the nightmare that landscape becomes a scene in which the dictator cannot control what approaches or protect himself from what he imagines.