Achupallas grade

Achupallas grade is a route used by Augusto Pinochet’s motorcade on its weekend journeys from Santiago toward the Cajón del Maipo. In the novel, the road links the dictatorship’s carefully managed public image to the vulnerability of its movements: workers repairing the grade are presented as exemplary supporters, while the roadwork later prompts a proposed detour and raises questions about the route’s security.

Setting and Political Meaning

The grade appears in the spring of 1986, amid demonstrations, union mobilization, student protests, and frequent power outages in Santiago. Against this unrest, the narrative describes the Movement for Change as unable to dislodge the ruler, who leaves the capital on weekends for his country estate in the Cajón del Maipo. The grade is part of that regular journey, connecting the capital’s conflict to the quieter landscape where Pinochet reads military strategy and avoids news broadcasts, particularly those of Radio Cooperativa.

Roadwork and the Government’s Image

As Pinochet’s motorcade passes the work site, the narrative presents the road crew as a model of civic obedience: the workers remain at their task late in the day and remove their hard hats respectfully as the vehicles go by. Pinochet regards them as good citizens whose labor strengthens the fatherland. This idealized scene contrasts with his contempt for protesters and leftists, whom he blames for disorder. The grade thus becomes more than a stretch of road: the roadwork is framed as visible evidence for the political order he wants to believe in.

Route, Security, and Retrospective Irony

On another weekend journey, the chauffeur asks whether they should take the route through Pirque instead of the Achupallas grade because repairs appear to be underway. Pinochet is surprised that the mayor had not mentioned the work when they spoke earlier that morning, and he dislikes the prospect of a detour: he prefers the canyon route, with its narrow passage and the river far below. His unease and attraction to the exposed road acquire retrospective significance because the motorcade’s route is later associated with an attack and heightened security. The grade’s ordinary roadworks therefore sit within a plot in which routine travel, official confidence, and political danger increasingly converge.