South Africa

South Africa enters the novel through the failed overseas trip that Augusto Pinochet and Lucy recall on their way back from the Cajón del Maipo. Lucy’s account turns the attempted visit into a domestic grievance: they never leave the airplane, and she blames Pinochet for the humiliation. The episode also links his strained international standing to the novel’s wider atmosphere of political isolation and unrest.

The Failed Visit

During the return journey, Lucy dreams aloud about their trip to South Africa. She recalls that the airplane had to turn around without the couple ever disembarking, an experience she describes as profoundly embarrassing. She complains that they were left waiting aboard in the heat without so much as a drink, while Pinochet urged patience and suggested there had been a protocol mix-up or that arrangements were still being made.

Lucy insists that she had warned him not to go. In her telling, he expected a royal welcome because South Africa supported his government and its opposition to Marxism, but he had misjudged the reception. Her account presents the failed landing not as a planned diplomatic gesture gone smoothly, but as a public rebuff that left the couple stranded and unable to proceed with the visit.

Lucy’s View of South Africa

Lucy’s recollection is shaped by her own resentments and prejudices. She recalls Gonzalo advising her against the journey, lending her a silk caftan, and helping prepare clothes and accessories for the trip. She had imagined shopping and sightseeing, and laments that she never got the chance even to spend one night in Cape Town. These details make the visit’s failure personal as well as political: the anticipated wardrobe, purchases, and public appearance all came to nothing.

Her description of South Africa is disparaging and filtered through racialized language. She reduces the country to dirt, mist, insects, animals, and poverty, while claiming that the Chileans would have treated their hosts with dignity. The contrast exposes Lucy’s self-serving account: she condemns the welcome she believes they should have received while dismissing the people and place she had expected to visit. Her speech characterizes her perspective, rather than offering a neutral description of South Africa.

Political Meaning and Aftermath

Lucy connects the failed visit to Pinochet’s foreign relationships and the consequences of his government’s political choices. She compares their treatment to the exile of Marxists after September 11 and remarks that even former friends might no longer welcome him. The comparison turns the airplane episode into an argument about the isolation faced by those associated with the regime, though it comes through Lucy’s angry recollection rather than an impartial account.

Once her tirade ends, Pinochet tries not to wake her as the quiet motorcade continues toward Santiago. South Africa therefore remains present in the scene as a remembered diplomatic embarrassment: Lucy’s unrealized plans and reproaches accompany the couple’s return, while her account underscores the gap between Pinochet’s expectations of international support and the rejection she says they encountered.