Hello, my name is Bella Ferrou, and I survived watching the Society of the Snow. In hindsight, one would think this is hyperbole considering it’s just a movie, and what movie could impact someone in such a manner? However, this real-life story truly does pull the heartstrings of Latinos, especially Uruguayans like myself. Growing up, I heard the story a million times from my mother and father, who lived through this disaster. They were fairly young when it happened, but in Uruguay, this story stayed relevant for decades to come. It all started on the 12th of October 1972 when a plane took off from Carrasco, Uruguay, to go to Santiago, Chile, for a rugby tournament. Inside that plane were 40 passengers, 19 members of the Old Christians Rugby Club, and the rest were family members and friends who wanted to support the team. Everyone was quite excited to embark on this adventure to Chile since the Rugby players insisted their friends and family come because it was going to be more than just rugby games but a party. Not only that, but the rugby players needed people to come in order to fill up the plane. Initially, it was supposed to be a direct flight. However, the weather conditions were quite difficult making them have a technical stop in Mendoza, Argentina. It hindered their plans slightly, but no one thought much of it, and they were still very excited about their trip.
At first, the flight went smoothly from Mendoza to Santiago, yet there was a huge mistake made by the pilot, which ultimately made the plane crash into the Andes, losing the lives of 13 of the 40 passengers. The remainder of the passengers were left stranded… no food… no water… no clothes to keep them warm. All they had was each other and the Garra Charrua in their hearts. Little did they know that out of those 27 passengers, 16 would live to tell the story of the Miracle of the Andes. The hardships these young men had to go through in order to make it another day were incredible. Not to mention, not one but two avalanches hit the plane, suffocating many of them to death. However, they never gave up and fought every second in hopes of seeing their families once more. After ten days, they had to result into eating the dead passengers on the flight. Many could not bear the idea of doing so, but after listening to the radio and hearing that the World thought they were all dead and stopped looking for them, it immediately made them realize their life was in their own hands. Each passenger had a role, and personally, I believe that the Strauch cousins had the most gut-wrenching and gruesome task. They decided to put their hands together and cut up the bodies for the rest of their friends to eat. They were the only ones who knew who they were eating, but to keep everyone else’s conscience clear, they decided to keep it anonymous. They also came to an agreement with the others that if one of them were to die, the others were authorized to eat their body. This depicts how if anyone could survive months in the Andes, it would be these young men. These men were in their early twenties but were very well-educated and very physically fit. After the crash, these passengers were left with nothing, yet they used their intelligence to survive. For example, they would have never realized they were on their own if the engineers in the group hadn’t used the plane’s batteries to hot wire the radio to make it work. There were also medical students like Roberto Canessa, who took care of the wounded and climbed the Andes with Nando Parrados. Nando actually was in terrible condition since he suffered from a head injury and was in a coma for three days. However, Roberto saved him accidentally when he put his head against a cold surface and did not give him any water. The cold and dehydration prevented his brain from swelling, which prevented him from dying. Once Nando Parrados woke up, he was one of the key reasons why these young men made it out alive. He would walk around the plane with little food and water in his stomach in hopes of being prepared to climb the mountain. He would have rather died trying to find help and find refuge by crossing the mountain range than stay with the others and die of hunger. They saved Nando by accident, for him to wake up and save them on purpose.
After 72 days of being trapped in the Andes, Parrado and Canessa found civilization. Everyone could not believe that these two men walked through the Andes with little water and human meat in their bags. Once the government got word of these survivors, these two were desperate to go back and rescue their friends. After all, “ there is no greater love than to give one’s life to their friends.” Parrados would direct the helicopters exactly where the plane crashed. Once the helicopters reached the remaining 14 men, they were bombarded with journalists and reporters who wanted to know how they did it. Many criticized their tactics in eating their friends, but at that point, there was nothing more they could have done. It was either eat or die, and many people had a difficult time understanding that.
Now, the 16 survivors still tell their stories in interviews and in articles. There have even been two movies made, but The Snow Society was the most accurate and touching, in my opinion. In the Snow Society, they even had some of the survivors on set directing and depicting the severity of the situation they went through. Personally, after watching the movie with my parents, I was left speechless. I have never felt more proud to know that people from where I am from survived something that was basically impossible. All odds were not in their favor, yet they had faith and trust in each other to persevere. Growing up, the stories my mom told me gave me strength and a sense of belonging since it was hard to grow up so far from where I was from. So now, I look at this movie and remember the little girl who wanted to have the strength and the Garra Charrua of those young men on the plane and appreciate this depiction of the Uruguayan people. We are strong…crazy…and we never ever will give up. Watch the Society of the Snow, you won’t regret it.