" There was a coup on the 11th of September 1973, and General Pinochet became the new leader and murdered the president (Salvadore Allende, who had been democratically voted in). This was a massive shock in Chile. No one could really believe it, and it was very extreme. You know, from the moment the coup happened, there was a curfew, people were shot in the street for being out in the curfew, lots of people caught up unexpectedly, women weren't allowed to wear trousers anymore. Those extreme measures were brought in all of a sudden to bring about a sense of fear in the population, so that everyone would be compliant with this massive, unexpected change.

So, people's lives changed overnight. My father at the time was a lecturer at the University of Talca. My mum was heavily pregnant with me, and they had my sister who was six years old.

There was a knock on my parents' door late at night, and it was the local police with military police, accompanying the head of police, who were there to arrest my father under the orders of central government. They took him away in the middle of the night. My sister remembers this. They held a gun to her head in her bed, and my mother was terrified and they took my father away and she didn't know where to.

So this was the caravan of death, whereby a military officer traveling with a group of military people was going to detention centers one after another and just ordering everyone's execution without trial. And the head of the police in Talqa [town in Chile] heard that they were heading towards his station, and he said he didn't want that to happen, so he let them [people arrested under the dictatorship, including interviewee’s father] go and he himself ran away, escaped."

"My dad went to one of the embassies in the capital, Santiago, which were helping people to escape. So people were entering by climbing over walls or being smuggled in by cars, getting into the embassy where it was neutral territory and then flying out of the country, via their escort."

" He was eventually issued a document, because his Chilean passport was taken away. He was given a travel document in which it says that he had the right to remain here as an exile. 

When we first came, we lived in a bedsit on Chesterton Road […] and then the university provided housing for us on Batemans Street and that's where we lived for the first seven years of my life here.

It was like this amazing compassion, amazing support and welcome from a number of different people, not just at that time [of arrival] but then ongoing.

Mom, I know, was hugely grateful and always has been and has found it difficult to find a reason to go back [to Chile], even though she misses Chile hugely. I think that she feels safe here, she feels safe in Cambridge and that feeling is very important when you have had a time in your life when safety has been compromised and taken. Cambridge definitely was very welcoming to us."

"In Harvey Road, that was the [flat]. But it was so large, that flat, that we had something like 50 people there."

"[We arrived in Cambridge] In February 1975, and we were shocked by the cold. Our knowledge of English was extremely limited, practically non-existent, so we had to adapt extremely quickly. The tremendous advantage was the fact that here in Cambridge there was a very well-established Chilean community. Something like... 160 people."

"Yes, it is possible that Cambridge is a little bit unusual. The circles we move into are much more flexible, liberal, receptive […] In the working class community in England there was a tremendous amount of solidarity with Chile. It's extraordinary. If you explore the literature, you have this group of people working in factories in the north of England [miners] helping Chileans. in Hull, in Liverpool, in Manchester."

" But it [the flat] had a gorgeous garden that led back onto the Botanic Garden. So, we used to sneak into the Botanics to play every day after school, which is very magical. In those days the Botanics was very different, it wasn't open to the public, it was a research garden.

Yeah, the Arbury Community Centre. Yeah, we'd meet there every Sunday. And it was wonderful. I enjoyed it so much as a child. I know that lots of other children really hated it, but I loved it. I loved watching them. I'd love listening to all the adults speaking in Chilean Spanish, telling jokes. And Chilean Spanish is very particular. It really stands out compared to lots of other forms of Spanish. So, it was a very happy social occasion in my memory that happened almost every Sunday."

" My first language was Spanish and, you know, at that age you do just pick up English. So, I don't remember anyone teaching me English, but I just knew it. But we spoke Spanish at home. Dad did also speak to me in English, because he wanted me and my sister to speak English." (Camilla)

" So it took me a year to start mastering this difficult language. I was offered a place in a school of languages. It was the Faraday school. It was a very small school, and Miss Faraday was the principal, the teacher. An extremely forceful, old-fashioned lady. Very, very, very enthusiastic. Classes [were] every day. At the same time, I had to make a living. So, I started working in a gymnasium as a maintenance man. So, I studied during the day, worked during the night [at] Kelsey Kerridge sports centre as a maintenance manager." (Leo)

" My parents never told me about that [racism]. In fact, my mum, I think the first time she experienced racism was much later. I know now that friends of mine, who were Chilean, who had darker skin, they did struggle. There was racism, and for those who didn't speak English immediately at school, they struggled. They were picked on. My sister, she was bullied quite a lot. I suppose I was fortunate, because I was a baby, when I came here. I was pretty much brought up as English."