Pepe Appears in Chilean Newspaper

I was recently interviewed by journalist Daniela Torán for Chile’s most widely read newspaper, Las Ultimas Noticias. Her article was published in the paper on Monday, January 28, 2008:

As a direct result of the article, I literally received hundreds of emails and comments via my site in a 24 hour period. I’ve heard from Chileans living all across their country, here in the United States, and scattered across the globe.

If you speak Spanish or want to see the real article, you can visit the newspaper’s site and read it for yourself.

I’ve included a translation of the article below although some parts don’t translate as smoothly to English as they sound in Spanish. I’ve linked to the relevant pages on my site in a few places to help explain some of the topics you may not be familiar with:

Gringo created amazing practical guide to Chile on the Internet

Joseph Rawlinson spent two years in our country

In 1995, American Joseph Rawlinson, then 19, arrived in Chile with an impeccable white shirt, a tie, and a Bible in hand, to walk the streets of Santiago and preach the Mormon faith.

During the two years he was a missionary, this gringo suffered bad treatment from the bus drivers of the old public transportation system, was easy prey for the innumerable regional insects, and tolerated, more than once, a door slammed in his face.

What’s curious is that despite these many “adventures,” as he says, this Mormon, now 31, fell so in love with this country and its people, that to give thanks for such hospitality he created the web page “Pepe’s Chile” (www.chileanpepe.com), an encyclopedia exclusively dedicated to this part of the world, in which he relates the experiences he had and helps other foreigners who want to visit Chile with practical facts and photos.

Joseph, or “Pepe,” as he was called by Chileans who couldn’t pronounce his last name, lives in the United States and from there he responds to all types of questions about Chile, including queries such as what is the SIAT? “It’s a special unit of the Carabineros [police force] in Chile that is short for Section of Investigation of Accidents in Traffic,” he responds.

“I wanted to share my love for this country with the whole world. Hence, this site. The Chileans were so amicable and caring even though I was a foreigner,” says Pepe, from his Ecommerce office in Texas.

- How do you know so much about Chile?
From my experiences there. I also do research via the Internet and get help from Chilean friends.

- What is the strangest thing that you’ve been asked?
How to export peaches to China or what time does the sun rise.

- What do you know about Transantiago?
That it has been a failure and has made life even more difficult for Santiago residents. I miss the old yellow micros [buses]. I had lots of adventures on them.

- For example.
One time we wanted to take the bus, but the driver made us get off because we had too much luggage. I also met lots of people on the crowded buses.

In addition to publishing important news about the country and knowing the current exchange rate of the Chilean Peso, Pepe crafted a photo album of fleas, with a description of how they were captured while he was in Chile.

Posted January 30th, 2008 in In the News.

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