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A trip to Sausalito’s Chilean sister city
  
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One point of view column
By Michael R. Moyle
We made some progress last year in revitalizing Sausalito’s sister-city relationship with the Chilean town of Viña del Mar. The relationship dates back to 1960, when Sausalito renamed its central square “Plaza Viña del Mar,” and Viña del Mar reciprocated by naming its central park “Parque Sausalito,” and its professional soccer stadium located within the park “Estadio Sausalito.” However, after seven or eight years of activity, the relationship went dormant.
The year 2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the relationship, and Alex Geiger, Chile’s consul general in San Francisco, took the initiative to organize an effort to celebrate the anniversary, including affixing a new commemorative plaque to the base of the elephant statue on the right side of the entrance to the plaza. However, there was still no real contact with Viña, and after that burst of activity it looked as if the relationship might again sink into oblivion.
At the end of 2010 Consul General Geiger was transferred to Egypt to become Chile’s ambassador there (just in time for the Arab Spring!) and Rolando Ortega, a new consul general, arrived in San Francisco. Consul General Ortega was aware of the sister-city relationship and wanted to support and promote it. He mentioned to us that the Chilean Navy’s training ship, La Esmeralda, would be making a call in San Francisco in mid-July on its 2011 training cruise around the Pacific rim and suggested that we organize a modest event in Sausalito in which members of La Esmeralda’s crew could participate and which we could use to publicize the sister-city relationship.
That seemed like an excellent idea, so in the spring we began to make preparations for the event. Then the big news: at the beginning of June we received word through the consul general that Viña del Mar’s mayor, Virginia Reginato, had learned of our efforts and was interested in bringing a delegation to Sausalito to coincide with La Esmeralda’s visit to San Francisco. As was reported last year, the mayor and her delegation did come, and through that visit we were able to make an excellent start on re-establishing the relationship.
However, notwithstanding that good beginning, few of us here in Sausalito had the sort of firsthand knowledge of Viña del Mar that would be necessary to develop and sustain a meaningful relationship. Consequently, to maintain momentum, our mayor, Herb Weiner, proposed that he and I reciprocate as soon as possible with a trip to Viña. As a result, on Nov. 2 Mayor Weiner and I boarded a flight at SFO bound for Santiago via Dallas.
We initially spent three days in Santiago, during which period we visited the U.S. Embassy, the American Chamber of Commerce and the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain our initiative and to solicit their support. Then on Nov. 6, we made the roughly 75-mile drive northwest from Santiago to Viña, stopping along the way in the Casablanca Valley, one of Chile’s premier wine-growing areas. Coincidentally, on that same day La Esmeralda returned to Valparaíso (the port immediately adjacent to Viña) from its 15,000-mile training cruise.
We were in Viña for four full days and our visit completely exceeded our expectations. The city office went far out of its way to organize a schedule of activities that allowed us to get to know the area and its history, and to meet city officials and citizens. A driver and two additional city employees were assigned to accompany us each day, and a translator was provided, since neither Mayor Weiner nor I speak Spanish (note to file: learn it for the next trip). Mayor Reginato was a gracious hostess and participated in almost every major event.
The most significant public event occurred on the second day of our visit when, at a ceremony in the Parque Sausalito, the two mayors planted a Chilean palm tree, and a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the visit. This was particularly significant since there had not previously been any public mention of the sister-city relationship.
We were also able to follow up on historical aspects of our relationship by meeting with the Fuenzalidas, the family that had hosted Sausalito’s first exchange student, sent to Viña in 1966; with Silvia Westermann, the widow of Sergio Castillo whose sculpture “Hermandad” stands in Gabrielson Park; and with Gustavo Lorca, the mayor of Viña in 1960 when the sister-city relationship was established.
Perhaps most important, we met with a number of schools in Viña and are hoping to establish a modest student exchange program in the future. We have already connected Willow Creek Academy with a Viña school to pursue a pen pal program as a first step.
In closing, I would simply add a comment that Mayor Weiner made on several occasions about this relationship: “old friends, new beginnings.” We hope to accomplish more this year and welcome everyone’s support and participation.
Mike Moyle is a Sausalito resident. Anyone interested in learning more about, or becoming more involved with, the Sausalito-Viña del Mar sister-city initiative can contact him at sausalitovina@gmail.com. The sister-city group also maintains an active Facebook page at facebook.com/SausalitoVina, and Mike has done a post about the trip with additional photos on a blog at http://bit.ly/zWhrOp.
The year 2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the relationship, and Alex Geiger, Chile’s consul general in San Francisco, took the initiative to organize an effort to celebrate the anniversary, including affixing a new commemorative plaque to the base of the elephant statue on the right side of the entrance to the plaza. However, there was still no real contact with Viña, and after that burst of activity it looked as if the relationship might again sink into oblivion.
At the end of 2010 Consul General Geiger was transferred to Egypt to become Chile’s ambassador there (just in time for the Arab Spring!) and Rolando Ortega, a new consul general, arrived in San Francisco. Consul General Ortega was aware of the sister-city relationship and wanted to support and promote it. He mentioned to us that the Chilean Navy’s training ship, La Esmeralda, would be making a call in San Francisco in mid-July on its 2011 training cruise around the Pacific rim and suggested that we organize a modest event in Sausalito in which members of La Esmeralda’s crew could participate and which we could use to publicize the sister-city relationship.
That seemed like an excellent idea, so in the spring we began to make preparations for the event. Then the big news: at the beginning of June we received word through the consul general that Viña del Mar’s mayor, Virginia Reginato, had learned of our efforts and was interested in bringing a delegation to Sausalito to coincide with La Esmeralda’s visit to San Francisco. As was reported last year, the mayor and her delegation did come, and through that visit we were able to make an excellent start on re-establishing the relationship.
However, notwithstanding that good beginning, few of us here in Sausalito had the sort of firsthand knowledge of Viña del Mar that would be necessary to develop and sustain a meaningful relationship. Consequently, to maintain momentum, our mayor, Herb Weiner, proposed that he and I reciprocate as soon as possible with a trip to Viña. As a result, on Nov. 2 Mayor Weiner and I boarded a flight at SFO bound for Santiago via Dallas.
We initially spent three days in Santiago, during which period we visited the U.S. Embassy, the American Chamber of Commerce and the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain our initiative and to solicit their support. Then on Nov. 6, we made the roughly 75-mile drive northwest from Santiago to Viña, stopping along the way in the Casablanca Valley, one of Chile’s premier wine-growing areas. Coincidentally, on that same day La Esmeralda returned to Valparaíso (the port immediately adjacent to Viña) from its 15,000-mile training cruise.
We were in Viña for four full days and our visit completely exceeded our expectations. The city office went far out of its way to organize a schedule of activities that allowed us to get to know the area and its history, and to meet city officials and citizens. A driver and two additional city employees were assigned to accompany us each day, and a translator was provided, since neither Mayor Weiner nor I speak Spanish (note to file: learn it for the next trip). Mayor Reginato was a gracious hostess and participated in almost every major event.
The most significant public event occurred on the second day of our visit when, at a ceremony in the Parque Sausalito, the two mayors planted a Chilean palm tree, and a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the visit. This was particularly significant since there had not previously been any public mention of the sister-city relationship.
We were also able to follow up on historical aspects of our relationship by meeting with the Fuenzalidas, the family that had hosted Sausalito’s first exchange student, sent to Viña in 1966; with Silvia Westermann, the widow of Sergio Castillo whose sculpture “Hermandad” stands in Gabrielson Park; and with Gustavo Lorca, the mayor of Viña in 1960 when the sister-city relationship was established.
Perhaps most important, we met with a number of schools in Viña and are hoping to establish a modest student exchange program in the future. We have already connected Willow Creek Academy with a Viña school to pursue a pen pal program as a first step.
In closing, I would simply add a comment that Mayor Weiner made on several occasions about this relationship: “old friends, new beginnings.” We hope to accomplish more this year and welcome everyone’s support and participation.
Mike Moyle is a Sausalito resident. Anyone interested in learning more about, or becoming more involved with, the Sausalito-Viña del Mar sister-city initiative can contact him at sausalitovina@gmail.com. The sister-city group also maintains an active Facebook page at facebook.com/SausalitoVina, and Mike has done a post about the trip with additional photos on a blog at http://bit.ly/zWhrOp.
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