Dawson Island - Isla 10

In the memoir article I wrote for Tin House, I mention Dawson Island,
where my father and others were held in a camp after the coup in Chile in 1973.
Director Miguel Littin, has done an extraordinary job of bringing Isla 10, by
Sergio Bitar to the screen.

"I felt like the protagonist of one of those World War II movies.
When we arrived at the camp, some of us cried to see so
many wire fences. There were 27. It was difficult to believe."
Baldovino Gomez, Dawson Island prisoner

In the Magellan Straits in the extreme south of Chile, 100 kilometers south of Punta Arenas. Dawson Island was used as a concentration camp for the Selknam (Ona) and other native people in the 19th century. In 1890, the Chilean government gave some Salesian missionaries from Italy a 20-year concession to Dawson Island to educate, care for and adapt indigenous people.

From immediately after the military coup of September 11, 1973 until October 1974.
About 30 important political figures involved in Salvador Allende's overthrown Popular Unity (UP) government were sent to Dawson Island following the coup, alongside some 200 prisoners from the local area. Among the UP prisoners were Orlando Letelier, Jose Toha, Christian Democrat Senator Sergio Bitar, and former Mining Minister Benjamin Teplinsky.

* cited from Derechos Chile- an excellent site for a broad overview of human rights history in Chile.

http://www.chipsites.com/derecho/campo_isla_dawson_eng.html