with author Kathleen Osberger
When
Where
Join the Center for Latin American Studies for our weekly Fall 2023 Charlas con Café – a space where we engage with a wide variety of experts and discuss topics relevant to the Latin American region, Fridays from 1-2 pm (unless otherwise specified). Coffee & snacks starting at 12:30pm.
This is a hybrid event. To join via Zoom, please click here.
Fifty years ago, on September 11, 1973, a U.S.-backed coup toppled the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile and ushered in the Pinochet dictatorship. Please join us as we commemorate the human rights struggles that occurred in Chile in the wake of the coup. In 1975, Kathleen Osberger, a volunteer teacher, lived in a convent with nuns who were sheltering Chilean dissidents. In her memoir, she recounts the danger of that time of extra-judicial killings, torture, and forced disappearance. She also explores the changed and challenged Catholic Church, and the valor of human rights defenders, including Kathleen herself, who was kidnapped by Chilean security forces.
Kathleen Osberger earned her B.A. at the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. from Maryknoll School of Theology, and an A.M. from the University of Chicago–School of Social Work Administration. Her life was shaped by volunteer experiences when she lived in San Miguelito, Panamá; Santiago, Chile; Chimbote, Perú, and the South Bronx. In 1987 she began a seventeen-year relationship with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners as an instructor in their orientation to mission program. In 1993 she joined the University of Chicago Hospitals—Department of Psychiatry. Her work as a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist has centered on issues of trauma and torture. She is the author of I Surrender: A Memoir of Chile’s Dictatorship, 1975 (Orbis Books, August 2023).
Moderator: Jadwiga Pieper-Mooney (Department of History, University of Arizona).
Location: Marshall Bldg. Suite 280
Time: 1:00pm - 2:30pm.