“If I crashed a plane tomorrow, I would start eating human flesh the next day,” he says emphatically. Gustavo Zerbinoseventy-year-old Uruguayan pharmaceutical businessman and Survivor of the weather disaster, also known as the “tragedy of the Andes” and the “miracle of the Andes”. On October 13, 1972, a plane booked by Old Christians rugby club players (Zerbino was one of them) to travel between Montevideo and Santiago de Chile with friends and family accidentally collided with a glacier in the Andean Mountains. There were 45 people on board, 12 of whom died as a result of the collision; At the time of rescue, 72 days later, 16 people were still alive..
JA Bayona’s new film ‘The Snow Society’ recreates the physical and psychological toll those left behind pay on a daily basis We were stranded 4,000 meters above sea level for 10 weeks, at the mercy of avalanches and temperatures reaching 30 degrees below zeroThose who survived thanks to the preservation of the aircraft’s fuselage, creativity and imagination, prayers to God, and food provided from the bodies of the dead, their friends and sometimes their own relatives. “I don’t regret anything,” Zerbino insists. “We had to move to live, and we needed energy to move. There was only death around us, and we fed on corpses because they were the only protein we found.”
The need to resort to anthropophagy arose in the first weeks when the group learned via radio that search parties had been suspended.. “Thinking about the pain this had caused our families in Uruguay strengthened our resolve to survive,” the pharmacist recalls.
tell the truth
After long discussions, they decided to use the bodies of the dead passengers and signed an agreement. “We allowed everyone to use us as food if we died because we all wanted to save lives and it would allow the survivors to tell our loved ones how much we loved them.” When they were rescued shortly before Christmas, they were advised not to reveal the drastic nutritional measures they had been forced to resort to. “We refused, we didn’t want to hide it even if it meant confronting cultural, religious, biological taboos. Thousands of blood transfusions are currently performed every second around the world; Lung, kidney and retina heart transplants are also common… What we do is not much different from this.”
‘The Snow Society’, adapted from Pablo Vierci’s book of the same name, is the third cinematographic fiction that recreates the event.Mexican feature film ‘Survivientes de los Andes’ (1976) and Hollywood production ‘Viven!’ (1993), directed by Frank Marshall. According to Zebino, Bayona’s film -Spanish representative in the Oscar fight and recently nominated for the Golden Globe- It is the only work that faithfully reflects the atmosphere of unity established on the mountain.. “The whole world had abandoned us, and we decided to build a supportive community where rules emerge when necessary. We were constantly taking care of each other and complaining was forbidden. We choose to be positive and celebrate each day of life more. I decided to break away from my mind that only told me ‘you won’t succeed, you will die’. “I sent him for a walk.”
next life
These 72 days had a profound impact on the survivors’ later attitudes towards life and death. “This experience has increased our capacity for pain, tolerance, patience and unconditional love to unimaginable levels. “Facing death at such a young age and the deaths of people so close to you inevitably hardens you.”
Zerbino has been traveling the world for years giving motivational talks and lectures on topics such as leadership and managing challenges. “Since we were little, we have been taught to think about problems rather than solutions and to live in constant fear of failure, and this has to change. Even the most negative experiences are a tool for growth and learning. The accident in the Andes was another experience in my life, one of many. It is only when I get calls from the media or give a speech that I remember that I am a survivor. I am a happy person, I live in the present and enjoy it intensely. “Life is too short, but I am not afraid of death.”
He adds that he has never had any qualms about traveling by plane all this time. “I get on, sit down, read, sleep a little, and get off when I reach my destination. It is a very safe means of transportation. I remember a trip between Europe and Uruguay during which there was a terrible storm. “As hysteria spread among the passengers, I put on my headphones and started listening to music.”