Chilean astro-culture

Tonight I'll highlight two recent news pieces relating Chilean culture and astronomy.  An observatory can feel isolated, but I enjoy the reminder that we're connected to the community, even when far away from the nearest city lights.  

From my experiences, Chile has embraced astronomy, and astronomy has embraced Chile.  When I say that I'm working for ALMA, I rarely need to explain to a Chilean what is ALMA, rather I'm told that ALMA appears in the news quite frequently here.  And, when I talk with ALMA astronomers about Chile, it seems that many astronomers make an effort to explore Chile and experience the culture and environment.  

The first news story, ALMA Observatory supports recovery of the Kunza language , I found highlighted on the ALMA Observatory webpage.  The ALMA Observatory is located in Chile's 2nd Region, which is important archaeologically because it is the site of several ancient cultures.  The Atacameño people comprise the 3rd largest indigenous population in Chile, and this article specifically focuses on maintaining several of the endangered languages in this region.

A traditional ritual performed at the telescope site in 2007 (photo from almaobservatory.org)

Second, and dealing more with popular culture in Chile, is the article Chile’s space wine Meteorito: the first meteorite-aged wine in the world (and for the bilingual: Observatorio chileno ofrece exclusivo vino hecho en base a un meteorito).  Considering that Chile is known for its wine, possibly more than it is known for its astronomy, the idea to create a wine aged with a submerged meteorite really "blends" the two concepts with marketing genius.  This article was sent in an email from an astronomer at European Southern Observatory, and it stood out amidst the other more typical emails announcing astronomy seminars and telescope status.  

If you know of other astronomical and/or cultural articles of interest, please do share!