>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C. >> Marcelo Magnou: It is
my great honor and pleasure to introduce Dr. Roberto Canessa and Pablo Vierci's book
"I Had to Survive." I'm also especially
pleased to note that we have with us Roberto Canessa's wife
Lauri and his eldest son, Hilario, Pablo Vierci's wife, Sandra, friends
and former classmates of Roberto who have come all the
way from South America to accompany him this afternoon. I would like to thank
the organizers, especially Marie Arana
[assumed spelling] for her outstanding
support and the volunteers who make this book
festival possible. This book is very special
and has touched our hearts. This tells about the
ultimate value of life. And how Dr. Roberto
Canessa fight for survival in the Andes had made him a fighter
for his most precious patients, his unborn and newborn
infant with congenital and life threatening heart
conditions and the struggle to save those precious lives and
to accompany them through time. It also reveal how the cooperation
between doctors around the world and hospitals in the United
States and in Uruguay organize to save them, fighting
against all odds. I forgot how many times
I have bought this book since its publication last March. First, I bought it for myself, but
then also for friends and to members of the press and to teachers
who wanted to share this story with their students,
which is without doubt, our one of the most
incredible in human history. Later on, with my friends' feedback
and story of sleepless nights and sorrowful crying, I
realized that my relationship with my friends grew stronger and
that thanks to this wonderful book, my friends got to know the
Uruguayan spirit, of always fighting to the end, of never giving
up, of solidarity and humanism, that can be seen in our soccer,
but also in the dedication of our UN peacekeepers, and
our commitment in the defense and promotion of human
rights and democracy. This book has become my dearest
friend and my favorite gift. I hope it would become the gift
you can give to your family members and your friends, and
share this moving story. I feel it can help to
enliven our communities, promoting mutual help
and social harmony. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Ted Robbins: So we're going to watch a video next
month will be 44 years since I think probably what
you would consider the-- >> Roberto Canessa:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Ted Robbins: -- in your
life and for those of you who-- >> Roberto Canessa: No, no,
especially because most people in the audience were
not born at that time. >> Ted Robbins: Of course. >> Roberto Canessa: None
of the ladies, of course. They are all younger. >> Ted Robbins: Is there sound? >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, yeah. >> Ted Robbins: OK. [ Music and Noise ] [ Foreign Language ] [ Video Clip Playing ] [ Foreign Language ] [ Music and Noise ] >> [Background Music] Roberto
as a young medical student knew that the protein in the corpses
would help his friends survive. His knowledge helped persuade
the others to break the taboo against eating human flesh. He's now a surgeon specializing
in children's heart cases. [ Music ] >> Ted Robbins: So, for all
of you who were not born then, this was an enormously famous
event worldwide and were some of those scenes from the
film, the Hollywood film? >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, yeah. >> Ted Robbins: -- Alive. >> Roberto Canessa:
Footage from the time, yeah. >> Ted Robbins: Yeah, and the
rest was documentary footage. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah. >> Ted Robbins: So
after all this time, why did you decide to
write this book now? Which is more than the incident
and the rescue but the nonetheless. >> Roberto Canessa:
Because I feel that this was like an experimenting
thing about behavior. I think this [inaudible] laboratory,
once all the sadness is gone and all the feelings are gone, I believe that some
malicious hand decided to, instead of putting guinea
pigs, put human beings that don't know the snow because
in their way there are no snow. Put them rugby players that they
see they are so machos and so tough. Put them universitary students
that they have the knowledge. And if they believe in God, may God bless their souls
and see what happens. What's the bottom line of this
is what happened, who survives, who fails is-- doesn't survive-- the strongest person survives the
person that have will to leave. [ Foreign Language ] The people that enjoy life and
have attitude everyday to survive. And there are 16 survivors,
so there are 16 formulas, we are a little different,
we have some things in common but we have different things. And I think that this is a
legacy for human behavior because until our plane crashes, we don't realize what
is important in life. We don't realize what we
really care, we don't realize that we should be so thankful in
the things we get in life and yeah. >> Ted Robbins: But your story
has been told many times, why did you decided--
decide to tell it now? >> Roberto Canessa: Because
when speaking with Pablo Vierci and Pablo has the studies
of psychology, he was telling me Roberto, aren't
you seeing that still you're going through the line of life and
death, that you're still going with patients, there are
newborns that they want to survive and that you are devoted
to life and to death. Oh come on Pablo, this is my life. No, no, no, no, there's
something hidden there. You are looking at the window, the
fuselage to life and you're looking at the screen of the echo machine
and your time to make survive, kids that never survive in Uruguay. I say, hmm, there's
something going in there. I think Pablo, you should interview
the mothers of the patients, but I shouldn't be there. So he says, this is an
incredible information that should be written,
should be testimony. >> Ted Robbins: You remind
me that the structure of the book is interesting because
it begins in detail with the crash and the fact that you and your
companions were there for 70 days in the High Valley in the Andes and
then you and one other walked out and eventually got the rest
of the survivors rescued. You see, you go through that
but then you go back and forth with the reactions, what your father
was going through at that time that you were gone,
or your wife to be. And then you eventually go to
some of your patients and some of the officers who have to-- who were trying to
rescue you at that time. Why did you decide to
structure the book that way, instead of just going, you know, straight autobiography,
this is my life. >> Roberto Canessa: Because as
they were speaking with my son and he said, daddy, your
Catholic education is the chapel, this is the cross, you
go straight in the line of time and there's the altar. But the other religions where
their churches are round, and I think that life goes
round and I think that I was in the Andes survivors, I was in
the plane crash, I was touching down and then I go back to suffering,
to life and death and to patients. I believe that although
times goes bye, you go always to your inner feeling and your identification
toward in life. I think you're like a
potentiation of how you are. >> Ted Robbins: You have and
have had a full rich life, how a part of your life-- I mean
how often do you think of this? >> Roberto Canessa: As long
as people ask me about it. I mean I feel like Frank Sinatra,
I think singing New York, New York or Mercedes Sosa Thank you for Life. And I like-- I mean I remember
about the people in the audience get to cry so I think this is
something I can transmit to people and makes them good for their heart. >> Ted Robbins: So I'll remind
you, you wrote the book, so-- so you clearly-- so they're going
to keep asking you about it, like we are talking--
like we're talking now. >> Roberto Canessa: Yes, yes. >> Ted Robbins: Do you think-- do
you still think of the incident? I mean you have a wonderful
family and a wonderful practice and you have a as I said,
a full life otherwise. How much did this define
what came after? >> Roberto Canessa: Well, I
learned that your plane might crash and in life, there
have many crashes. Every time a patient of mine
dies, I feel the same thing as my friends were dying
in the mountain, you know. And many times that they survive and
they-- my patients come and hug me, I feel I'm hugging the survivors
when we reach the shepherd because we did it on ourselves. And this selfness of teamwork is a
delicious sensation you might have. We human beings must get
together into medical team works, into family team works and
then the joy would be bigger because we all share
the feeling of trying to get things better
out of our lives. >> Ted Robbins: It sounds like
this has form pretty much-- and why wouldn't it
form your view of life. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, of course. One day I was dying and
there was a shepherd that he wouldn't left his
cattle even in his birthday because the pumas might
eat his-- their calf. And he just left everything
to help a person that he never saw in your life. And we live in this
civilized society, that if someone drops dead
nearby you, you push the side in case that he might touch you. So there are lots of things that
you-- we must rethink as a society. >> Ted Robbins: The shepherd being
the person who came to your-- the first person you saw. >> Roberto Canessa: The person we
got in touch after 72 days of no-- of not seeing any human beings. >> Ted Robbins: You sort of
touched on it in there the most sort of famous part of this whole thing
was the necessity to consume-- to eat parts of those who had died. It was a necessity. >> Roberto Canessa: Yes, yes. I mean I think there are two-- another fascinating aspects is we
have to create a different society in the mountains, a society
where you have to make your own-- your own clothe, your own warmth,
your own water and your own food. And I love the simplistic approach
of people that were not there and say, oh guys, you are
the ones that were saved because you-- you ate
the dead people. And after eating our dead friends-- was a terrible problem
and a terrible step ahead and something, we only bought time. And let me tell you, it became
part of our everyday society. And no one would-- at the beginning
yes, it was like first actual-- sexual relation that this thing
that the world is going to stop and then life goes on and
sense of humor was very, very important ingredient
in this experiment. And I remember very vividly
a friend that said, if I die and you don't eat me, I'll come
back and step in your head. And I say, no one is
going to eat you because we don't want
to get poisoned. Imagine eating you guy. [ Laughter ] So, and this is something
I learned in the mountains to treat huge things with
a very simple attitude because at sometimes, too much
pressures makes you ineffective. But really in this story, my
son when he was 4 years old, another body came around
and said, yeah, because your daddy ate his friends. Yeah, didn't you know about it? Yeah, the muscles of my father
were getting weak and the muscles of the ones that dead, they didn't
need them and they were strong so he had the muscles in order
that he could get, that's it. And I believe, we make
our life too much complex. >> Ted Robbins: Can you-- so
right, this was very simple-- difficult but simple decision
to make because you have to. Since then, I'm curious
as to whether it has taken on a deeper meaning for you as a-- I don't know, as a almost
a sacrament I guess or a-- >> Roberto Canessa: The deeper
feeling is that I wanted to ring the bell of the families
of the boys that were left in the mountain and
tell them the truth. I want to say face to
face what had happened. They had the right not to judge me
because they're considered as dead. So what [inaudible]
consider you were dead. But I had to go to their families and the toughest thing were this
Nicola [assumed spelling] boys, four boys, they were left in
school, their parents had died. And this kid thought me, Roberto,
if I would have been there, I would have walked with you. >> Ted Robbins: Would you say
they thought you were dead, that was so long that you
were gone that they had-- that nobody thought
you were still alive. >> Roberto Canessa: Well at 10
days, we had our little radio, that search had been called off. So society had declared us dead
and then I had a very brave friend that he said, Roberto, I have good
news, the decision and the dilemma of waiting to be rescued or
going for a rescue is over. If we don't get up
ourselves, we will be dead. And from that on, I
learned that in life, you shouldn't wait
for the helicopters. We had to go walking to
tell them the helicopters where our friends were. >> Ted Robbins: Very few people
who are in a plane crash survive, much less survive the length of time
after and yet you have been back to the site six times, I mean
some people would have, you know, never wanted to see it again and
you've taken your children back. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah. >> Ted Robbins: Why? >> Roberto Canessa: It took me some
time, and I said, well I'm here. And then I saw the people
in the concentration camps, that they would go back to
the place we were and I have to overcome the suffering. And then when I was there with
my sons, I felt the survivor, the people that had died were
laughing at me and saying, hey, Roberto, what a belly
you have grown, you look like an old man,
you don't have no shame. And I would tell them, yes,
but I have my sons here that they want them to meet you. And then my daughter said, daddy,
this is a very sad place but has such a tremendous energy
and it's true, it's a place that had
a very strong energy. Miracles happen there. I have seen New York lawyers crying. You think-- [ Laughter ] -- a lawyer can cry? They were crying there. [ Laughter ] >> Ted Robbins: Why would you
take a New York lawyer there? [ Laughter ] >> Roberto Canessa: He was there. He went by himself. He went by himself. >> Ted Robbins: OK. What's-- so you became-- you were
a medical student at that time. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah. >> Ted Robbins: And you became
a pediatric cardiologist. >> Roberto Canessa: Mm-hmm. >> Ted Robbins: Why did
you decide on that route? >> Roberto Canessa: Well, my father
was a professor in cardiology and I was doing cardiac
catheterization and there was another physician
doing a newborn heart diseases and I was very attracted by these because in newborns are
wrongly assembled from life and elder people have
rotten coronary arteries because they're small, they
are fat, all the things I do and this newborns, you
could change some part of their heart and
they were set off. So I thought that was a
great challenge at that time, the 3-dimension electrocardiography
came out, and I could see their hearts and I
could see the hearts in their wombs of the mother and this
kind of fascinated me. >> Ted Robbins: Is there a
connection for you in what you chose to do and what happened to you? >> Roberto Canessa: I thought there
wasn't but apparently, the life and death line is something
I want to challenge. >> Ted Robbins: Interesting. Do you believe in-- I'm
asking you a deep question. Do you believe in fate
or do you believe in chance or something in between? Why did some people
survived, why not others, why are some of your patients
surviving and not others? What is your outlook? >> Roberto Canessa: I don't in
life, what matters are chances, what matters are choices. It's what you choose, not what
happens to you and I believe that some parents made an incredible
effort to go and get their surgery down abroad in the states
and their-- get their life. And someone didn't have the money or
didn't have the strength to do that and their kids died in Uruguay. So we have our heart
foundation there in Uruguay which we are helping and
trying to race the level. Probably in school,
we learned very soon when the Christian brothers
told that the in rugby, the referee is always right. And I said, that's unfair and he
told me, who told you life is fair? We must take life as it comes
and we must take these realities and handle them that way. Yeah, probably you're
right, it's fate. >> Ted Robbins: Do you think? I mean from here in your
answer, I get the sense that what you're saying
is there are circumstances and then there are what
we do with circumstances. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, there's
a certain leverage that you can do and while there's life,
there's hope. And this is something that the
society of the snow we used. Where there's life is
hope and maybe tomorrow. Though things don't make sense
in this everyday life and we are so powerful and we have the car and
see the CR condition is very bad and I believe that all this matter
realism makes us spiritually very poor. This is-- separate us from spiritual
life, all this material burden which we are immersed and we
cannot see the real lights. >> Ted Robbins: And you called
the group the society of the snow? >> Roberto Canessa: The
brothers of the Andes. >> Ted Robbins: The
brothers of the Andes. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah. But we got very contaminated,
you know. We came seeing what is
going to tell our society, what is going to tell the pope
and then oh guys, you're heroes. No, we are just dirty people
and no two months, no-- washing each other,
eating each other. No, no, you're heroes,
you're heroes. Yeah, do you think
so, we are heroes. Oh yeah, maybe we are
the heroes of the Andes. But that's better hero
than you are hero. No, no, we are all heroes. So it was completely contaminated
the story of us but the version of society, so I think
we just should keep pure when a man is fate
to death and to fate. And that real-- the tools of the Andes are the
things I want to transmit. What do you resource and
what you should learn in-- and the force of life is not
how you do things but why. The real force is why. When you have a reason for doing
something then you will find how to do it. >> Ted Robbins: Speaking of
how the world looks at this, so what do you think of the-- this
was originally made most famous by the book Alive and then the
movie that was made from it. What do you think of it? >> Roberto Canessa: At the
beginning, we're complaining because the book didn't
transmit what were there. And then we had to learn than a
book never transmits what happened. And then what is the reality,
when you thought you were there, what your friend thought
was happening there and then I realize this is
like the story of the Titanic that there are many windows to look
at it, there's a window version, there's an author version, there's--
there are the many ways of looking to this human experiment
behavior that was our tragedy. >> Ted Robbins: Did anything
pleased you about the book in movie or anything that made you
anything in particular or anything that make you particularly angry? >> Roberto Canessa: No, I think
that everything adds to the story and gives you a sight
of what happened. I would the say the Disney
film is like a documentary of the feelings we
had on the mountain. I would say that Piers Paul Read,
the book Alive is a documentary of what happened, of the narration
of what happened and besides that, every new book has the chances
of getting all the results of previous books, you know. It's like an upgrade. >> Ted Robbins: What--
you also have-- you also have a reunion every year. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah,
we have a gathering, the first one with the
girlfriends where we're like 32. And last year, we're 180 with
all the grandsons and everything so the society of Andes
procreated very happily. >> Ted Robbins: I was going to
ask you how things have changed, where you sort of told me over
the years, have things mellowed like in anything, your
attitudes toward what happened or is it still fresh in your mind. >> Roberto Canessa: Oh, I know that
your plane might crash any moment and then we should be more
thankful and that we receive from life are lots
more than what we need and we do lots less in what we can. And we don't know what
is really horrible. I mean for me, jail is
lot better than the Andes. While you're in jail, you
have water, you had food. And then there was-- telling that
the people in jail that they weren't that bad and that's something
I learn in the mountain. I mean we're struggling
there, having horrible time, we couldn't think that
we could be worst and then avalanche came
in and even more died. Then I learned that until you're
dead, you can always get worst but you can always get better. >> Ted Robbins: And then
you went into politics. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah. [ Laughter ] >> Ted Robbins: Porque? >> Roberto Canessa:
Well, because I said if-- I said there are known politicians, they are [inaudible] well I put my
being known person at the service of politics and see if we can get a
place in the senate and everything. So and the people were
complaining but why ask him to join. And they say, well, you
know, this is horrible. I'm a good friend of this
congressman and I cannot fail to-- so I think the people's
speech is really perverted. They say something but
they act in some way else. >> Ted Robbins: You're
talking about politician? >> Roberto Canessa: No,
no I'm talking about-- politicians are the
reflection of the voters. And we are the worst, the
voters and we blame them and then change the vote and then we
are just sitting seeing the match. Hey, why did you tackle him, why did
you kill the ball but it's different when you're in the field. And in that sense, and in politics,
I learned a lot, I learned a lot. >> Ted Robbins: You learned
a lot but you didn't stay on. You decided to stick
more with your-- >> Roberto Canessa: Well, I had one
of my greatest chances in my life because my wife said, if you
continue politics, I will divorce. So I had to choose then, then
you have to put lots of money in the campaign and people
are asking you for money to open a new club there
and it's a different world and thing from outside. >> Ted Robbins: You
know, I know we're-- we want to live a good
10 minutes for questions. Are we getting close or
we still get some time? Hmm? Oh, OK. So just a few more. All right. You-- one of things that-- so my experience reading the
book was I got really engrossed in the crash and the survival
and everything and then you sort of brought, like I said,
you broadened it out and wove everybody else together and
then by the time you sort of end up, you are trying to-- you say that
you-- that there are common threads and common moments in your life. Would you share some of those? >> Roberto Canessa: Yes. I think there's like a
titanium and steel link with the patients, you know. And a family you never saw
in your life and comes to you with a purest thing that
is a disease of their kids, and then you're on the boat
trying to give them home and to realize what's going on
and that's a link of knowing that some things are apparently
impossible, they are not. And that you can achieve results
and then you're struggling here with these kids and they begin to
succeed and to grow and to tell you that they-- that their mother
should put their faces in the book because the mother
to protect the kids, they would say I don't
want your face in your book and then their kids which is 12
years old, there's the mother, how couldn't I be in
Roberto's book, mommy. He saved my life. And then I get to learn
about these kids. And say, you know, mommy
doesn't let me read the book but I steal from her. And why do you like the book? This is a book for grownups. No Roberto, this book
teaches me to be brave. And then I find that
that was right-- a 12-year-old that got
six surgeries there in Boston [inaudible]
best one in the world. The doctor was saying we
must cross our fingers. And the mother was calling me, we
didn't come to cross the fingers, we come here to get the child cure. Well, I mean there are limits. Medicine is not magic. And then she comes around and
hugs me and it's delicious. It's great. I knew I was doing the right thing. >> Ted Robbins: You did the--
you interviewed the patients? >> Roberto Canessa: No, not at all. Pablo didn't allow me, he said, this is going to be very
sweet and very sticky. We don't want something like that
with something that is objective. >> Ted Robbins: So you
interviewed the patients? Ah, OK. And what about your wife
and your kids and your father, who interviewed them for the book. >> Roberto Canessa: Pablo. So and it's great because you know that your sons are your
principal detractors, you know. The other first ones and telling you
what you are not doing correctly. They will copy from you all
the defects, they won't copy that you wake up at 6 o'clock
in the morning until they need to do it because they have sons. So, and I think it was good. In that time my parents died, so we had the chance of
processing that part. And so this human experiment when
they do in the Andes guinea pig and in life then how children look
at him, then how your parents died. And I'm very proud of what Pablo
and I performed in this book. >> Ted Robbins: So you thin Pablo
got more of the truth out of your-- >> Roberto Canessa: History. >> Ted Robbins: History. >> Roberto Canessa: History. There are many truth-- >> Ted Robbins: Very good. Very good. >> Roberto Canessa:
Yeah, absolutely. >> Ted Robbins: There's a difference
between the truth and the fact. >> Roberto Canessa:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Ted Robbins: Yes. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, yeah. >> Ted Robbins: Anything
funny that-- because the moments of humor
in this situation seemed to be few and far between. >> Roberto Canessa: Well, there were
colds in the Andes, on the society of the snow that if you
have something sad to say, you wouldn't say it
and you would hook in to the dreams of other person. When we will go back,
will make a restaurant and we'll-- back with many things. Another thing is that irritation
and fighting each other is a cost, a price cost when you are
performing great things, successful things always
have friction. You must know that good sense
of humor consider a friction as an operative cost in life, these
are the great lessons in the-- from the mountain, don't look at the
mountain, look at your next step. If you look at the mountain,
you will be intimidated. I mean there are lots of things
and my favorite one is when I look to myself to the mirror and I
said the same jerk as always. Don't ever buy that you are
millimeter better than anyone. >> Ted Robbins: So,
it's times for questions but I have one last quick one. What food were you thinking of most? >> Roberto Canessa:
Sweet, sweet food. Dulce de leche is something which
in Uruguay and the discussion was-- it was dulce de leche ice cream
or dulce de leche by the spoon because the ice cream was better because you could feel the
ice cream falling in the side of your mouth as you have too much. That was a dream and I
use to dream that I was in a pastry sweetness there
and then I couldn't go in because there was a glass. I mean it's horrible, horrible. [ Laughter ] You go-- >> Good afternoon. Thank you so much for coming. Of the survivors of the crash,
in the end, 16 made it off. And one of the older ones,
much older was Javier Methol. And I was checking for
researchers trying to determine, is he still with us and are the
other 14 also all still with us and how many make their reunion? >> Roberto Canessa:
Javier died last year-- >> Oh I'm sorry. >> Roberto Canessa: -- of cancer. And there are still 15 alive. >> Thank you. >> Roberto Canessa: You're welcome. >> As we hear you talk about-- this wasn't an experience
that should be seen as heroism and your extract these
meanings out, I wonder though if the alternative were for you have
led a very safe and sanitized life in gated community or not experience
any adversity or challenge. Would that have made
you a different person? Are there gifts that came
out of the adversity, the shared experience that you had? >> Roberto Canessa: Yes, this tells
you that your plane might crash. I think there were some lessons. The price was too high to
pay to live in a graveyard for two months was terrible, but I
learned just not to get into crisis and not to get so stressed
when really, the circumstances are
not worthy for it, yeah. And to care for the
simple things of life that are most important
ones and we forget. I was missing my house,
the smells of my house, those are the most precious and we don't realize
them until we lose them. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very much for
the candid explanation on the strength shown back there. I have a question, when you are
actually initiating the trip across the Andes, the-- with the
three people, I think you mentioned that you get to the top of the
mountain and you saw on one side to the east side, the Argentina side
that you saw like a line that looked like a road, and but still you
decided to actually go across. What made you guys
decide to actually go through the other way rather
than the shorter way to the east. >> Roberto Canessa: Because to the
Argentinian side was uncertain. This was [inaudible] and we worry-- in the fuselage, there was a
mountain but as we climb higher, you could see the two roads there. And Nando said, Roberto,
we are not going to go back, this is very tough. And on the other hand,
it was more certain that in 60 kilometers,
there was a railroad. And we know this-- that the sun sets
to the west and to the west is Chile and that means a 100,000
steps and this is more certain than the other think which was
more vague and maybe there were-- there are desertic parts in
Mendoza and maybe we could get into this desert parts
and maybe not have water. There was the idea of taking
something very sure and instead of something that would look easier. >> Thanks. >> I have a question
about the pilot sir. Having 40 years, past 40 years
about-- from the accident, is it different in your opinion
that haven't done now what is now with them was-- because
it was a human mistake. I mean what is your vision nowadays? >> Roberto Canessa:
Well, the vision is that after we have the plane
crash, we went to the pilot to ask him where were we. And he said, we passed Curico. And if you look to Chile,
there was a huge mountain on that side, so he was wrong. So I learned that some time, very
specialized people make mistakes so that you shouldn't
follow them especially when they made a mistake before. This is what I learned that experts
sometimes cannot be so truthful. And then I met some of his
family and old people there and this was a terrible mistake and
there is association of mistakes that land to an accident. It's not only one thing. It's many things. >> Thank you sir. >> Roberto Canessa: You're welcome. >> I wanted to share something. I move to this country from
Chile when I was 7 years old. And I remember the front page of the
Washington Post with the accident. I was young but my uncle
was one of the doctors, he was doing his residency in San
Fernando and I brought a picture of Eduardo [inaudible] who went up
and took your vitals and so I've-- he's always-- he goes
to your reunions. And I see-- I haven't seen him in
three years but whenever I travel to Chile and I see the Andes, I
think of you, I wonder how you did that and it keeps me from trying
to complain too much about things but I also brought some
calugas from Chile. >> Roberto Canessa: Thank
you very much, thank you. [ Applause ] [ Foreign Language ] Thank you very much. >> Ted Robbins: Wonderful. >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah. >> Ted Robbins: Anybody else? Oh, I'm sorry. >> Yes. One of my favorite parts
of the book was when you spoke of or you wrote about
your father in the taxi and when he found out
you were alive. And I'm just wondering since
the publication of the book, has the identity of the taxi
driver ever come to fruition? Have you ever been able to figure
out who that taxi driver was? >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, it's
mystery and we never saw him before. Maybe, we should try and get him
or maybe he's not around anymore. I mean it's 44 years. But it's incredible the
story of that accident. >> Ted Robbins: Do
you want to explain? >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, yeah. When they went on the search, when C-47 which is a Second
World War plane and the plane-- one of the engines was always
stopping and nearly crashing, so my father was coming back to
Uruguay and they landed in Mendoza. And he took a bus to
go back to Buenos Aires and the bus broke [inaudible]
in Buenos Aires. And my father said, how
a man can be so unlucky. I don't find my son. It's going to be Christmas. He's going to be missing. My mother was telling he's alive,
he's alive, you should look for him, you should look for our son. I feel him alive. And I was telling mommy that you
believe in that trust of telepathy, I'm alive, look for me, look for me. And my father was coming
with his hands and tired. And on the morning in Buenos
Aires, he goes into a taxi. And the taxi driver
says, have you heard that there are survivors
from that plane crash? What do you mean? No, we are on the search. No, no, no, there are two
survivors in-- from the plane crash. But my son is there. Did you ever heard--
heard the names? What's the name of your son? He's one of them, he's one of them. Look at all the radios are
there and he puts on the radio and he hear there are
lots of survivor. He begins hugging and
kissing the taxi driver. And then he didn't want
to charge him the trip. And he went to my cousin's house
and nearly put down their door but he was in the wrong in apartment so he was pushing the
door of another person. Are you crazy? Yes, I'm crazy man,
I'm really crazy. My son is alive. >> Ted Robbins: And then he
realized and tried to go back and find the taxi driver and-- >> Roberto Canessa: Yeah, he
was-- he would like to see-- >> Ted Robbins: -- he
wanted to see-- yeah. That's the genesis of the story. We have two minutes left. Any other-- any other questions? What did-- you know,
people in extreme situations and you actually have chosen to
put yourself in extreme situations for other people by being
a surgeon, very often, they find meaning to go on. That is-- that's the usually the
common thread is those who go on and find meaning but what
meaning have you taken from this and what meaning did you
have that helped you go on and then helps you now? >> Roberto Canessa: Yes,
many people tell me, why? Why you go on that? And then I say, why not? Why not save this child? Why not get him alive and get
a real chance in survival. Isn't it life the best thing that
can happen to anyone and to a family that have a newborn child? So this is I think what it-- why we should commit our self into
really important things and forget about all the stupidity
that is around us, for sure. >> Ted Robbins: Thank you. >> Roberto Canessa:
Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.
