99% Invisible - 99% Invisible-73- The Zanzibar and Other Building Poems

Episode Date: February 18, 2013

There comes a time in the life of a modern city where it begins to grow up–literally. Santiago, the capital of Chile, has been going through a tremendous growth spurt since its economic boom of the mid 1990s. It happened … Continue reading →

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. There comes a time in the life of a modern city, where it begins to grow up. Literally, ever since bridge frames were upended into soaring towers, and elevators were equipped with reliable safety breaks, if there are a lot of people in one place, it just makes sense for us to stack ourselves on top of each other. Santiago, the capital of Chile, has been going through a tremendous growth spurt since its economic boom of the mid-1990s. It happened fast. In just a few years, single-family homes all over the city were replaced with high rises. It's Daniel Arcon. He's an award-winning author and host of Radio Amelante.

I have a friend in Santiago named Rodrigo Rojas. Well, hello, my name is Rodrigo. Rodrigo played a small part in Santiago's upward mobility, which wouldn't be that remarkable if he were an engineer or a real estate developer or an architect or something like that, but he isn't. Rodrigo Rojas is a poet. And I'm a literary professor, a right poetry. So the thing about Chile is that everyone is a poet. And I'm a literary professor, a right poetry. So the thing about Chile is that everyone is a poet. I don't know if you've read Bologna,

but it's like poets are Chile's superheroes. So do you write any poetry? No, man, I'm Peruvian. This is the story of how Rojas' poetry altered the physical shape of Santiago's rapidly changing skyline. This is how it worked. A developer bought an old house, tore it down, had an architect drop plans for a high rise,

and then Rodrigo stepped in. And my job consisted on a very simple thing. I had to give a name to the building. He worked early in the mornings, and his job was like this. He had to get into people's heads. I had to walk around a lot, know the different neighborhoods, and see what characteristics that neighborhood had, and what characteristics would the people who could buy those apartments

would be looking for in that neighborhood. So people aspired to be something else. They wanted to have a better life. So they had a dream. And I had to walk around the neighborhoods thinking about what kind of dream that person was looking for. And I had to devise a name for that dream. A Drigo worked for a public relations firm. It's one of ten or so in Santiago that we're doing this kind of thing. As far as I know, no other firm had a poet on staff.

Rodrigo was in school at the time working three jobs to support himself and his family. And in the course of a little over a year, he named more than 40 buildings all over the capital. Basically, dozens of little poems he wrote are now embedded into the design of his city. Well, to be honest, I wouldn't confess this in Spanish. You see, I don't feel quite proud, although you might consider it as you suggest my first publications. Very short poems.

But I think, no, now I'm listening to myself, as I speak. I think it is a story that should be told, because it's a story of dreams of people. Proud or not, he wrote hundreds of building-name poems. He conjured the names from myths, from history, from literature, and he even did some field research. One time, he had the name of few buildings going up near Santiago's Polo Club, but there was a catch. He couldn't use the words polo or club.

So he snuck into a party there to look for just the right name. The first thing that I learned is that you don't dress up for polo because if you dress up, you're just trying too hard. But of course, coming up with names was just half the job. The other half was negotiating with developers. I would choose the best ten and given a speech of what characteristics or what kind of dreams were behind

each of these ten names and they would, I know, they would yon. Until he said their own name. They say, well, and it can also be called Don Jorge. So, wow, that's great. So, yeah, not poetry that will win awards, necessarily. But like all good poetry, some of his work could be transformative. There's this one neighborhood, Eliano, that's particularly cold and humid. Thanks to Rodrigo, it now has buildings that make it seem almost tropical. He imagined that to forget the weather, residents might sit on their balconies,

staring at the slate-gray sky and dream of beaches. So for names. Cancun uno, cancun dos, cancun tres, cancun cuadro. The fifth one, I couldn't pull it off. And the developers were so excited about this. They bought palm trees and planted them in front of the building. I take it, there aren't huge groves of palm trees in Santiago. No, there are not.

It's not a natural thing to have palm trees. In Santiago, we have a Mediterranean climate who are not a Caribbean country. Still, the cancunns were some of the first buildings in the area and they sold really well. So the other developers followed suit. So there's a whole neighborhood with names of islands and beaches. It looks like Hawaii or something like that.

He learned to read the tastes of his clients. The meetings were usually in the office of the developer, which gave me a lot of information of what he wanted to be seen as in society. One time he went to a developer's office that was just lousy with Greek columns. Very tacky. Lots of imitation of marble and everything had a Greek column, even like Greek columns in order to get to the bathroom. So when they sat down to talk names, Rodrigo abandoned all the research he had done going

in. And he said, how would you like the building called Athena's? That's Athens. Oh yes. Sparta. Oh yes. Even there's a building called Olympiolas. Everything is in Greek sound again. And he said, oh you, you're so creative. How do you come up with this?

I've been working on this for a long time. It was so creative. How do you come up with this? Never. No, I've been working on this for a long time. It was so funny. Rodrigo even fabricated whole stories in the service of building and identity. He came up with one story about a ship called the San Sibar. The Zanzibar, no. San Sibar was a ship built along with the Titanic, but was slightly smaller. But the San Sibar never sank.

Never had an accident, survived to wars and it was always known as a discreet but very luxurious life. And they really liked that, it all sounds so elegant. It worked so well, he used it again and again and again. He actually can't even remember how many times he used the same trick. Yeah, I can't remember at this time, I think I made up Sancébère. I made up Normandie, which is a French name. I say, well, this was the competition of the Titanic. It's always the same story. It's a ship built with the Titanic and it survives.

And the thing that when you mix luxury with survival of tragedies, that's very important for Chile because that's the search of status and the survival of earthquakes. And if a developer rubbed him the wrong way, he'd sneak in a joke. There's a building in Santiago named Infantes de Carrón, which sounds nice, even noble. Infantes means children of kings in Spanish. And Carrón has the carrion, which sounds nice, even noble. Infantist means children of kings in Spanish. And carrion has the double r, which gives it a prestige.

Sure it does. And let's you know that the Infantist carrion are villains in El Mio's Sid, one of the most famous epic poems in the Spanish language. And these are not just any villains. They were real bastards, they raped a girl in the book. So it's not really something that you would be proud of, but the developer. He really liked it. And in that session, he wasn't accepting any single name. And I was angry and I said, okay, you might as well call it, losing fantas, the career

and I said, yes, that's what I want. So there is a building named after these rapists. Name after some rapists. Yeah, some rapists. But yeah, though, literally rapists. But when he wasn't tricking his clients, Rodrigo was interpreting dreams. And that's important because he was naming buildings

that hadn't been built yet. There were nothing but drawings on a piece of paper. Choosing the name was the last step before the brochures could be printed up. And those brochures were what the buyers took to the bank when they asked for a loan. If enough apartments were sold, the building went up. If not, the project was abandoned.

And the entire city was remade this way. Families taking a chance on imaginary buildings with made up names. The same process repeated thousands of times in hundreds of neighborhoods, husbands and wives, looking at a picture, reading a poem, and taking a chance. And Rodrigo did the same thing.

He lives in one of these buildings now. Although, unfortunately, the name of his building was decidedly lacking in imagination. He owns an apartment on Cayet, Chile, España, in the district of Núñoa, in a building called. It was called Chile, España. So I bought a redundant building. But so what if it's redundant? It's a name, and names are how the anonymity of a place is dulled.

It's how we push back. Every building has the name exhibited usually in bronze. And if it has a concert, they shine it every day. No one says I live in that rectangle of port concrete over there. No, they say things like I live in Cancun Quatro, I live in Don Jorge. I live in the San Sibar named after a ship as luxurious as the Titanic. And no, you've never heard of it because it never sank. 99% Invisible was produced this week by Daniel Alocón from Maradio Ambulante with Sam Green

Span and me Roman Mars. It's a project of 91.7, local public radio, KALW in San Francisco, and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. You can find the show and like the show on Facebook. I tweet at Roman Mars, but right now we have links to Radio Ambalante, which builds itself as this American life in Spanish. There's a couple stories in English, but mainly it's in Spanish. So if you speak Spanish, you are in luck, my friend. And if you don't speak Spanish, I bet this is not the first time that you are filled with regret about the choices you've made in your life.

If I don't more at 99%invisible.org Find out more at 99%invisible.org.