PinkLetter - The day I almost met a Chilean television star

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My Ramblings This Week

What story from your past describes you?

Back in 2013, I made a decision that changed my life: I accepted a scholarship to study at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

As soon as I landed in Santiago, I realized my basic Spanish was useless. It turns out, they don’t really speak Spanish in Chile, they speak Chilean. It’s not a different language, but countless Spaniards got lost with their Castilian Spanish.

I really wanted to get to know the people and their culture, and I couldn’t do it without learning Chilean and its funky words and variations. So I jumped in.

I had my fuckups. I was too young to know that vulgar language can be more dangerous than fun. That’s how I got slapped by calling somebody weona.

But I also rocked it. When traveling across South America, people thought I was from Chile—it made me so proud. Also, folks started calling me Benni.

I discovered there’s a famous Italian emigrant, whose name is Gabriele Benni and speaks Chilean with an exaggerated Italian accent.

I don’t know why it took me so long, but after a few months of being Benni-ed by people, I wrote an email to him:

Hi Benni!

I’m an Italian exchange student in Santiago. It’s been one year since I started exploring Chile and its culture. Obviously, my Chilenization process went through “Benni”: since I discovered you on Youtube, I turned into a whole weón.

Since then, all the people I met traveling across Chile have been imploring me to sing “Enchufa.” And I’ll never forget a girl that I met in San Pedro who, after a five-minute conversation, said: “Chao Benni.” Like that!

Unfortunately, in a few weeks I’ll be back in Italy, however, Chile has been a wonderful experience and I’ll always keep with me a Benni to remind me how this journey of one year away from home changed my life.

I only made a promise to myself: not to leave the country without having you tell me I’m a weón in person.

What do you say, want to grab a coffee?

Greetings and thank you for teaching me how to speak like a Chilean, Riccardo

As expected, I didn’t get any answers back. Sure, we are not talking about Tom Cruise, but he’s television material.

A few weeks later, I had completely forgotten about the email and, while I was doing the research that brought me to Poland for an internship eventually, I received this email:

Riccardo how are you? You have to excuse me but I just read your email. A lot of people write to me and I never have the time to read and respond.

If you are still in Chile call me to meet, it would be a big pleasure.

A hug Benni

Wow, what a bummer! Not only he wanted to meet, but he also sent me his phone number.

Unfortunately, it was a few thousand kilometers late, but I’m grateful for life to Benni. And the tears running down my cheeks are a testament to that.

I’m even more grateful to Chile and its people. You really changed my life.

¡Viva Chile!

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Riccardo: A bit hardcore but it helped me understand Haskell and TypeScript better.