Carlos Páez Vilaró was born in 1923 in Montevideo, Uruguay. A renowned Uruguayan murallist/painter/sculptor, his art has been primarily driven by the complexity of African culture and by the influences of his Latin American roots. He has led a fascinating life - roaming all parts of Africa and the world in general, meeting politicians, befriending Brigitte Bardot, presenting a movie at Cannes Festival, nearly getting killed several times during his travels...no, truly, very few can claim that they have Lived like he has.
What Mr Vilaró could probably never have fathomed though are the following:
Firstly that one of his sons, Carlitos Páez Vilaró, would be one of the 16 survivors of the infamous Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in 1972.
Remember that movie with Ethan Hawke, Alive? It tells the story of those who spent 72 days fighting for survival in the Andes. It's an incredible tale of courage and a gruesome account of cannibalism, death and desperation.
To what extent can a human being go to to fight for life? It seems that these days, we have become more and more interested by the question of survival. Because mother nature has been fucking the world royally over? Does that make us more responsive to stories of miraculous endurance? There's that movie 127 hours and more coming, articles about the man who survived two tsunamis, war horror accounts...
At the end of the day, how much willpower does it take for one to keep on fighting in the most extreme conditions?
"In fact, our survival had become a matter of national pride. Our ordeal was being celebrated as a glorious adventure… I didn't know how to explain to them that there was no glory in those mountains. It was all ugliness and fear and desperation, and the obscenity of watching so many innocent people die." - Nando Parrado, Miracle of the Andes
And are we going to far sometimes in celebrating those victories over death?
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