By Night in Chile

By Night in Chile Glossary

Apollonian

The Apollonian tendency is a philosophical term used to describe wholeness, light, and civilization. It's opposite is Dionysian.

Bacchus

Bacchus is the Roman god of intoxication and and wine.

Basque

The Basque country is an area of Europe in the northern part of Spain and Southern part of France.

cabriolet

A cabriolet is a light, two-wheeled carriage drawn by a single horse.

cassock

The cassock, an item of clerical clothing, is a long, close-fitting, ankle-length robe worn by clerics of the Roman Catholic Church.

Castro

Castro is the communist leader of Cuba.

Christian Democrat

A Christian Democrat was a member of the Christian Democratic party in Chile in the early twentieth century. This was an early Chilean attempt at democracy, though it was largely based on oppression of the poor and was revolted against by socialists.

Communism

Communism is a theory of government in which all power resides with the working class and everyone is given equal pay and services.

confession

Confession is the Catholic sacrament of telling your sins to a priest in order to be forgiven.

Dionysian

Dionysian is a philosophical term used to describe individualism, darkness, and primal nature. It's opposite is Apollonian.

falconry

Falconry is the art of training birds of prey to hunt and kill wildlife.

Gestapo

The Gestapo was Adolph Hitler's secret police force in the Nazi regime of Germany.

junta

A junta is a government made up of a military committee.

layman

A layman is a member of a church who is not a priest or clergy.

Le Figaro

Le Figaro is a French newspaper.

Lenin

Lenin was the leader of Communist Russia in the early twentieth century.

magical realism

Magical realism is a literary form which combines the inner thoughts of characters as well as the mythological tales of certain cultures intersected with the real, scientific present. This was an especially popular genre in South America during the last half of the twentieth century.

Marx and Engels

Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels were two philosophers of the nineteenth century who wrote of communism and were responsible for the intellectual foundations of that movement.

Opus Dei

Opus Dei is an order of Catholic laypersons and priests. They have been linked to several conspiracy theories including the support of the Franco dictatorship in Spain.

peasants' bread

Peasants' bread is a hard loaf of bread baked with common flour and ingredients.

Realism

Realism is a school of thought that focuses on the real, tangible results of a situation as measured by statistics with little regard for the moral outcomes; in literature a style that focuses on the political over the allegorical

seminary

A seminary is a professional school for the training of ministers and priests.

Sepulchre

A sepulchre is a type of tomb or burial chamber.

Socialism

Socialism is a theory of government in which a centralized governmental power provides many of the basic services for the people.

Stalin

Stalin was leader of Communist Russia in the middle of the twentieth century. He was responsible for a brutal dictatorship and the killings of millions of his people.

surrealism

Surrealism is a style of art popular in the early twentieth century. It's most famous artist is Salvador Dali.

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