Macarena Quezada enjoys travelling almost as much as she loves food. She moves around as often as she can. As a new mom, she’s now waiting for her baby to be old enough to travel by her side. And yes, it’s Macarena like the song, but no, she’s not named after the song. It’s the name of the virgin in the south of Spain.
I was born in…..Santiago, Chile. I have spent most of my life in….Santiago, and now I live in….Singapore. I have also lived in the US and Spain. My favourite local film is….Kiltro. It’s a very low budget action movie about street gangs in Santiago. There are a lot of references to Robert Rodriguez, and Asian films of the 80s where the hero follows a quest to find himself. Not a movie, but a must-see from Chile is Sábados Gigantes, the longest-running TV show in the world, according to the Guiness Book of Records. Don Francisco is the host and the variety show is still the same as it’s always been. I like watching a section where people form the public sing and there is a guy with a black ghost costume and a trumpet who decides whether the singer wins money or not. It’s been on the air since 1962. My favourite books or novels from my country are….Diamela Eltit has a very interesting voice and I enjoy her books very much. Everyone loves Pablo Neruda, but I must say I prefer Gabriela Mistral, a very strong woman, with bad luck in love, who also won the Nobel Prize and has very strong poems. “Death Sonnets” has always been my favorite poem, and it reminds me of my grandmother who used to recite her work during my bedtime. When I need a reminder of home, I listen to…..Juana Fe. Please google them. My favourite time of the year is….December. My birthday, my daughter’s birthday, Christmas, summertime, new year at the beach, pool parties and lots of barbeques. And Christmas cookies. My all time local hero is…..Condorito. You don’t get more Chilean than Condorito, a cartoon who has been in my life since I can remember. My favourite local word is…..“po”. Every phrase ends with this word, and it sounds so funny. For example: “Hello, po”, “how have you been, po”, “long time no see, po”, get the idea? You will always know someone is from Chile because of it… What I love most about Chile is….the geography (deserts, forests, mountains, beaches, fiords…) and the variety of the food. Seafood, pisco sour, wine, empanadas…Oh, so many things!