The Last Superhero (by Felipe)

What attributes a Chilean superhero should have? To be honest I don’t know. In fact, I don`t know any Chilean superhero. Since I grew up watching comics and cartoons about Ironman, Green Lantern, Spiderman, Batman and Superman, among others, every superhero I`ve known is an American one. This could be the reason why if I am asked to make up a Chilean superhero I probably put in him the same characteristic than an American one has. So, I decided to tackle the problem from a different angle: I thought of what attributes would be desirable, according to my opinion, for a great Chilean guy instead of attributes for a superhero.

The most appealing way to describe this “great guy” is explaining the photomontage I made about him. Looking at it the first thing you will notice is that it is divided in halves. The left half represents my country. Chile is a mountainous country and its flag’s colors are red, blue and white. These are the reasons why a red sunset over a mountain landscape with a blue sky and few white clouds are depicted on the left half. In this half also can be appreciated a painting frame where there are two people who are supposed to be common Chilean people staring and commenting this great guy who is in the right half. There are two facts worth of noticing about these two people on the right side. First they are painted black and white and second they are men. The fact that these two guys are painted using black and white helps to reassert they are common people. They do not stand out; they are just there for admiring and envying the man at the right side. In the other hand, the facts that they are men and that they show envy mean that they want to be like this “super cool guy”.

Now, let’s talk about the right half. In this part of the photomontage a black background highlights a scene where a man is receiving a bunch of attributes from a mysterious lady’s hand, perhaps the fortune. This hand is giving the man characteristics that make him worth of envy. Every characteristic is represented by an object (or a group of them) over the man. They were not placed over the man’s head randomly; they were placed according to their importance. The closer to the man, the more important the characteristic is. The closest objects to the man’s head are two electric bulbs which represent intelligence, the most important attribute. An admirable man must be intelligent, not as an encyclopedia which knows everything, but clever enough to be capable of overcome any trouble by logical thinking. Since I have a scientific background I’ve always admired people, mostly scientific ones, capable of developing theories innovating in their fields to explain natural phenomena.

As a second place in the scale of importance are passion and courage. In the photomontage they are represented by a red heart next to the men’s head. Although they are in second place they are as important as intelligence is, because intelligence is not god enough if a man lacks courage and passion. I consider these two attributes a motor for living, because they provide spirit and motivation to move on. After working for four years and knowing many people during that time I could say that life could be quite boring and routine if there is no passion in it. Even though they are not easy to achieve, having motivation in your routine and being constantly interested on your activity are the keys for making your life fun.

Now, further to the man there are other objects symbolizing other desirable attributes. Among this objects a red wing and a Harley Davidson insignia could be noticed next to the green electric bulb. These two objects symbolize a free spirit which leads to this man to accomplish his goals and dreams no matter how unreachable they can seem. Finally, there is another group formed by an electric guitar, cell phone, stylish sneakers, Ford and Levis insignias which represent style. In Chilean culture, as in many other cultures, being stylish and having a unique personality is appealing. It is hard to measure how stylish a person is or how unique a personality is, so people tend to judge by the appearance. That’s why material objects were chosen to represent personality in a shallow way.