[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ next_background_color=”#ffffff” _builder_version=”3.23.3″ background_image=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matias-Riroroko-2.jpg” custom_padding=”750px||0px|||” bottom_divider_style=”wave2″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|||||” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#a30d0d” header_font_size=”45px”]
Matias Riroroko Pakomio
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″ custom_padding=”0px||0px|||”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|||||” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”15px”]Matías Riroroko, 75 years old, son of María Pakomio-Pakomio and raised by Benedicto Riroroko-Tuki as his son, is an entrepreneur who has worked in tourism, gastronomy, construction and other areas, eventually becoming the owner of the Hotel Iorana and other businesses in Chile and other countries. Today he offers us his testimony of the past on Rapa Nui.
“Life was not like it is today. It used to be very precarious and difficult. Children and adults had to work just to eat, but we were survivors. From the time that I was little, I had to help on the farm to plow, sow and harvest. Sometimes I was able to run away to surf, but that was my only entertainment. I only went to school until third grade. In spite of the fact that I didn’t want to, my father took me out of school when the boat accident of the school children happened at Anakena. He preferred to take me to work with him. In 1953, the Chilean government rescinded the lease of the sheep company Williamson &Balfour and the Navy took over the administration of the Island. From that time on, some of the children could go to the continent to study. They were given this preference because their fathers were overseers. In spite of it all, I have to recognize that, thanks to the hard life that we had, I learned responsibility and respect from my parents. Unfortunately, today the families don’t work like that here on the Island. The parents don’t have time to teach their children. Now the young people run around alone and have access to alcohol and drugs.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.23.3″][bsa_pro_ad_space id=3][/et_pb_code][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″ width=”100%”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/4-2.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/7-1.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/5.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/6-2.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″ background_color=”#ffeeb0″ custom_padding=”||0px|||”][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”15px”]I got married when I was 17 years old, just an adolescent. My wife, Valeria Hey, is 3 years older. I recognize that I broke my back working. First, I went to work in a construction and then got on as a cook at the school making bread with Victor Riroroko. After our second daughter was born, I went to the continent for a year to work in the Military Hospital, but I earned very little and decided to return. In 1964, the American Navy men arrived, along with the Chilean firm Longhi to build the airport.We worked from six in the morning until 12 at night. And then we really earned money and I could fulfill my great dream to build us a house with a bathroom and linoleum floor. With my parents, we had lived very poorly. It was a pae-pae (a shack), a little stone house with a thatch roof and cement floor. It was a great sacrifice, but I was happy. Then I went into business with a Chilean to establish a movie theater. We built a barn and brought films. We called it the Noere (Noel – Christmas) and it was full every day, but it wasn’t a good business.
Finally, I was hired for the construction of the Hotel Hanga Roa of the National Hotels (HONSA), which was a division of the governmental Corporation for Development and Production (CORFO). The CORFO made a deal with the owners of the property, the Hitorangi family: the land in exchange for building them a solid house of 60 square meters (645 square feet). In 1981, the HONSA sold the hotel to its Chilean administrator, Hugo Salas-Román. That happened two years after the military government published Law Nbr. 2885 which prohibited the sale of land to people not of the ethnic group or who were not classified in some situation that the legislation could permit. To my way of thinking, that was a grave error on the part of the Chilean government. Now we have the Hitorangi family placing black flags on the shore in front of the hotel, since they consider that the original exchange was just a concession.
With my work in the hotel, I made money again and built a discotheque called Toroko, where in late 1973, we formed a musical group, Taina Vaikava. I was doing well. I was one of the first Rapanui to have a vehicle and also got a plot of land on the main street, Hotu Matu’a, and set up a restaurant which I called Iorana. Shortly thereafter, I built the hotel with the same name, which we inaugurated in 1985.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.23.3″][bsa_pro_ad_space id=2][/et_pb_code][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”15px”]I recall that, in the construction of the hotel, I hired Santiago Tepano and Alberto Atan and, while I was away in Santiago, they illegally hung some wires on the electric system to run the cement mixer. So on my return, the police took me to jail for it. I’ve had , much to my regret, to pass through the jail several times. When I was 13 or 14, I went to a party with Juan Hey and we went home walking. We got stopped by some soldiers who accused us of abusing the daughter of a sergeant and took us prisoners. Really, I always felt that we were living in a jail because the government had us under quarantine because of the Hansen’s disease (leprosy) that had come from Tahiti in 1888. We couldn’t leave the Island without authorization. For me, it was the same as being in Cuba. Many people escaped in boats in the ocean.
Since the rebellion of the school teacher Alfonso Rapu in 1964, I got interested in Island politics. Alfonso, after returning from his studies on the continent, wrote a letter to the Chilean President, Eduardo Frei-Montalva, in the name of the Island community, requesting that the Islanders receive the same civil rights as the inhabitants of the continent. Thanks to him, this was achieved and the government began to fulfill the Agreement of Wills that was supposed to give us protection, health care, education and economic development.
In the present day, there has been enormous development, but there has also been great damage. From 1968, this development sowed up from one day to the next and we all jumped in. In those days, the koros (the adults) were content, but nobody took into account the consequences for the Rapanui traditions. Bit by bit, we’ve been losing the language, the customs and the traditions. It’s been a gradual process due to the mixed marriages since the arrival of a large number of Chilean government workers, of construction workers who stay one or two years until their work is done and of numerous visitors who have stayed to live on the Island.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1-2.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/8.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_fullwidth_image src=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/casa.jpg” _builder_version=”3.23.3″][/et_pb_fullwidth_image][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″ background_image=”https://moevarua.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1-3.jpg” background_position=”bottom_center” custom_padding=”||561px|||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”15px”]Two years ago, during the latest take-over of the National Park when we were trying to get autonomous administration of the Park, even though I was in Peru, I helped out donating barrels of gas, food and whatever they needed. On my return, they asked me to meet with the Committee for Development of Easter Island in my hotel to resolve the issue of who should handle the money from the Park entry fees. There were two groups at logger-heads over this ; the group which had taken over the Park and wanted independence called “Parlamento” (Parliament) and two representatives of the Honui which is today the Council of Rapa Nui Families. I proposed that the first group deposit the funds in a bank account. Then Mario Tuki and Petero Chavez asked my wife to keep it in the meanwhile. That day I took a plane to Santiago for a meeting with some Americans and I was arrested for “fraud” and taken to the jail with the criminals. The very next day I was brought back to the Island and held for another month. What an embarrassment! I brought 5 lawyers from the USA to resolve this problem. At the same time, we held seminars to make the Chilean government aware of our rights. My dream is that one day the Island will be autonomously administered.
Valeria Hey, Matias wife, adds the comment that the money that was being disputed had already been returned, with a receipt signed, to Petero Chavez, who then distributed it among the Islanders responsible for taking over the Park.
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