This is a story of a young North American girl who grew up in the carefully planned, isolated, and socially regulated life of the American Braden Copper Company towns in Chile from 1955 – 1970.
This inspirational narrative, written through the eyes of a child, is at times playful and thoughtful, navigating cultural and political circumstances in a developing country. It reflects a deeply felt love of a land and its people, and not understanding what it all meant to be a foreigner on borrowed land. It is a first love story and a coming-of-age story that takes place at the wrong time and place in history.
An idyllic childhood ended suddenly due to political sea changes and was followed by being sent “home” to a country that was barely known and definitely not “home”. The story navigates the complex identities of being part Chilean, part American, and part the Daughter of Copper, longing for a place that no longer exists, one that was intentionally erased.
Today, these memories remain very real in the hearts of those who lived the shared experience of growing up on borrowed land, the children of copper whose lives were forever shaped by the Braden Copper Company and its “camps” and compounds of Sewell, Caletones, Coya and Rancagua, Chile.
The book is well researched and documented and provides a history of the Braden Copper Company in Chile and its unique impact on the lives of those who were part of this “copper” society, yet were forever foreigners living on borrowed land.
Susan Bayless Herrera