CHS Students Rescued from Chilean Mine

B.T. Dubbs

The Spanish Department’s annual trip to Chile usually involves a few games of fútbol, a churro tasting and a Chilean mariachi band, but a jalapeño mine in the quaint village of Concepción, Chile collapsed, trapping this year’s unlucky group of “Spanish-speakers.”

“Soy de Carlsbad. Me llamo Daniel,” Spanish 2 Freshman Daniel Levin (Spanish name: Nacho) said. “El gato le gusta la pizza.”

Profe Feaster, who attended this year’s trip although no longer teaching, required all students to speak Spanish while trapped in the mine and during news coverage. Unfortunately, most students were not adept in speaking Spanish despite their quality CHS education.

“Yo...Yo...Yo...no me gusta Chile. ¿Dónde estån mis pantalones?” Freshman Mark Huckaby (Spanish name: Joaquín) said.

Suspected reasons for the unfortunate collapse of the jalapeño mine varied. Students mostly blamed the faulty Chilean construction regulations. Profe Feaster had her own idea as to why the mine collapsed.

“I told my students that Karma would find them. Several students did not finish their diarios on time,” Profe Feaster said. “Karma found them and got all of us.”

A lack of communication in the mine tore the group apart. As the students struggled to use their limited linguistic skills, local Chilean citizens tried to help. Even though the locals could speak English perfectly well, the CHS students refrained from using their native tongue.

“I attempted to communicate with the American youth in the easiest way possible,” Chilean citizen Juan Pablo Ramirez said. “I speak English, quite eloquently if I may say. Unfortunately, they only articulated things in broken Spanglish. It took me a few hours to understand that they were even trapped in the mine. I thought they were trying to tell me their cat enjoys pizza or something. Others just kept on telling me what their name and age was in Spanish.”

The Chilean government rescued the CHS students after 9 days. The students survived off jalepeños and the company of each other.

“I used this opportunidad para woo mi crush. I used the pick-up line, ‘Sus labios son como un río de amor y tengo sed,’” Levin said. “It’s uno of the few things in Spanish that I have encontrado mucho useful-o.”

Love was in the musty, jalapeño-filled air. Levin currently dates his Hispanic crush, Heralda. Struggles in the mine sparked steamy love interests, fights and quality bonding time. The present dangers experienced on this year’s trip resulted in an uproar of opposition to all future trips.