Disasters, memories and well-being of the place in Dichato, Chile

In this article, we provide contributions to understand the impact of natural or anthropic disasters, like earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism, and so on, caused by the effects of natural disasters or human actions over people. Our objective is to understand the impact of the 8.8 degrees earthquake and tsunami of February 27th, 2010, in Dichato, in the south coast of Chile. The interest is to generate knowledge about the effects of traumatic events in the well-being of the people who live in that place. The social and health sciences need to integrate other methods inn their research, in order to study the impact of traumatic events on the well-being of people. We worked with surviving inhabitants that told us about their lives in that place and their life stories. In these accounts, there was some remembrances and emotional superpositions between the traumatic experiences of the earthquake and the tsunami, and the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet from 1973-1990 in Chile, considered as a similar disastrous event in their lives. The results expand the understanding about disasters, beyond its material, individual or short-term scope. We conclude that the socio-historical emotional impact, social suffering and well-being of the place are aspects that should be considered in the face of transformations and changes in the place of living, knowing and understanding the collective responses that can emerge.