Carmen Posadas reveals with the author of The Snow Society how a plane accident ruined their honeymoon

A little more than half a century has passed since the accident in the Andes, which occurred in October 1972. The plane was carrying 45 people, including several members of the Uruguayan Old Christians Club rugby team, some family members and friends. After 72 long days, only 16 people survived. The film by José Antonio Bayona, winner of 12 Goyas and with two Oscar nominations, it has recovered the relevance of the tragedy: 150 million viewers around the world have seen the film. Pablo Vierci, author of the novel on which the film is based, was in Madrid this Tuesday. The Uruguayan writer, journalist and screenwriter was a schoolmate of the survivors and began writing “The snow society” (Alrevés publishing house) in 1973. The writer Carmen Posadas (Montevideo), Planeta Prize winner among many other recognitions, spoke with Vierci about this story.

The Uruguayan was 19 years old and had said “I do” in Moscow a day before the plane crash, but she was already in London with her husband when she learned that several young compatriots of the same age had disappeared. Coincidentally, on the same day as the Andes catastrophe, another plane crashed in Russia, and the writer feared that her relatives had died after going to her liaison. October 13, 1972 has been marked in history as the terrible day on which Flight 571 of the Uruguayan Air Force hit the Valley of Tears in the Andes mountain range, a tragedy in which only 16 of them survived. the 45 passengers who were flying.

Just one day before the accident, that October 12, more than twelve thousand kilometers away, specifically in Moscow, chance would have it that another Uruguayan, the writer Carmen Posadas, was preparing for a very special day, her wedding. Carmen, who is now 70 years old, had lived in the city of Red Square for years, since her father, a diplomat, was stationed in the Russian capital. A young Carmen, only 19 years old (curiously, the same age as several of the young people traveling on the Andes plane), said “I do” to her first husband. Rafael Ruiz del Cuetoand the next day the young couple headed to London to enjoy their honeymoon.

“I turned on the television and saw a news story saying that a plane going from Moscow to Stalingrad had gone down.”

But it was not as romantic as they expected: “When I was already in London I turned on the television and saw a news story saying that a plane going from Moscow to Stalingrad had gone down, and I said: “My family, everyone was going to go to Stalingrad after my wedding!” I called home like crazy and they told me that luckily they were fine, but that that same October 13th another tragedy had happened, that the plane had crashed in the Andes. I couldn't believe it. So “That story has remained in my memory forever,” said the writer this Tuesday, February 13, at the presentation in Madrid of the book “The Snow Society”, by Pablo Vierci, whose colloquium she moderated.

The winner of the Planeta Prize in 1998 and her first husband, Rafael, had two daughters, Sofía and Jimena, but the plane tragedy that marred their honeymoon ended up also extending to their marriage, and they divorced eleven years later. In 1988 Carmen remarried, this time to Mariano Rubio, who died in 1999.