I: An analytic and even philosophic mind like yours doesn’t lack resources to think. In a moment, you and Roberto Canessa had to confront a problem and the ambivalence for having to go on a journey without having anything assured. How did this resolve and how did you decide to leave anger behind and go on it?
F: When we heard that on the radio the guillotine feel and we were killed. We didn’t have food, drinks, we were in extreme conditions, 4000 meters high, at -30 degrees Celsius. We didn’t have anything. It was a safe death. I said to myself “I’m not going to die here, it will be horrendous. I’ll die when I can’t stand any more of this, with my head against the snow”.
I: How did this event relate to your relationship with people?
F: Love is the most important thing in life. In every hug my daughters give me I feel like they thank me for being alive “thanks to you I can be here, petting my dog, living my life”. It has helped me appreciate the people I love and the people who love me.
I: It must have taken years of therapy for all of you to overcome this.
F: None of the 16 went to therapy, although our families wanted us to go. Once, in a barbecue at Gustavo Zerbino’s house we all talked and he said “If I ever need help I call you. Who will ever help us without knowing anything? There will be that psychiatrist that will say ‘I helped a survivor from the Andes plane crash to adapt back to society’, but there’s nothing to adapt to”. That’s how I’ve always felt. We don’t need to adapt back to anything.
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