Miguel and José Ballester Soriano married two sisters Juana Hilda Laferte Chávez and Luz Marina Lafertt Chávez (a typographical error in the first surname that passed to the children). My aunt Marina and her eldest daughter came to Spain at the beginning of the 60s, to meet my uncles’ parents and the rest of the family. They were 5 brothers, 2 died, two were exiled and these two brothers, when their parents died, inivited the other brother to go to Chile and see each other. On the trip he met Nino Bravo, I think that when he came to Chile, he talked more about it than about his brothers and nephews.
Three years ago I found out that they traveled in the Winnipeg (I got in touch with Jaime Cardona Jasenwirth and he gave me a lot of information about my uncles, today Ana Calero San Martín has contacted me, both descendants of the Winnipeg passengers), in addition I had hearded the name of Pablo Neruda in my house. Miguel and José Ballester Soriano were my mother’s first cousins and the relationship with their parents was always very close. Their mother and my grandmother were sisters but even though they had two more brothers, my great aunt always leaned on my grandmother, she would bring up the letters the family sent so that my sister could read them to her and answer them.
They sent pictures every year, I do not remember them because I was very young, and apparently my mother and her brother also sent photos of us, because when my uncle José came to Chile, out of all the cousins, he could only recognized my mother and his brother. My uncle José and his wife lived two years here in Chile and with the Pinochet’s dictatorship, he had to leave Chile to East Germany, however, his children, brothers and nephews stayed. A friend got them a job in Venezuela and they travelled there. He said: “there we are at least halfway”. In 1984 my uncle Miguel died, uncle José wrote to let us know. What I don’t remember is if he had already returned to Chile. In 1997 my uncle José died. The communication with our part of the family was cut off, but I know they keep in touch with their cousins . Now that I have been able to see the photos of my uncle José when he was doing all the paperwork to stay in Chile, I have understood why my mother’s brother recognized him when he saw him pass in the car that brought him to the village, he looks a lot like his brother Rafael who died here.
My great aunt used to say: of 5 children, 4 have died, to which my grandmother replied: “Elvira do not say that, they and you have a family on the other side of the world.” YES BUT I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO HUG THEM AGAIN. This is just what I remember or what I heard my mother saying, I’m not sure, about when my uncle lived in Spain in the 70s, I miss them.