Out of the Silence: After the Crash
December 31st, 2020. Filed under: This & That.
A personal story of survival, hope, and spiritual awakening in the face of unspeakable tragedy.
It’s the unfathomable modern legend that has become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit: the 1972 Andes plane crash and the Uruguayan rugby teammates who suffered seventy-two days among the dead and dying. It was a harrowing test of endurance on a snowbound cordillera that ended in a miraculous rescue. Now comes the unflinching and emotional true story by one of the men who found his way home.
Four decades after the tragedy, a climber discovered survivor Eduardo Strauch’s wallet near the memorialized crash site and returned it to him. It was a gesture that compelled Strauch to finally “break the silence of the mountains.”
In this revelatory and rewarding memoir, Strauch withholds nothing as he reveals the truth behind the life-changing events that challenged him physically and tested him spiritually, but would never destroy him. In revisiting the horror story we thought we knew, Strauch shares the lessons gleaned from far outside the realm of rational learning: how surviving on the mountain, in the face of its fierce, unforgiving power and desolate beauty, forever altered his perception of love, friendship, death, fear, loss, and hope.
ISLAND BREEZES
I just finished reading this book and I think it will have a place in my mind forever.I vaguely remember when this crash happened, but didn’t really know much about it.
It was seventy two days of a hard life and hard decisions.
Maybe you already know the story. I didn’t. I’m not even sure how I acquired this book. I just recently found it on one of my Kindles.
I think it is a book that should be read by everyone. It is a book that can lead you to a deeper insight into yourself.
Thank you, Mr Strauch, for sharing your story with the world.
Eduardo Strauch Urioste was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1947.
In 1968, at 21 years old, he opened an architectural studio with his best friend from childhood, Marcelo Pérez. He has worked as an architect and painter, and for many years he has given lectures about his experience surviving 72 days following a plane crash in the Andes Mountains. He is married to Laura Braga, and they have five children. They live in Montevideo.