Book Talk: Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing After the Coup (Univ. Of California Press, 2025)
November 5, 2025
4:30 pm
Uris Hall, G08
This Event is CANCELED due to family emrgency
Resisting Authoritarianism: The Political Journey and Mysterious Deaths of Two Young Americans in Pinochet’s Chile.
Allende’s revolution promised real democracy and real social change. It inspired idealistic young people from all over to travel to Chile to participate. Many who came were political exiles from South American countries that had become dictatorships. It was a political journey, full of hope. It ended in a military coup, encouraged by the United States, in which thousands were rounded up and executed. Two Norteamericanos—Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi—were secretly executed, and their murders inspired the Hollywood movie Missing. John Dinges was also in Chile at the time of the coup. His book tells what really happened. His surprising findings shed light not only on an iconic period in Latin America but provide signposts for the current slide toward authoritarianism in the United States.
John Dinges is a former foreign correspondent and the author of three books on major events involving the United States and Latin America. He was a special correspondent in Chile and Central America for The Washington Post, where he also worked as a foreign desk editor. He served as deputy foreign editor and managing editor of National Public Radio News. Mr. Dinges is the recipient of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for excellence in Latin American reporting, and the Media Award of the Latin American Studies Association. He also shared two DuPont-Columbia University prizes for broadcast journalism, as NPR managing editor. He is currently on the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has an MA in Latin American studies from Stanford University.
Additional Information
Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Latin American and Caribbean Studies