Chile Informative Paper
...ortation. Health care is fairly good and literacy rates are high. Education is free and required from ages 6 to 13 and optional secondary school for 4 years. Inflation and unemployment are often unpredictable. One American dollar equals about 526 Chilean pesos. A free trade agreement was signed December of 2002 that will give more opportunities to citizens. The economy fluctuates but seems to be on a path in the right direction. In Chile there is no official religion, however, the majority of people are Roman Catholic by 80.7%. Other religions are Protestant with 6.1%, Jewish with 0.2%, and other religions with 0.2%. 12.8% of their population is nonreligious. Most traditional Chilean songs are sad and melancholy, for example, Tonada. Some also have a humorous tone. The national dance in Chile is known as the Cueca. It is a couple imitating the courtship of a rooster and chicken following formal steps in a three part waltz-time dance. It is also known as Zamacueca and Marinera, which means “dance of sailors.” Other dances are the Pequen and Resbaloso. The main form of art in Chile is poetry. Ercilla, 400 years ago, wrote the lines that have become the country’s national epic. A country schoolteacher named Gabriela Mistral also won the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature for her poems. The novels of Joaquin Edwards Bello describe life in urban Chile; Pedro Prado has written novels, poems, and essays. Chilean painting has achieved international recognition, especially the work of its leading exponent Roberto Matta Echaurren. His style might be said to have anticipated the space age. Ma...