Author speaks at Ripon College Sept. 19 about Pinochet dictatorship in Chile

Kathleen Osberger, author of the new book “I Surrender: A Memoir of Chile’s Dictatorship, 1975,” will be the guest speaker when the Ripon College Center for Politics and the People opens its 2023-2024 season Tuesday, Sept. 19. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Kresge Little Theatre, East Hall, on the campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

Professor Emeritus of Religion Brian Smith will engage Osberger in a conversation, followed by reflections from two Ripon College students and a question-and-answer session.

“I Surrender” is published by Orbis Books. It details how in September 1973, a CIA-assisted coup overthrew the democratically-elected president of Chile, ushering in the Pinochet dictatorship. In 1975, Osberger, a recent graduate and lay volunteer from Notre Dame, left for Santiago to teach in a Catholic grade school.

Upon arrival, she was told a secret: the religious women she would live with sheltered dissidents in the cross-hairs of Pinochet’s secret police. Given the ever-tightening vise over the citizenry, brave and prophetic people reached out to protect the dissidents’ lives in a world without due process and where detention, torture, disappearance and death reigned. Soon, Osberger is handed a blindfold and a warrant and must go on the run.

Osberger’s book depicts the solidarity of the Chilean people and the transformational role of nuns and priests dedicated to serving the poor, while highlighting the changing and challenged Catholic Church.

Osberger earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s degree from Maryknoll School of Theology and a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago School of Social Work Administration. Her life was shaped by volunteer experiences when she lived in San Miguelito, Panamá; Santiago, Chile; Chimbote, Perú and the South Bronx.

In 1987, she began a 17-year relationship with the Maryknoll Lay Missioners as an instructor in their orientation to mission program. She joined the University of Chicago Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry in 1993. Her work as a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist has centered on the issues of trauma and torture. She currently lives in Chicago.

The event at Ripon College is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures.