The Archetype of the Forgotten

What turns a fifteen-year-old boy into a war hero? El Arquetipo de los Olvidados is an intimate and rigorous journey to rescue the memory of one of the thousands of anonymous soldiers who fought for Chile in the War of the Pacific. Through the extraordinary life of Manuel Valencia Arredondo (1866-1951) his great-grandson author Andrés González Valencia reconstructs not only the trajectory of a soldier but that of an entire generation. We will live the baptism of fire of a young man of 1.58 meters in the brutal battle of Chorrillos where a bullet wound in the face would mark him forever. We will accompany him on the exhausting marches through the Andean highlands witness his alliances with unexpected and vengeful allies and feel the adrenaline of the bayonet charge that defined the victory at Huamachuco.More than a biography El Arquetipo de los Olvidados is a tribute to all the soldiers whose names do not fill the pages of history but whose courage forged a nation. It is a story a memory that demonstrates how the footprint of a single man can tell the story of an entire country.