Fernando Parrado | |
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Born | Fernando Seler Parrado Dolgay 9 December 1949 Montevideo, Uruguay |
Other names | Nando Parrado |
Occupations |
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Spouse | Veronique Van Wassenhove |
Children | 2 |
Parents |
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Website | parrado |
Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay (born 9 December 1949) is a Uruguayan businessman, producer, motivational speaker and television presenter, and former rugby player and racing driver. He is one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed in the Andes on 13 October 1972. After spending two months trapped in the mountains with the other crash survivors, he, along with Roberto Canessa, climbed through the Andes mountains over a 10-day period to find help. [1]
He was portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 1993 feature film Alive and by Argentine actor Agustín Pardella in the 2023 Spanish feature film Society of the Snow .
Parrado was born in Montevideo on December 9, 1949, the second of three children of Seler Parrado and Xenia "Eugenia" Dolgay, a Ukrainian immigrant who arrived in Uruguay at the age of 16. [2] Raised in the Carrasco neighborhood, he attended Stella Maris College, and played for its alumni rugby team, Old Christians Club. [3]
At the time of the Andes crash, he was a university student. In his 2006 book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home , [1] Parrado described his life in the days immediately prior to the Andes:
When it finally came time to choose a college, I decided to enroll in agricultural school, because that was where my closest friends were going. When my father heard the news, he shrugged and smiled. 'Nando,' he said, 'your friends' families own farms and ranches. We have hardware stores.' It was not hard for him to talk me into changing my mind. In the end, I did what made sense: I entered business school with no serious thought about what school would mean for me or where this decision might lead. I would graduate or I would not. I would run the hardware stores or maybe I wouldn't. My life would present itself to me when it was ready. In the meantime, I spent the summer being Nando; I played rugby, I chased girls with Panchito, I raced my little Renault along the beach roads at Punta del Este, I went to parties and I lay in the sun, I lived for the moment, drifting with the tide, waiting for my future to reveal itself, always happy to let others lead the way. (p.30-31)
Parrado also states in Miracle in the Andes that after he returned from the mountains, he gave up his studies. Still coping with the loss of his sister, Susy, and their mother, both victims of the same plane crash, Parrado drifted for a period of time. Initially, Parrado helped out in his father's business, though he was interested in the field of sports car racing and for many years developed a career as a professional race car driver. After his marriage, he gave up professional racing and took over his father's hardware business alongside his older sister and brother-in-law. He also developed additional businesses and became a television personality in Uruguay. In 2020 a racehorse named after Parrado won the Coventry Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting. Parrado has given his consent for the horse to be named after him. [4]
In addition to his work in business and television, Parrado is a motivational speaker, using his experience in the Andes to help others cope with psychological trauma. [1]
Parrado co-wrote the 2006 book Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home , with Vince Rause. The book references Piers Paul Read's account of the accident and aftermath, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors , which was written two years after the rescue (and based upon interviews with the survivors). Miracle in the Andes, however, is told from Parrado's point of view 34 years later.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1993 | Alive: Miracle in The Andes | technical advisor | film |
1993 | Alive: 20 Years Later | himself | video documentary |
2002 | Return to the Andes | himself | video documentary short |
2006 | Alive: Back to the Andes | himself | TV documentary |
2007 | Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains | himself | documentary |
2009 | Independent Lens' (Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors) | himself | TV series documentary |
2010 | I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash | himself | documentary aired on History Channel |
Alive is a 1993 American biographical survival drama film based on Piers Paul Read's 1974 book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, which details a Uruguayan rugby team's crash aboard Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster and the Miracle of the Andes.
Sport in Uruguay has been an important part of Uruguayan culture, since the early start of the nation. Winners of such important awards such as the FIFA World Cup, the French Open, and Olympic medals, Uruguay has been a constantly successful sports nation in continental and world aspects.
Piers Paul Read FRSL is a British novelist, historian and biographer. He was first noted in 1974 for a book of reportage, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, later adapted as a feature film and a documentary. Read was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he studied history.
The Christian Brothers College of Montevideo, commonly referred as Stella Maris College – Christian Brothers or just Christian, is a private, co-educational, not-for-profit Catholic primary and secondary school run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland. The school is located in the residential neighborhood of Carrasco Norte, Montevideo, Uruguay. The school's headmaster is Patricia Ponce de Leon. The school is a member of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), currently offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP). The college also offers valuable international exams such as the IGCSE programs and the A levels. It has a long list of distinguished former pupils, including economists, engineers, architects, lawyers, politicians and even F1 champions.
Alive: 20 Years Later is a 1993 documentary film produced, directed and written by Jill Fullerton-Smith and narrated by Martin Sheen.
Alive is a 1974 book by the British writer Piers Paul Read documenting the events of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.
Miracle in the Andes is a 2006 non-fiction account of a rugby team's survival on a glacier in the Andes for 72 days by survivor Nando Parrado and co-author Vince Rause. It was published by Crown.
Rugby union in Uruguay is considered a popular sport. The Uruguay national team, commonly known as Los Teros, have been playing international rugby since the late 1940s and have made appearances in five Rugby World Cups: 1999, 2003, 2015, 2019 and 2023.
Nando is a name for males - often in Switzerland (Graubünden) and Italy. It is often a short form (hypocorism) of Fernando.
Gustavo Carlos Zerbino Stajano is a Uruguayan businessman, motivational speaker, sports executive and former rugby union player. He is known for being one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plane crash that occurred on October 13, 1972 in the Andes.
Roberto Fernando Jorge François Álvarez, better known as Bobby François, is a former Uruguayan rugby player and agricultural producer, known for being one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in the Andes Mountains in 1972.
Roberto Jorge Canessa Urta is an Uruguayan pediatric cardiologist, motivational speaker and former rugby player. He is one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972. He was portrayed by Josh Hamilton in the 1993 feature film Alive and by Argentine actor Matías Recalt in the 2023 Spanish feature film Society of the Snow.
Chile–Uruguay relations are the current and historical relations between the Republic of Chile and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. Both nations are members of the Cairns Group, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Group of 77, Latin American Integration Association, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
Old Christians Club, or simply Old Christians, is a Uruguayan sports club from the Carrasco neighbourhood of Montevideo.
I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash is a 2010 television documentary recounting the tragedy of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 from the perspective of survivor Nando Parrado. It is a 2-hour special with reenactments of the October 13, 1972 crash and the 72-day struggle for survival that followed, including details of the 60-kilometre (37 mi) trek out of the mountains by Parrado and fellow survivor Roberto Canessa. I Am Alive was produced by AMS Pictures and premiered on the History Channel on October 20, 2010. It was released for DVD on February 22, 2011.
The Andes Museum 1972 is located in The Old City in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay.
Mount Seler is a mountain located on the border between Argentina and Chile on the western rim of the Glacier of Tears cirque in the Andes mountain range. The mountain was first summitted in December 1972 by Nando Parrado, and shortly thereafter by Antonio Vizintin and Roberto Canessa, survivors from the nearby crash site of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571. They made the ascent with the intent of finding civilization. At the summit, Parrado used lipstick to write "MT. SELER" on a plastic bag, which he placed under a rock. Nando named the mountain after his father Seler Parrado, who was his motivation to survive.
Society of the Snow is a 2023 survival drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and based on Pablo Vierci's 2009 book of the same name, which details the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's experience in 1972 after Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes mountains. The cast is composed of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, most of whom are newcomers.
Francisco Domingo Abal Guerault was an Uruguayan rugby player. He was part of the Old Christians Club and was considered one of the best rugby players in his country. In 1970 he was part of the Uruguayan rugby team.
External audio | |
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Owen Bennett-Jones 2006 Interview with Owen Bennett-Jones on BBC The Interview |