Álvaro Mangino, one of the sixteen survivors of the 1972 Ande disaster, died on March 29. His history of extreme survival, marked by a dramatic choice to stay alive, has inspired books and films, including the snow society
Illvaro Mangino Schmid, one of the sixteen survivors of the plane disaster on the Andes of 13 October 1972. The Uruguayan entrepreneur, who died on March 29 in Montevideo from complications due to a pneumonian, had repeatedly told his incredible experience, which became a symbol of resilience and despair. In February last year, he had shared a photo of the last time he had returned to the Cordigliera, confessing that he suffered for the consequences of a disease that had been tormented for some time.
His story – like that of the other survivors – inspired the director Juan Antonio Bayona in the film The snow companycandidate for the Oscars and produced by Netflix in 2023
The air disaster and the struggle for survival
Álvaro Mangino was just 19 when the flight of the Uruguayan Air Force Fokker F27which transported the Rugby Team Old Christians Club Together with family and friends, he crashed into the Andes. An error of the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara, was fatal: convinced that he had already passed the mountain range and being in the landing phase in Santiago del Chile, diverted the plane to the mountain, causing the tragedy in the area that would later be called the Valley of tears.
Of the 45 passengers, only 16 survivedforced to resist for 73 days in extreme conditions. They eat, with a serious fracture in the left leg, spent weeks immobilized in an improvised hammock, thus managing to save himself when an avalanche overwhelmed part of the group. Despite the wound, he contributed to the vital activities of the field: dissolve the snow to obtain water, keep alive the morale of the companions.
Food stocks are exhausted, the group attempted to survive by ingesting toothpaste and tobacco. When these resources ended, they found themselves in front of the most terrible decision: to feed on the bodies of the deceased companions. Eat described this choice as “The most difficult of my life”. Hope came with the desperate feat of Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, who after a grueling journey managed to reach rescue. In December, two months after the accident, Mangino was among the first to be saved by Chilean helicopters.
The tragedy of the Andes through cinema
The tragedy of the Andes has inspired several cinematographic and literary transpositions, trying to return the drama and the profound meaning of what happened. Before The snow companythe story had already been brought to the big screen in 1976 with The survivors of the Andesdirected by the Mexican director René Cardona and taken from the book by Clay Blair Jr. Survive! The incredible story of sixteen young people remained isolated on the Andes for seventy days. The film, shot with a limited budget and characterized by a more sensationalistic cut, concentrated in particular on the figure of Roberto Canessa, played by Hugo Stiglitz, placing emphasis on the drama of the extreme choice of feeding the dead companions to survive.
In 1993, Hollywood told the story with Alive – Survivorsdirected by Frank Marshall, historic collaborator of Steven Spielberg, and taken from the book by Piers Paul Read Taboo. The true story of the Andes survivors. This film, with an international cast, sees Ethan Hawke in the role of Fernando Parrado, Josh Hamilton as Roberto Canessa and Nuno Antunes in those of Álvaro Mangino. Filmed entirely in British Columbia, Canada, the film tried to balance the dramatic component with the spectacularity of the shooting in the high mountains, obtaining a good success of the public and criticism.
In recent years, the tragedy has continued to inspire the world of entertainment. The television series Yellowjacketsproduced by Showtime and launched in 2021, is inspired by the accident to tell a story of survival in a fictitious key, transfersing the event in the world of a women’s football team whose plane precipitates in a remote area of Ontario. Although it is a fictional narrative, the series takes up some of the most upsetting elements of the royal affair, exploring the psychological side of extreme survival.
The legacy of a tragedy
The horror and suffering experienced by Heroes of the Andes They have scored not only the survivors, but also their families and the entire Uruguay, which saw them in them a symbol of courage. If you eat it was the witness of the painful confession of forced cannibalism, Roberto Canessa was the hero of finding rescue. After the tragedy, he dedicated life to medicine and memory of those terrible days, telling them in the book I had to survive. Like the accident in the Andes inspired my vocation to save lives.
Álvaro Mangino lived 52 years aware of being a miraculous. His was a story of pain, survival and redemption, an experience that marked his existence and that of an entire country. Another witness of one of the most incredible stories of human resistance never told.
