The case of Leda Bergonzi, the healer from Rosario who wreaked havoc in Maipú, joins the tradition of curious local characters converted into instruments of divinity, to connect with the multitudes. The stories of Yamilet and Miguel Ángel, both born during the dictatorship, range from absurdity to montage.
The story goes that at some point in 1978, 13-year-old Yamilet Díaz decided enough was enough. . I needed to play and be a normal person again, if anything like that was possible after what I had been through. How many people he had touched with his hands was an absolute mystery, but there were tens, if not hundreds of thousands. I didn’t want more.
It all started in the spring of 1975, in the town of Talagante, in Esmeralda, while Chile was going through one of the most difficult years of the dawn of the dictatorship. By April, the economic plan known as El Ladrillo had been implemented; Neoliberalism was launched at the cost of high unemployment, privatizations of public companies and the scourge of the pockets of the poorest, a panorama framed by annual inflation of 370%.
Word of mouth spoke of a girl with healing powers, revealed after a vision . She dressed in white, she wasn’t supposed to wear makeup, let alone get married. Pilgrimages through the rustic streets of the town 35 kilometers southwest of Santiago began attracting around 7,000 people a day, arriving from all over Chile, aboard around 50 minibuses. A few were terminally ill and elderly, while the vast majority simply seemed curious.
Even though Yamilet did not charge a peso for his service, people – mostly humble – would drop off envelopes containing money at his house.
“When there are fewer, I think there are 3,000 people” the mother answered a television reporter’s question. According to the woman, it was impossible to count the number of visitors blessed by her daughter’s powers, “because I saw a lot of them, and a lot of people who come here later just to thank her.”
In front of the cameras, an elderly woman explains that she suffers from different ailments; He lists problems with pressure, nerves, “even kidneys”.
“And yet,” she concludes, “I am now in good health… almost.
The images show Yamilet on the threshold of his house, placing his hands in front of an endless line of people of all ages. His expression barely hides the boredom. The contact lasts only a few seconds.
“Do you like it when a lot of people come?” asks a journalist. “Yes,” replies the youngest.
The journalist seeks to know where “this healing spirit” comes from.
“I don’t even know why,” replies Yamilet.
“The press attacks the young girl -declares with obvious discontent an interviewee-, and at the same time (…) people throw it at him.
In front of the cameras, an unidentified health specialist has no doubt about the effect of Yamilet on those present. “Diseases, almost 80% -he argues-, they are psychosomatic.
“That is to say,” he continues, “people believe that they are sick, and people also believe that they are better.”
For the expert, participants who do not actually suffer from any illness believe they are regaining health. “faced with an external stimulus presenting a hysterical character trait” . Self-improvement, he speculates, occurs because “the trigger would be Yamilet.”
The mother offers another explanation.
“She is an instrument of God,” he summarizes, “she says it all the time. »
The seer of Peñablanca
The origins of the laying on of hands – a common practice in various religions – come from Judaism. . In the case of Christianity, there are accounts in the New Testament; In Mark 16:15-18 it says “(…) And these signs will follow those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak new languages; They will take serpents in their hands; and if they drink anything poisonous, it will do them no harm; Moreover, they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
There have been no snakes or poisons in the exact five years that Miguel Ángel Poblete attracted crowds to the hills of Peñablanca – municipality of Villa Alemana – in the 80s but a series of miracles or tricks – depending on how its story is told – recounting the ancient practice of laying on of hands.
His gift ? Direct line to the mother of Christ.
Two weeks after his birth in Curicó, on May 28, 1966, Miguel Ángel Poblete was abandoned. Placed in a juvenile home in the city, he became accustomed to entering and leaving these premises.
“Very artistic, famous for being a liar” The psychologist Julio Irarrázabal, director of the house where Miguel Ángel grew up, described on television. “She loved playing female roles on shows.”
In the fall of 1983, The young man said he saw a female figure who was not of this world in the hills of Peñablanca. , where he had gone with a few friends to inhale neoprene and thus escape hunger and delirium. Some hardware stores secretly sold a dollop of glue that sent homeless children into orbit, until the liquid turned into a disgusting green substance stuck to the plastic bag used for inhalation.
From June 12, 1983 – a key year in the protests against the dictatorship – Michelangelo began a series of contacts with the Virgin. One of the first messages from the deity said this:
“If the Chilean people insist on violence, very bitter days will come . “Marxism builds a tower and tries to lead many souls…to perdition. »
Before the end of winter, the hill was visited by thousands of people waiting for the seer and his messages. The Archbishopric of Valparaíso commissioned priest Jaime Fernández to investigate the phenomenon.
The clerics observed a series of unusual situations. The hills, difficult to access, suddenly had paths and roads for pedestrian and vehicle traffic. A stage worthy of a recital had been set up with notable amplification. At night, electroboscopic lights were turned on, while during the day, smoke rose from the surrounding hills, partially covering the sky. In these cases, Michelangelo ordered the crowd to observe the sun. Among the clouds, light and smoke, the Virgin would have manifested herself in various ways.
The priest noticed that equipment intended for infrastructure was transported by trucks without license plates. In turn, many pilgrims arrived in buses provided by the Navy. Everything seemed perfectly choreographed.
“Michelangelo has arrived,” announces a voice over the loudspeakers, “and the Virgin will appear in a few minutes.”
For Jaime Fernández, one of the definitive tests of planning and coordination in these massive meetings, which attracted people not only from Chile, but also from Argentina, Peru and Colombia, among other countries in the region, It was at that moment that he heard soldiers spread across the hills touching the flight of a small plane. Soon, in the sky of Peñablanca, a line emerged that the crowd identified as a fish, associated with the figure of Christ as “fisher of men”.
Among the messages of the Virgin through Michelangelo, there were praises for the de facto government and reproaches for the Church. “The priests at the service of my son -declared the seer in trance surrounded by microphones and cameras-, through their impieties and working the holy mysteries, through their love of money, honor and pleasure, they have become sewers of impurity.
The Church was struck by the fact that Michelangelo demonstrated language typical of a profound connoisseur of creed and rites. , strange for a young man who, until before the visions, had no major connection with Catholicism. Fernández’s investigation revealed that a former Augustinian priest close to the General Secretariat of Government had advised the visionary.
That’s when Jaime Fernández had an idea. He asked the Bishop of Valparaíso Francisco de Borja Valenzuela, the authority who had entrusted him, what he wanted the Virgin to communicate through Michelangelo, during their usual Thursday contacts.
“Let him talk about the Apocalypse” suggested the senior religious leader.
Fernández invited the young medium to dinner. At the table, he asked her if Jesus’ mother had referred to the Apocalypse in any of her many contacts. According to the priest, Michelangelo did not even know this term. Fernández then cited some references to the end times, pointing out exactly where it is in Scripture.
The following week, the Virgin of Peñablanca spoke about the Apocalypse. The quotes were exactly the same as those mentioned by the priest.
Eat dirt and look at the sun
Reports from the time of Chile’s national television said that, among various messages from the Virgin through Michelangelo, Russians would soon face a process of “conversion.” The deity also advised against the pots-and-pans protests that began to escalate that year, as Chilean banks teetered on the brink of collapse while inflation soared to 23.1 percent.
On December 8, Michelangelo is said to have held a lit candle under his chin for more than 20 minutes, without burning himself. Miraculous episodes, according to their supporters, have multiplied. The seer fell violently to his knees, arched his back and seemed to be bleeding from the head for no reason. . Priest Fernández warned that the blood was not blood, but was a liquid contained in tiny bags that Miguel Angel discreetly burst on his scalp.
The people, completely absorbed, fulfilled the commandments of the Virgin in the mouth of the seer, however bizarre they might be. Eating dirt and looking directly at the sun were some of his unusual commands. The Virgin also asked him to dress, and so one day Michelangelo arrived dressed as a boy explorer.
On September 6, 1984, the Archbishopric of Valparaíso ruled that the apparitions were false.
“Are you okay, girl?”
The Virgin established more than 400 contacts with Miguel Ángel Poblete, until in 1987 she announced that a great collective ordeal was going to occur. , an example to shake faith. On June 12, 1988, exactly five years after the first contact after inhalation of neoprene, the Virgin appeared for the last time in Peñablanca.
Miguel Ángel traveled to Peru to begin hormonal treatment. Shortly after, he contacted a deeply Catholic couple, who welcomed him from time to time. Excited, the young man revealed that his bust was growing.
Michelangelo became a woman. His first name was Ángel, then he took the name Karol Romanoff. Under her new identity and followed by an entourage, she appeared at the place of the apparitions, when it was already a sanctuary where Catholic priests offered masses with the permission of Joseph Ratzinger before the papacy, and the Cardinal Jorge Medina, on condition of not mentioning the apparitions.
Karol was expelled.
He spent his last years living on a miserable plot of land with four old women. The few animals on the property, all hungry, had their new initials. He died on September 27, 2008 at the age of 42 from cirrhosis, caused by alcoholism. He never worked.
The Virgin never stopped speaking to him, he assures, even if the visits became sporadic.
“It appears once or once at 500 -she said drunkenly in front of the camera- and he says to me ‘are you okay, girl?'”
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Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
