Over and over again during his 72-day ordeal in the Andes, Nando Parrado would tell himself, “I am already dead, I am already dead.” That mantra allowed him to vanquish the fear that gripped him — and perhaps also explains why, when given a miraculous second chance at life, he has lived ever since with such gusto.
Mr. Parrado, 56, is perhaps the best known of the 16 survivors of the crash of an Uruguayan Air Force plane in the Andes Mountains in October 1972, as it was carrying his rugby team to a match in Chile. Mr. Parrado’s mother and younger sister were among those who died there in the Andes, his sister succumbing to injuries and cold as he held her in his arms. It was he who, with a single companion, trekked through the harsh cordillera with virtually no supplies or protection and eventually guided rescuers back to the crash site to save his friends and teammates.
Since that deliverance, chronicled in the best-selling book “Alive” and a subsequent movie, Mr. Parrado has been a race car driver, television host, motivational speaker, business entrepreneur and, most recently, author of a book called “Miracle in the Andes.” But no matter what he does, he says, his actions are guided by the lessons he learned and the conversations about life, death, God and religion that took place during his struggle to survive.
“We were lucky, extremely lucky,” he said. “We didn’t have any food, clothes or water, and they weren’t searching for us. So how could we survive? I lost everything, my family, friends and future, but I was resurrected. I came back to life from the grave.”
After the ordeal, Parrado became a successful businessman in Uruguay. But in 2001 and 2002 this country was drawn into the financial crisis that struck its much larger neighbor, Argentina, with banks and businesses collapsing. Mr. Parrado’s friends and partners were frantic, spending sleepless nights worrying their companies would not survive, and marveled at his composure.
“Those endless nights in the Andes were terribly, terribly, terribly cold, and so we burned all the money we had,” he said. “I can tell you that a $1 bill burns in the same amount of time as a $100 bill.”