The best painting in santiago

I liked Santiago because there was no Apple Store. I said this to my new Chilean friends and they insisted there was, but no, there are only licensed resellers. That concrete box of hard white light, that room without shadows, hasn’t been invited to the country yet and I felt smug for being there without it. I liked Santiago because there were goths everywhere. I couldn’t get over it. 8 million people in the capital and half of them looked like they must be sound. They weren’t dramatic in velvet and stuff. I mean people in slouchy black clothes, good hair but not too done up. Piercings, silver-framed glasses, ciggies, energy drinks, and sleeves pulled down over fingertips even in the sun. I asked my Spanish teacher what was going on but she said she’d never noticed before. I couldn’t see how. I brought it up at lunch the next day and a new friend explained that during the dictatorship, people were so repressed they went one of two ways: football or heavy metal. He said Iron Maiden…