Nando Parrado

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Fernando Seler "Nando" Parrado (December 9, 1949 - ) is one of the sixteen Uruguayan survivors of the airplane crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 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 ten day period to find help. His efforts, supported in various ways by the entire group, have been recognized through books and other media.

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[edit] Background

Parrado was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Seler and Eugenia Parrado, the second of three children with an older sister, Graciela, and a younger sister, Susana or "Susy". He graduated from the Stella Maris College (Montevideo) and played for their alumni rugby team, the "Old Christians".

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, Nando Parrado comments on 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 (30-1).

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 his mother, 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 along with his older sister and brother-in-law. He also developed additional businesses and became a television personality in Uruguay.

[edit] Conferences

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.

[edit] Miracle in the Andes

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 a year after the rescue (and based upon interviews with the survivors). Miracle of the Andes, however, is told from Parrado's point of view thirty-four years later and offers a new perspective on the event.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

General:

Biographies:

Interviews:


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