Sol y viento (episodio 4) : Romance/Bromance, Let’s Go For a Ride

Prólogo, Episodio 1, Episodio 2, Episodio 3, Episodio 5, Episodio 6,Episodio 7, Episodio 8, Episodio 9

Whoosh! This is one full episode, and it all starts with our favorite foreman Traimaqueo, with whom Jaime starts his second cross-class bromance of the film. Pobre Mario, he’s probably out waiting by the car, crying. Anyway, Traimaqueo gives Jaime the tour and quite a bit of folk wisdom. La tierra, el sol, la lluvia, las cepas all working together in harmony. It’d be enough to wet the eyes of any viewer, but then Traimaqueo twists the audience even more with a quote from Pablo Neruda:

Vino color de día,

vino color de noche,

vino con pies de púrpura

o sangre de topacio,

vino

It’s the first bit from Neruda’s poem “Oda al vino” (Ode to Wine).

Day-colored wine,

night-colored wine,

wine with purple feet

or wine with topaz blood,

wine

But it’s when Jaime meets T’s wife Yolanda that he gets emotional. Apparently, Señora Sánchez está en casa and Carlos laid a big fat lie on JT in the last episode. Ouch! That’s quite a face the young professional makes when hearing the news. But then he shifts gears and heads back to Santiago and we shift to seeing a poignant moment between María and Diego. La profesora tells her student not to abandon his studies (did we know he was thinking about doing that?). He’s got real talent. You don’t understand, profesora, it’s my family. Dad wants me in the family business. María knows what that’s all about, more than Diego could image she tells him. Because, as we should all know by now, she’s Carlos’ sister. But why don’t the filmmakers just tell us that? Do they really think it’ll be a surprise later in the film? Give me a break.

While María dreams of Jaime in one of the silliest scenes in the film, our arch-capitalist goes shopping. How exciting! Luckily, he’s decent enough to contribute to the local economy by buying a Mapuche charm for María from a small shop. If you have sharp eyes, you’ll catch a glimpse of a well-known Mapuche photo in a small cabinet when Jaime walks in. Let it be known that the image is highly merchandised. For instance, Zazzle offers a mouse pad of it if you need to accessorize your computer with trinkets related to Sol y viento. Anyway, shortly after that, Jaime thinks he sees something out of the corner of his eye. It wouldn’t be his ancestral spirit guide, would it? Oddly, that leads to him running into…María! Is fate special or what? She’s out hanging up political propaganda: apoye al pueblo Mapuche (“support the Mapuche people”). JT gives her the figure and then asks her on a date (though they still use “usted” with each other). Someplace romantic…like the bar at his hotel. No, she says, let’s go for a funicular ride. Meet me at Cerro San Cristóbal (Saint Christopher Hill). “Cool.” And we’re all drunk with romance. Right? Right?