On the Other Side of the Mountain

The story of the young people who did not return from the tragedy of the Andes in 1972.

On Friday 13 October 1972, a plane carrying 45 Uruguayans crashed in the Andes Mountains. 72 days later, 16 survivors returned home. This marked a turning point for all of them and for the families of those who did not come back.

This book takes us into the intimate lives of these families and the passengers who remain in the mountains, exploring the years before the accident, the birth of a brotherhood and a community around the rugby team that organised the trip, the day of the accident, the subsequent search for survivors, and the process undertaken by the families to overcome their grief through the Nuestros Hijos library, which was founded by the mothers of many of those young boys who did not return from the Andes.

This is a personal, vivid narrative in the voice of Claudia, one of the sisters of Marcelo Pérez del Castillo, the rugby team captain and main promoter of the trip, showing that the story begins long before the fateful accident.

In this unique work, we learn for the first time who those boys really were through the eyes of their relatives. María del Carmen Perrier Pérez del Castillo, a niece of Marcelo, reconstructs the story of those young people and families who, with courage and faith, continue to teach us from the mountains.