The character arc of Nando Parrado
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 9 December 1949 in Montevideo, raised in Carrasco, a rugby player for the Old Christians Club and by his own account drifting through business school. Between then and now sit the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 into the Andes on 13 October 1972, the deaths of his mother and his younger sister Susy, more than two months at altitude with no food, an agreement among the survivors about how to stay alive, a ten day climb over the mountains with Roberto Canessa to find help, sixteen people brought out, a career in racing, a hardware business, television, and a second life explaining all of it from stages. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Nando Parrado?
He was drifting, by his own account. Then he walked out of the Andes.
He describes the man he was before very precisely and without flattery. He had chosen agricultural school because his friends were going, until his father pointed out that their families owned farms and his owned hardware stores. So he went to business school with no serious thought about what it was for. He would graduate or he would not. He would run the shops, or maybe not. He played rugby, chased girls with Panchito, raced a little Renault along the beach roads at Punta del Este, went to parties, lay in the sun, lived for the moment, drifting with the tide, always happy to let others lead the way.
On 13 October 1972 the plane carrying his rugby club, his mother and his younger sister crashed into the Andes. His mother and Susy both died there. Twenty nine of the forty five people aboard did not come home.
What the sixteen who did come home had to do to stay alive is the most reported fact about this crash. There was no food at that altitude and there had been no search for weeks, and after agonising over it the survivors ate the bodies of those who had died. They have talked about it publicly for fifty years and the record is theirs to hold.
After more than two months, he and Roberto Canessa set off west on foot. They climbed through the Andes for ten days, without equipment and without knowing what was on the other side, and they found a man on horseback. Sixteen people came off that mountain because two of them walked.
He came home and it was hard. He says in his own book that he struggled to cope with losing his mother and Susy, gave up his studies, drifted for a while and helped with his father business. Then he met Jackie Stewart, enrolled at a racing driver school, and spent years as a professional racing driver, which he gave up when he married Veronique Van Wassenhove. He took over the hardware business with his older sister Graciela and her husband, built other businesses, became a television personality in Uruguay, and works as a motivational speaker using the Andes to help other people through their own worst things. In 2006 he wrote his own account, Miracle in the Andes, told from his point of view thirty four years later.
The moments
Nando Parrado's timeline.
The 1940s
Born in Montevideo
Everyday. Montevideo, the second of three.
The 1960s
Rugby at Old Christians
Everyday, and it changed his direction. The club that filled the plane.
The 1970s
Drifting, by his own account
Everyday. His own description of the man he was before.
The plane goes down
Setback, and it changed everything. The thirteenth of October, and everything before it ended.
His mother and Susy
Setback, and it changed everything. He lost both of them on the mountain.
Seventy two days
Setback, and it changed everything. There was nothing else, and they talked about it for days first.
Wait for rescue, or walk
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go over the mountains, taken, or stay with the others. Ten days later they found a man on horseback, and sixteen people came off that mountain.
They walk west
Milestone, and it changed everything. Nobody was coming, so two of them went.
Sixteen come home
Milestone, and it changed everything. All sixteen, because two of them walked.
Coming home was hard
Setback, and it changed everything. He survived the mountain and then had to survive coming back.
Racing school
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He met Jackie Stewart and signed up.
The 1980s
He stops racing, and marries
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He chose the marriage over the car.
The hardware business
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The shops his father said they owned.
The 1990s
He starts speaking
Milestone, and it changed everything. He turned the worst thing that happened to him into the work.
The 2000s
Miracle in the Andes
Milestone, and it changed everything. Thirty four years later, in his own words.
He runs businesses, presents television and speaks, mostly to people in the middle of something they cannot see the end of. What he set moving was the whole rescue: nobody was coming, and two young men decided to go and get help themselves, which is the plainest version of the only lesson the mountain had.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His turned on a decision to walk west with no map and no idea what was on the other side. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Nando Parrado: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Nando Parrado's character arc?
What happened to Nando Parrado in the Andes?
How did Nando Parrado get out of the Andes?
How did the survivors with Nando Parrado stay alive?
What did Nando Parrado do afterwards?
What book did Nando Parrado write?
Where does this timeline of Nando Parrado's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Nando Parrado, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, 2006, with Vince Rause.
- Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, by Piers Paul Read, 1974.
- Society of the Snow, by Pablo Vierci, and the 2023 film made from it.