Pedro Pascal has become one of the biggest names in Hollywood in recent years. However, the Chilean actor’s life could’ve been way different had his parents not escaped from Chile back in the 1970s. Augusto Pinochet was the dictator of Chile at the time of Pascal’s birth and although his parents were not revolutionaries per se, they were somehow related to the revolutionaries who were protesting against the dictator’s rule.
In a recent appearance on a podcast, Pedro Pascal opened up about how his parents escaped from Chile and reached the USA.
Pedro Pascal opened up about his parents’ lives in Chile
In a recent appearance on the SmartLess podcast, Pedro Pascal narrated the bone-chilling story of how his parents escaped from Chile when the actor was about only one year old. Pascal talked about how his parents found themselves in the crosshairs of the military under Augusto Pinochet’s rule. Pascal said, “I wouldn’t say my parents were revolutionaries by any stretch of the imagination, but they were young, liberal college students.”
Although Pascal’s parents themselves weren’t revolutionaries, his mother’s first cousin was “very involved in the opposition movement against the military regime.” In an unfortunate firefight, a revolutionary was injured and he was taken to Pascal’s father’s place so that he could be given medical treatment. His parents also provided the revolutionary with shelter as he went into hiding.
The Mandalorian actor talks about why his parents had to escape from Chile
After the revolutionary who was shot went into hiding, it seemed like everything would work itself out as there was no more evidence that Pedro Pascal’s parents had helped a known revolutionary, However, that was just the calm before the storm. The person who had taken the wounded revolutionary to Pascal’s father’s place was “taken into custody and tortured” and he ended up giving the name of Pascal’s father. The actor further added, “They came looking for my parents, and so then my parents had to go into hiding for about six months.” Pascal was allegedly only 4 months old at the time.
After hiding for almost 6 months, Pascal’s parents devised a plan to escape from Chile since they cannot live their lives in hiding forever. The actor revealed that his parents climbed over the walls of the Venezuelan embassy in Santiago while the guards weren’t on duty and demanded ‘asylum‘.
Pedro Pascal’s family was given political asylum in Denmark before they were moved to the US where the actor was raised in Orange County, California.
Things eventually cooled down in Chile as Pascal had once revealed that his family regularly visited Chile to visit his “34 cousins” when he was a child of 7-8 years.
Source: SmartLess Podcast
