Ricardo Lagos, Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera, in addition to having been presidents of Chile, have in common to appear in the list of interviewees that appears at the end of a wild idea, by Jonathan Franklin.

“I did about 200 interviews that translated into more than 5,000 transcription pages.I can tell Kristine McDivitt Tompkins things about her husband that she does not know because I talked to a coursemate since the age of 7, with a teacher, even with Chilean intelligence agents who had the mission of spying on it, ”says the journalist and authorFrom the book about Douglas Tompkins.

In the long list of interviewees there are numerous national names such as Juan Emilio Cheyre, former army chief, Enrique Correa, communicational advisor, and Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez, former American environmentalist.And also foreign characters such as his intimate friend and founder of Patagonia Inc., Yvon Chouinard, in addition to the conversations he held in life with Tompkins himself.

“Doug is like an onion, it has many layers.The book could have easily had a thousand pages, but nobody was going to read it.It is not designed for Greenpeace environmentalists or for an MBA that wants success in business.I want people to buy it at Santiago, Bogotá or London airport, and entertain.It is a sign that a single person can literally change the world, ”says Franklin.

In 300 pages there is the story of the child raised in a field near New York, which at the end of school decides not to go to university and travel the world by performing the most diverse trades, in addition to climbing, skiing and surfing.

The same as in 1964 installed The North Face store in San Francisco, California, and that three years later decided to sell the brand to 50 thousand dollars to leave, next to a group of friends, on a car trip from the United States to theArgentina Patagonia with the mission of climbing Mount Fitz Roy.

The Andinist who after this adventure returned home and joined his first wife's clothing business (Susie Buell) to give life to Esprit.The millionaire businessman who in 1989, already separated, sold the part of him and dedicated the next 25 years of his life to environmentalism.

The conservationist who settled in southern Chile to create large parks with his second wife, Kristine McDivitt.The activist who on December 8, 2015, at 72, died of hypothermia when he fell from his kayak.

The book also describes the immense distrust with which Douglas Tompkins found when at the beginning of the ‘90s began to buy large territories.Government Personeros, members of the Armed Forces, and an intelligence operation, wanted to prove that the "gringo" moved interests away from love to nature.

“I believe that the Chilean people still do not understand Doug Tompkins, have an image made by some media that is wrong.And he didn't tell his story because he preferred to handle the information, so we had to wait for him to really understand who he was. ”

How to reduce Facial and Eye Swelling, From Reasons Like Pimple, Lack of Sleep, Injury, Or Drinking.What Cause ... http://t.co/0CTCCyNX

— Florence Tue Feb 28 04:54:53 +0000 2012

Development legacy Franklin speaks fast and with a Spaniard marked by the American accent, but full of Chileanisms."They did not know with the chichita that were healing," he says to describe the character of the businessman and conservationist, whom he describes in several moments of his story as arrogant.

That self -confidence or obstinacy would also explain the large companies in which Tompkins embarked throughout his life.“He had a big ego and always sure to be right.If he said that you have to do a Coirón raft to get to the Rapanui, you could discuss him, but he was going to do it the same. ”

When he met him, says the writer and reporter, he thought he would meet a great athlete, but he was actually a nerd man surrounded by books and giving Ted talks.And, he affirms, after more than four years studying everything about Tompkins, he continues to discover many works that the American contributed at all silence.

“I think his legacy is still in development.I hope that in 50 more years people wonder who was the crazy gringo who created these parks.He was a very complex guy, a Renaissance man.My book is just a guideline for a new generation of writers to continue digging.And that there is a future shelf full of books on Doug. ”

The author also insists on the deep love and knowledge of Tompkins for Patagonia.He “He completed more than 7,000 hours of plane in that area.He loved three things: to Kristine, his plane and the concept of national parks as imperfect paintings.He knew that the Chilean State could never keep the parks at his level, but that didn't care.A week ago he launched his passport to tour the Patagonia Parks Route, and Doug would be happy in his tomb.That was his great work. ”

Biographer and character own story of Jonathan Franklin also gives to write a book.The American research journalist writes regularly for The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Guardian, and also performs reports for international television networks.He lives in Chile since 1996, currently in Punta de Lobos, Pichilemu, and has seven women women.

The first time he traveled to this country was in 1989 in charge of covering the transition from dictatorship to democracy, he says.He started as a photographer of street protests: "I speak Spanish lousy, but I am very good to skate on Rollers, then I worked with Emilio Sutherland and they passed my camera because I could dodge the people."He stayed in Chile and interviewed many characters of the time."From Frentistas to Jaime Guzmán," he recalls.

For 10 years he reported drug trafficking issues in different countries.“I interviewed Narcos, I drank with hitmen, I did very entertaining things, but covering the narco war you did not change and for me it was important to share what I am doing with my daughters.And when you have seven daughters, there are seven schools, seven braces, seven bicycles, so you have to write fast, ”she says.

In 2011 he published a book on the rescue to the 33 miners of the San José mine, in 2015 a chronCOVID-19 in March 2020.

“There is much to write in Chile.This is a historical moment.The Boric government will be an avant -garde social movement experiment.Very progressive.I feel that the true transition began with the outbreak of October 2019, before Chile was hibernating. ”