Nando Parrado

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Parrado and the second or maternal family name is Dolgay.

Fernando Parrado
Born	Fernando Seler Parrado (1949-12-09) 9 December 1949 Montevideo, Uruguay
Nationality	Uruguayan
Occupation	Entrepreneur, TV presenter, motivational speaker, writer
Spouse(s)	Veronique Van Wassenhove
Children	Verónica and Cecilia
Website	www.parrado.com

Parrado (left) and Canessa with Chilean Huaso Sergio Catalan.

Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay (born December 9, 1949) is one of the sixteen Uruguayan survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. After spending two months trapped in the mountains with the other crash survivors, he, along with Roberto Canessa, climbed through the Andes mountains over a 10-day period to find help. His efforts, supported in various ways by the entire group, have been recognized through books and other media. He was portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 1993 feature film Alive: Miracle in The Andes.

Background

Parrado was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Seler and Eugenia Parrado, the second of three children, with an older sister, Graciela, and a younger sister, Susana or "Susy". He graduated from the Stella Maris College (Montevideo) and played for their alumni rugby team, Old Christians Club.

At the time of the Andes crash, he was a university student. In his 2006 book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, Nando Parrado comments on his life in the days immediately prior to the Andes:

When it finally came time to choose a college, I decided to enroll in agricultural school, because that was where my closest friends were going. When my father heard the news, he shrugged and smiled. 'Nando,' he said, 'your friends' families own farms and ranches. We have hardware stores.' It was not hard for him to talk me into changing my mind. In the end, I did what made sense: I entered business school with no serious thought about what school would mean for me or where this decision might lead. I would graduate or I would not. I would run the hardware stores or maybe I wouldn't. My life would present itself to me when it was ready. In the meantime, I spent the summer being Nando; I played rugby, I chased girls with Panchito, I raced my little Renault along the beach roads at Punta del Este, I went to parties and I lay in the sun, I lived for the moment, drifting with the tide, waiting for my future to reveal itself, always happy to let others lead the way. (p.30-31)

Parrado also states in Miracle in the Andes that after he returned from the mountains, he gave up his studies. Still coping with the loss of his sister, Susy, and their mother, both victims of the same plane crash, Parrado drifted for a period of time. Initially, Parrado helped out in his father's business, though he was interested in the field of sports car racing and for many years developed a career as a professional race car driver. After his marriage, he gave up professional racing and took over his father's hardware business alongside his older sister and brother-in-law. He also developed additional businesses and became a television personality in Uruguay.

Conferences

In addition to his work in business and television, Parrado is a motivational speaker, using his experience in the Andes to help others cope with psychological trauma.

Miracle in the Andes

Parrado co-authored the 2006 book Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, with Vince Rause. The book references Piers Paul Read's account of the accident and aftermath, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, which was written two years after the rescue (and based upon interviews with the survivors). Miracle in the Andes, however, is told from Parrado's point of view 34 years later.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Alive: Miracle in The Andes	technical advisor	film
1993	Alive: 20 Years Later	himself	video documentary
2002	Return to the Andes	himself	video documentary short
2006	Alive: Back to the Andes	himself	TV documentary
2007	Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains	himself	documentary
2009	Independent Lens' (Stranded: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors)	himself	TV series documentary
2010	I Am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash	himself	documentary aired on History Channel

See also

• Roberto Canessa
• Carlos Páez Rodríguez

External links

External audio
Owen Bennett-Jones 2006 Interview with Owen Bennett-Jones on BBC The Interview

• Official Site to Book Nando Parrado as a Speaker
• Nando Parrado at the Internet Movie Database