The Chilean Gerardo Arteaga Oehninger (1944-2025, Santiago) was fascinated when, as a student at the San Ignacio Jesuit school, he heard the stories of the Belgian priest Josse Van Der Rest, who before devoting himself to religious life had been a sniper in the Second World War and a spy for the English against the Germans. The priest, who arrived in Chile in 1958, told his experiences to the Cruz de la Montaña scout group—which he himself had formed—leaving a mark in the memory of those young people. That’s why when he called Arteaga in the mid-1970s, the former student turned agronomist and businessman, knew well who he was talking to. Van Der Rest worked at Hogar de Cristo, a foundation dedicated to the most vulnerable, and urgently needed money. The businessman told him, as he recounted during his lifetime, that he had no money and the religious suggested that he ask for a loan. “And how are you going to pay me?” he asked. “I will never pay you, but I have some scooter cars.” [coches de choque] that we are selling and you can keep them,» responded the priest who, without knowing it, was giving him the first push to immerse himself in the world of entertainment. Artega, dedicated to entrepreneurship in the countryside and improving land productivity, received the bumper cars that Van Der Rest had brought from Europe and, using the workshop he had to maintain the heavy machinery, he gave them a second useful life. Almost without expectations, he took them to the Estero Marga Marga, in Viña del Mar. The response from the public was immediate. The The image of those enormous lines remained in his head and, when he went to a work meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he saw that an amusement park was being built near his office and he was convinced that this was the way to go. As soon as he landed in Santiago, he mentioned the idea to his wife, María Inés Cerda, and called the designated mayor of the commune of Santiago, Patricio Mekis, to whom he quickly embarked on the project. O’Higgins, one of the largest green areas in the capital. Arteaga partnered with those close to the agricultural world, Enrique Rodríguez and the brothers Juan Pablo and Alfonso Barroilhet, and obtained a loan from the Production Promotion Corporation (Corfo), leaving a family farm as collateral. Gerardo Arteaga Oehninger in an undated image.CourtedIn just 115 days of construction, Fantasilandia opened its doors on January 26, 1978, during the first years of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, with eight games that Arteaga bought from Spanish, Italian and German businessmen. One of those games was, of course, bumper cars, which Van Der Rest, who blessed the place, hopped on to enjoy once again. After almost half a century located in O’Higgins Park, near the center, the amusement park through which thousands of children and adults have passed, is preparing its move in 2027 to the outskirts of Santiago, in the rural town of Lo Herrera, after a decade of efforts. The future space, five times larger than the current one – 30 hectares – will have a water park, the Splash Park, which will open its doors this year. Since that call in the seventies, Arteaga and the work of the Jesuit saint Alberto Hurtado have not been separated again. And now, Gerardo Arteaga Cerda, son of the founder and general manager of Fantasilandia for more than a decade, intends to maintain the link. To honor the origin of the successful business, Arteaga Cerda tells EL PAÍS that the new Fantasilandia will display a green truck belonging to Father Hurtado, with which the priest circulated around the city picking up homeless people to give them shelter, and also a statue of the Jesuit. The family is still defining how to celebrate their father, who died last August at the age of 81 from pancreatic cancer. At the end of last year, Arteaga Oehninger became the first Chilean to be a member of the International Association of Amusement Parks (IAAPA) Hall of Fame. Only two other Latin Americans have received the recognition: the Mexican Xavier López Ancona, creator of KidZania, and the Bolivian-Brazilian Marcelo Gutglas, founder of Playcenter, who share the honor with the minds behind Disney World or Universal Studios. “My dad was a visionary,” says Arteaga Cerda. «He had been talking about inclusion, quality and entertainment for everyone since 1975. He liked to party and see how to bring that to the simplest people. For those years [de dictadura]»He never changed his speech,» says the eldest of the four children of the founder of Fantasilandia, who remembers how as a child he fell into a drought while the amusement park was being built. His father, he says, also instilled in him the need to participate in the industry in which he works, just as he did. In parallel with amusement parks—he also founded Happyland and the extinct Magic World—Artaga Oehninger specialized in the export of premium fruit, which he developed in the Fundo Dos Amalias, in the commune of Paine. He was vice president of the National Agricultural Society (SNA), a senior leader of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (CCS) and president of the Santiago International Fair (FISA), the largest multi-sector event in Chile. “The perfect time to do business does not exist,” was one of his mantras. José Fransico Yuraszeck, General Chaplain of Hogar de Cristo, points out that the entrepreneurial spirit itself was what made him hooked very well. with Father Van Der Rest, who died in 2020, who came from a family of businessmen and who in Chile founded the Latin American, African and Asian Popular Housing Service (SELAVIP). the families that the Hogar de Cristo welcomes and its employees. “It is a gift every year, which between 3,000 and 4,000 people look forward to,” adds Yuraszeck. He took the lead from Van Der Rest, who took advantage of that day to bless the park’s new attractions, a tradition that continues. 
Access to the Fantasilandia amusement park.Cristian Soto QuirozAt Arteaga Oehninger’s funeral, on August 14, they distributed a prayer that the businessman prayed every night with his wife María Inés. He had learned it in that scout group that marked his life when he was young and that, when he was older, he was the one who told the stories to his grandchildren. In the prayer he asked God to teach him to be generous, to work tirelessly “and to seek no reward other than knowing that we have done your will.” And that’s how his people remember him.
