Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay (born 9 December 1949) is a Uruguayan businessman, producer, motivational speaker, author, television presenter, former rugby player and a racing driver. He is one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed in the Andes on 13 October 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.

Background

Early life

Parrado was born in Montevideo on December 9, 1949, the second of three children of Seler Parrado and Xenia "Eugenia" Dolgay, a Ukrainian immigrant who arrived in Uruguay at the age of 16. Raised in the Carrasco neighborhood, he attended Stella Maris College, and played for its alumni rugby team, Old Christians Club. At the time of the Andes crash, he was a university student. Of his life prior to the accident Parrado states that: 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.

After the Andes

Parrado co-wrote 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 1974 account of the accident and aftermath, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, a book based on interviews with the survivors. Miracle in the Andes, however, is told only from Parrado's point of view 34 years later. In Chapter 10 of Miracle in the Andes, Parrado notes that after he returned from the mountains, he struggled to cope with the loss of his mother and younger sister Susy in the Andes. He gave up his formal studies, drifted for a period of time, and helped out with his father's business. As he was interested in the field of sports car racing (and after meeting Jackie Stewart), Parrado enrolled in the Jim Russell Racing Driver School. For many years, he developed a career as a professional race car driver, which he gave up after his marriage to Veronique Van Wassenhove. He then took over his father's hardware business alongside his older sister Graciela and her husband, and developed additional businesses (that included becoming a television personality in Uruguay). 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. In 2020, a racehorse named after Parrado won the Coventry Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting. Parrado gave his consent for the horse to be named after him.

Filmography

Parrado was portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 1993 feature film Alive and by Argentine actor Agustín Pardella in the 2023 Spanish feature film Society of the Snow.

Publication