Nando Parrado

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 more than two months trapped in the mountains with the other crash survivors, he, along with Roberto Canessa, climbed through the Andes mountains over 10 days 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 before the accident, Parrado states that:

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. 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.

Filmography Roberto Canessa, Fernando Parrado, and Carlos Páez Rodríguez attend the Venice premiere of the film "Society of the Snow" in 2023.

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.

Year Title Role Notes 1993 Alive technical advisor feature 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 2023 Society of the Snow Airport family member feature film 2024 Society of the Snow: Who Were We on the Mountain? himself Netflix documentary 2024 Alive: The Andes Plane Disaster (originally Andes Plane Crash) himself ITN documentary (currently streaming on Amazon Prime)