| Nando Parrado | |
| Birth Name: | Fernando Seler Parrado Dolgay |
| Birth Date: | 9 December 1949 |
| Birth Place: | Montevideo, Uruguay |
| Education: | Jim Russell Racing Driver School |
| Alma Mater: | Stella Maris College (Montevideo) |
| Genre: | Memoir |
| Subject: | The 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 into the Andes mountains |
| Notable Works: | (with Vince Rause) |
Fernando "Nando" Seler Parrado Dolgay (born 9 December 1949) is a Uruguayan businessman, producer, motivational speaker, author, and television presenter, and former rugby player and 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.[1]
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.[2] Raised in the Carrasco neighborhood, he attended Stella Maris College, and played for its alumni rugby team, Old Christians Club.[3]
At the time of the Andes crash, he was a university student. Of his life prior to the accident Parrado states that:
Parrado co-wrote the 2006 book , with Vince Rause. The book references Piers Paul Read's 1974 account of the accident and aftermath, , 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 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).[4] 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.[1]
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.[5]
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 | 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 | 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 |