La Serena: Communist traitors or Atacamaña mummies?

We had a few hours to spend in the coastal city of La Serena on our way from the valley to the desert. What a surprisingly charming town, what with its colonial era architecture and ocean air and all.

And Christmas decorations. In June.
It is winter, so...

I still see a guy with a huge head,
skinny neck, abnormally long arms
and stumpy legs.

This is the same statue

La Serena has 29 stone churches in the neoclassic and baroque styles, so we did a quick tour of the churches (we arrived about 15 minutes before all the churches were closing for the afternoon, so by quick I mean quick). 

Iglesia Catedral

Iglesia Catedral

What does the flayed skin
mean in this picture?

Iglesia San Francisco

Iglesia Santo Domingo

Iglesia Santo Domingo

Iglesia Santo Domingo,
and the most open-air confessional
I have ever seen.

With the remaining time we could choose between history at  Museo Histórico Casa Gabriel González Videla or mummies at Museo Arqueológico. 

We chose history, and toured the house of President Don Gabriel Gonzalez Videla. As president (1946-1952), he claimed Chilean Antarctica, gave women the right to vote, and extended social security to more Chileans. 

Casa de Gabriel Gonzalez Videla

The man himself

Just the day before, I had read in Mi Vida Junto a Pablo that he used the support of the Communist party to get elected to the presidency, and then quickly outlawed the party (this was toward the beginning of the Cold War) sending Pablo Neruda (among others) out of Congress and into exile. 

They didn't mention that at the house.