Elderly Chileans celebrate surviving winter

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Great grandmother Teresa Castro, 84, is so glad she made it through the winter she joined thousands of other elderly Chileans for a party on Tuesday to celebrate staying alive.

Castro and her 83-year-old husband, deaf after a lifetime of working in the textile industry, danced and cheered alongside some 3,000 retirees at a party to celebrate the end of the Southern Hemisphere winter, when dense pollution and low temperatures raise the risk of fatal respiratory illnesses.

Chile's first woman President Michelle Bachelet, championing a push to improve old age security for the poor, joined the party and even took part in an aerobic sequence to electronic music.

"We made it through August," Bachelet told retirees, many of whom were dressed in traditional folk costumes, after performing Chile's national dance, known as the Cueca.

The parties in early September are a generations-old tradition in Chile, especially in the capital, home to a third of the population and, in winter, to harsh pollution.

Santiago suffers in winter from some of the highest concentrations of pollution particulates in any of the world's main urban centers, and common respiratory afflictions can become fatal to the elderly.

The deadly brew is created because of Santiago's topography, where the Andes mountains and a smaller coastal mountain range trap pollution in the city in winter months.

"We are happy because, thank God, we got through August without getting sick, both of us," Castro said as she danced beside her husband of 59 years.

Castro, with four children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, says the Santiago smog is the biggest obstacle to her seeing another generation of her family born.

"When I come downtown I choke," she said.

The August party is also popular in other parts of Chile, particularly in the south where winter months are accompanied by freezing rains and snow.

(Reporting by Pav Jordan, editing by Alan Elsner)