Battlegrounds With H.R. McMaster: International Perspectives

Nando Parrado: Resilience, Rugby, and Leading Your Life | Battlegrounds | H.R. McMaster | Hoover Institution

Jul 16, 2025

Nando Parrado, a businessman and renowned speaker, shares his extraordinary survival story from the 1972 Andes crash. He discusses the deep bonds formed through rugby, emphasizing teamwork and brotherhood as essential for overcoming challenges. Parrado reflects on how his family’s values shaped his resilience and leadership during adversity. He also highlights the importance of real connections over digital interactions and promotes rugby as a catalyst for personal growth and community building. His inspiring insights resonate especially with the younger generation.

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ANECDOTE

Rugby Builds Unique Brotherhood

Rugby builds brotherhood and unity unlike any other sport.
Players support and protect each other, embracing post-game regardless of the tough physical contest.

INSIGHT

Rugby Instills Survival Bonds

The crash survivors faced a daily battle against a harsh natural environment.
Rugby forged the trust and teamwork essential for enduring extreme adversity together.

ANECDOTE

Survival Mindset Over Emotion

In the crash aftermath, Nando forcefully buried loved ones but couldn't cry due to focusing on survival.
His mind shielded him from suffering like a soldier facing battle, prioritizing action over emotion.

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Join Fernando “Nando” Parrado, businessman, author, and internationally recognized speaker, and Hoover Senior Fellow H.R. McMaster as they discuss endurance, crisis leadership, and the remarkable will to survive. Surviving one of the most harrowing events of the twentieth century: the 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, tragically losing his mother, sister, and many rugby teammates, Parrado reflects on how the values and work ethic his family engrained in him, which was nurtured on the rugby pitch, helped build the resilience needed to withstand 72 days in extreme conditions and lead a mission across the Andes to save the remaining survivors. Author of international best-seller, Miracle in the Andes, Parrado describes why he chose to publish the book 36 years after the ordeal, how he went on to create a second life after the trauma, why rugby instills life lessons like no other sport in the world – moral clarity, collective responsibility, self-confidence, and his inspiring advice for young people today.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Fernando “Nando” Parrado is a businessman, author, and internationally recognized speaker whose extraordinary life story began with one of the most harrowing survival events of the twentieth century: the 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the Andes Mountains.

H.R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He was the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018.