Roberto Fernando Jorge François Álvarez (born 23 November 1951), better known as Bobby François,Pedro Algorta. Las montañas siguen allí¡ LID Editorial Empresarial, S.L., 2015. p. 175. . is a former Uruguayan rugby player and agricultural producer, known for being one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in the Andes Mountains in 1972.
Like many other survivors, Bobby had studied at the Stella Maris school in the Carrasco neighborhood and was a member of the Old Christians rugby team.
Tragedy of the Andes At the time of the plane crash, Bobby was 20 years old (and turned 21 at the mountain range).John Guiver. To Play the Game. A History of Flight 571 Heddon Publishing, 2022. p. 61. . His companions say that he seemed to not have a survival instinct, from the moment of the accident, when he sat down in the snow, lit a cigarette and said: "We've had it!".Karen Rodríguez (11 de enero de 2024).Así es la vida de los sobrevivientes de la tragedia de los Andes TV Azteca. Consultado el 2 de febrero de 2024.
On the mountain, Bobby seemed to have no will to live. The others thought he did not care whether he lived or died, such was his degree of apathy and depression. He was not very cooperative. He would melt ice when he was forced to. When his fellow survivors threatened to stop giving him food if he didn't work, he would reply "It seems fair to me".Piers Paul Read. ¡Viven!. El triunfo del espíritu humano Open Road Español, 2017. p. 111. . Nevertheless, the group never stopped caring for him, to the point that Daniel Fernández massaged his feet so that they would not get infected.Piers Paul Read. ¡Viven! La tragedia de los Andes Círculo de Lectores. p. 88. Consultado el 2 de febrero de 2024.
In Bobby's words: "I never saw a clear way out, what I could see was a series of shades ranging from opaque gray to deep black. In that inner struggle I lived the seventy-two days".
Personal life As of 2023, he is married to Graciana Manini.Pablo Vierci. Society of the Snow. The Definitive Account of the World’s Greatest Survival Story Little, Brown and Company, 2023. p. 308. . He has six children: Roberto, Federico, Sofía, Josefina, Milagros and Diego. He is a technician and agricultural producer and lives between his ranch and Carrasco. Bobby has kept a low profile and has not been seen much in the media.
In popular media Roberto François was played by actor Jack Noseworthy in the 1993 film AliveJ. Michael Dlugos. Mr. Mikey's Video Views; Volume One Trafford Publishing, 2000. p. 13. . and by actor Agustín Berruti in the 2023 film Society of the Snow.
Bibliography The 1993 film, Alive, is an adaptation of this book. Originally published in Spanish in 2008 as La Sociedad de la Nieve: Por Primera Vez Los 16 Sobrevivientes Cuentan la Historia Completa. The 2023 film, Society of the Snow, is an adaptation of this book.
References