Contemporary Chile Research Articles

Overwriting the Memory of a Modern Ruin in Chile: From UNCTAD III to GAM

Located in central Santiago, the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Centre (GAM) is in fact the latest renovation of a building that embodies several historical shifts affecting Chile since 1972. Originally conceived as an emblem of modernisation during Salvador Allende’s presidency, it became the headquarters of the Pinochet military junta after the 1973 coup d’etat. In present times, due to the October 2019 social protest movement, the building has been transformed by activists into an impromptu platform for protest art. This essay explores the discursive and spatial relationships between the latest renovation of the GAM building and past events through an analysis of the renovation’s design, its socio-political and cultural context, and its impact upon Chilean collective memory. Archival research for the essay encompasses governmental documents, press releases, and architectural drawings – in conjunction with newspaper articles and television clips. Furthermore, three figures involved in the renovation were interviewed: Christian Yutronic, one of the architects responsible for the redesign; Felipe Mella, the current director of GAM; and Caiozzama, a prominent protest artist who has transformed the building’s facade. This study reveals the links between architectural form and collective memory in contemporary Chile, interweaving topics such as remembrance and erasure, the conservation of ‘difficult’ heritage, and the role played by ideology within current architectural discourse.

The presence of left-wing militant women within projects of poder popular during the Popular Unity years in Concepción and Santiago de Chile, 1970–3

This article analyses, from a gender perspective, the socio-political experiences of eight former left-wing militant women in processes linked to so-called poder popular (popular power). It does so with a focus on poblaciones (shantytowns) and trade unions in Concepción and Santiago between 1970 and 1973. Methodologically, it takes a qualitative approach, contrasting oral history interviews with primary sources. The process of political socialisation in childhood and adolescence influenced women when it came to joining political parties on both the ‘traditional left’ and the ‘revolutionary left’. At the start of the 1970s, these militants participated in grassroots organisations, such as juntas de abastecimiento y precios (supply and price control boards, JAPs), shantytowns, centros de madre (mothers’ centres) and unions, among others. This meant that their practices as party militants had a high degree of continuity with lived social experiences from their youth. The main difference was that as party militants they moved through more politicised spaces and gained access to political training and, in some cases, took on leadership roles within social organisations. Indeed, one woman became a communal – and later, parliamentary – representative. The skills acquired and their experiences during the Popular Unity (UP) period shaped their life trajectories, and consequently, these women have promoted an intergenerational transfer of socio-political practices in new, contemporary Chilean, scenarios.

Language ideologies of emerging institutional frameworks of Mapudungun revitalization in contemporary Chile: nation, Facebook, and the moon of Pandora

Abstract This article is a succinct approach to Mapudungun language ideologies and their development within the political and economic context of 21st century Chile. Social media have empowered Mapudungun language activists and intellectuals and helped them create digital communities, some with hundreds of thousands of followers, from which they establish and promote language policies, defined by themselves. Among the most relevant language ideologies found in the corpus, there is a representation of Indigenous languages as sacred, or untouchable, often implying an essential connection between Indigenous cultures and the natural or spiritual world. This representation (called “cosmovisionism” by activists) tends to contradict modernizing language ideologies that circulate in emerging Mapudungun language planning, mainly due to the influence of Basque and Catalan models based on the notion of language normalization, actively promoted in Chile by agents from those domains. Modernizing visions of Mapudungun tend to be linked to a nationalist political project that demands a solid connection between land, people, history, cultural identity, and language. This leads to ideological tensions between the urgency to anonymize and the need to depoliticize the language, both simultaneously considered fundamental to secure Mapudungun’s expansion.

Exception as a government strategy: contemporary Chile’s housing policy

The adverse effects of Chile’s neoliberal social housing policy have been evident for years. The housing deficit, amount of informal housing and pressure from citizen groups have increased in recent years. Numerous stop-gap strategies have been devised in order to contain its adverse effects, many of which can be classified as “exceptional” policy responses, as opposed to “standard” policy responses. Such strategies may include tailormade rights and arbitrary flexibility, the results of which are radically different from those of the “standard” policy. Our hypothesis is that exception is a government strategy to face the deficiencies and conflicts that the policy brings about. A qualitative study was carried out to study the origins, characteristic and repercussions of exception. The results showed four dimensions of this government strategy. First, the application of exception amid the occurrence of environmental emergencies. Second, the use of exception for economic and political purposes and interests. Third, when inhabitants demand exceptional measures. Fourth, when exceptional targeting mechanisms are created to deal with a population whose characteristics are so particular that they are beyond the sphere of political action. It is concluded that exceptions become the norm in a context of neoliberal governance of social housing policy.

Protest and the persistence of the past

Protest has long been a motor of change in Chile. In October to December 2019 protesters in Santiago harnessed protest methods and memories of hope and change related to Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government (1970–3), resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–90) and discontent with the subsequent decades of neoliberal democracy (1990–2019). The 2019 protests evoked this past in the struggle against the neoliberal system of today. In doing so, the protests offer a complex demonstration of temporal bridging that provides a window onto protest culture and the persistence of the past in contemporary Chile.

Naqshbandi Sufism in Southern Chile: A Case Study

The present article presents the motivations and perceptions of Chilean Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufis. The research sought a deeper understanding of the experience of these practices in contemporary Chile, studying a specific case and some of its effects on the social integration of the participants. Perceptions of the intercultural contact involved were recorded and analyzed, with phenomena such as prejudices and discrimination, considering the country’s mainly Christian context. The most important themes analyzed in the results were the centrality of the concept of “search” and the weight of the figure of the master as motivating factors

The politics of the street: Street art, public writing and the history of political contest in Chile

This commentary focuses on the politics of public space in democracy and dictatorship. It delves into what Peter Winn calls the revolution ‘from below’ from the perspective of urban conflict, suggesting a political history that attends to urban and visual culture as a crucial arena of political practice. It suggests that the often-conflictive battle over public spaces was, and continues to be, a mechanism by which an unprecedented range of citizens entered into an ongoing debate over the boundaries of citizenship, practice, politics and that this practice was adapted, transformed and reimagined over the last five decades. The struggle over streets and walls continues to be central to Chilean political history, and urban space remains a field of ongoing contest and debate: the estallido of social unrest in contemporary Chile connected a new generation of activists to this longer history of creative politics of protest and protest art and gave them the opportunity to articulate new forms of intersectional political thought in public space, even in the face of state-sponsored violence. Studying these forms of unrest reveals that theirs is an incisive, intersectional critique of the limits of the ‘transition to democracy’, of neoliberal democracies and of the legacies of dictatorship.

‘Collecting What the Sea Gives Back’: Postcolonial Ecologies of the Ocean in Contemporary Chilean Film

This article proposes a new mode of understanding the entanglement of ecological and postcolonial questions in contemporary Chilean filmmaking, through the lens of directorial subjectivity. Both Tierra sola (Solitary Land, Tiziana Panizza, 2017), and El botón de nácar (The Pearl Button, Patricio Guzmán, 2015) contest hegemonic structures of belonging by constructing an alternative ‘oceanic archive’. Yet where Guzmán's metaphorical meditations on indigenous connections to the ocean risk collapsing into romanticism and replicating colonial visuality, Panizza's reflexive conception of filmmaking as a situated and embodied practice facilitates a subtler understanding of cinema's political engagement in this sphere.

Corriendo las vallas alrededor del testimonio: reescrituras del género a partir del pacto facticio y la voz medial del periodista/narrador

En el presente artículo, el primero de un proyecto extenso sobre el género testimonial chileno y venezolano contemporáneo, se pretenderá un acercamiento a este formato a partir de cuatro textos que han sido leídos como investigaciones periodísticas: El despertar de los cuervos. Tejas Verdes el origen del exterminio en Chile (2013) de Javier Rebolledo, Ingrid Olderock. La mujer de los perros (2014) de Nancy Guzmán, El grito ignorado (2012) de Ibéyise Pacheco y Abril golpe adentro (2009) de Ernesto Villegas. Para esto se ocuparán dos registros: la presencia del elemento de facción, que alude a la elaboración de una trama narrativa y a la problematización de los personajes testimoniantes en ella, con lo cual se estaría vinculando estructura y contenido; y la intromisión de la voz de un periodista/narrador en el testimonio. Como soportes teóricos se trabajará a partir de las nociones de Albert Chillón, Roland Barthes, Nora Strejilevich y Carolina Pizarro-Cortés, entre otros autores.

Resisting Neoliberal Totality: The “New” Nueva Canción Movement in Post-Authoritarian Chile

ABSTRACT In contemporary Chile the “new” Nueva Canción Chilena movement has been actively defying the legacyof the neoliberal fascist counterrevolution imposed by the dictatorship.. In this context, Manuel García constructs his poetics via a combination of rock, the trobador tradition, and various Latin American popular genres, while Aldo Asenjo has been recuperating long-marginalized musical forms, such as cumbia chilombiana and canción cebolla. I argue that what guides these projects is a pursuit of authenticity by means of enacting auralscapes that have affectively shaped Chilean cultural memory, and a way its 1960s predecessors were not in a position to accomplish.

Transposición de El Húsar de la Muerte de Pedro Sienna por el colectivo La Patogallina

This work analyzes the “adaptation” of the film El húsar de la muerte of Pedro Sienna made by La Patogallina collective. It explores the link between both pieces from the transposition viewpoint, the relationship between the silent cinematographic language and the theatrical one, and the political aftermaths of the theater piece. For such reasons, it notes the success achieved by the movie, the popularity of the character Manuel Rodriguez, the characteristics of the play and the narrative and aesthetics operations of the transposition. With this, La Patogallina would build a piece that celebrates both the silent cinema code from the theatrical language and the figure of Manuel Rodriguez, updating its political meaning and that of its fight in contemporary Chile.  

Intersections of Politics, Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Life in Contemporary Chilean Criticism and Art

Intersections of Politics, Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Life in Contemporary Chilean Criticism and Art

Crisis and transformation of occupational identities in three sectors (retail, mining, state): contributions to understanding workplace subjectivities in neoliberal Chile

In the context of the restructuring of production and the emergence of more flexible work patterns, this article contributes to our understanding of changing workplace subjectivities under neoliberalism in contemporary Chile. Using research carried out by the authors, it describes the break-up of traditional ‘occupational identities’ that historically played a key role in shaping labour subjectivities in three key sectors of the Chilean economy—mining, retail and public service. These occupational identities, which combine forms of know-how, moral values, and a sense of belonging, still have an important symbolic weight in work experiences although they are under severe pressure from flexible reorganisation processes. The emergence of new, more individualised workplace subjectivities based on generic skills and geared to strategic mobility, is also described. The coexistence of both workplace subject profiles accounts for the complexities and heterogeneity of the processes of cultural and subjective change in the current world of work.

“Mad for Our Rights”: Community, mental health and citizenship in contemporary Chile

The following article addresses a critical analysis of Chile's Mental Health public policies, highlighting its conception of the community approach as an expression of a State that does not dialogue with society. In accordance with a qualitative and participatory investi-gative process, a global perspective towards the recognition, exercise and defense of rights in Mental Health from users and ex-users’ perspectives is described. It is concluded that the protagonism of these social actors constitutes a central aspect for the distribu-tion of power and the recovery of citizenship rights. Finally, the key points of the partic-ipatory process allow us to understand the role of community facilitation and militant re-search towards the reconstruction of associative ties and collective actions in mental health.

Presidenciales chilenas 2017. Por quién y cuánto votan los indígenas

Este artículo indaga sobre el comportamiento electoral de un segmento específico pero relevante de la sociedad como son los indígenas en Chile contemporáneo, a partir de dos dimensiones: su asistencia a votar —participación electoral— y su inclinación ideológica —preferencia electoral—. Se estudian cuantitativamente los factores sociodemográficos que pueden explicar tanto la participación como la preferencia electoral. Además, se analizan diacrónicamente los resultados electorales en las quince comunas del país que tienen más de 50% de población indígena. Se concluye que la interacción entre las variables alta pobreza y alta población indígena inciden en la participación electoral y en la preferencia ideológica; además, el examen pormenorizado de las comunas revela trayectorias de comportamiento muy disímiles y que están mediadas por su propia historia electoral, el tipo de elección que se enfrente y cambios en la regla sobre la voluntariedad del voto.

The Legal Geographies of Water Claims: Seawater Desalination in Mining Regions in Chile

The use of desalination has been increasing in recent years. Although this is not a new technology, its use often proceeds within ill-defined and ambiguous legal, institutional, economic and political frameworks. This article addresses these considerations for the case of Chile, and offers an evaluation of legal ambiguities regarding differences between desalinated water and other freshwater sources and associated consequences. This discussion reviews court records and legal documents of two companies operating desalination plants, both of which have simultaneous rights granted for underground water exploitation: the water supply company in the Antofagasta Region and Candelaria mining company in the Atacama Region. The analysis shows that issues of ambiguity and gaps in the legal system have been exploited in ways that allow these entities to continue the use and consumption of mountain water. They do so by producing desalinated water, and by entering into water transfer and diversion contracts with the mining sector. These findings highlight the importance of undefined socio-legal terrain in terms of shifting hydro-geographies of mining territories, contributing conceptually to critical geographies of desalination, delineating the importance of legal geographies important for water governance, as well as empirically documenting the significance of this case to consider shifts for the mining sector and water technologies and uses in contemporary Chile.

Materiales para una estética de la marginalidad: pornomiseria, signos marginales y subjetividad

El presente artículo explora algunos principios teóricos que puedan servir como contribución para una posible estética de la marginalidad. Para ello, tras delimitar lo que se comprenderá por marginalidad en el contexto de la teorización latinoamericana reciente, se abordará, en primer lugar, aquello que los realizadorescolombianos Luis Ospina y Carlos Mayolo denominaronpornomiseria, en tanto noción epistémico-crítica fundamental. Más adelante, se tratará la cuestión de los signos marginales y su recepción a luz de la experiencia en cierta territorialidad del Chile contemporáneo, específicamente en periferias de la ciudad de Santiago. Finalmente, se concentrará en las implicancias que el proyecto de una estética de la marginalidad tiene para la construcción de identidades políticas This article explores some theoretical principles that can serve as a contribution to a possible aesthetics of marginality. For this, the information refers to the marginality in the context of the recent Latin American theory, and it is addressed, in the first place, what the Colombian filmmakers Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo called pornomisery, as a fundamental epistemic-critical notion. Later, the issue of marginal signs and their reception will be addressed in light of the experience in a certain territoriality of contemporary Chile, specifically, in the peripheries of Santiago. Finally, it will focus on the implications that the project of an aesthetics of marginality has for the construction of political identities

Acumulación originaria y capitalismo neoliberal. Una posible lectura del Chile post-golpe

El artículo se propone pensar el «capitalismo neoliberal» a la luz de la noción marxiana de «acumulación originaria» e intenta verificar el marco teórico construido en la historia contemporánea de Chile. La primera parte es una exploración del debate actual sobre la noción de acumulación originaria. La segunda parte caracteriza al capitalismo neoliberal como una forma de nueva acumulación originaria, de la cual podemos identificar un polo objetivo, que llamamos neoliberalismo como desposesión, y un polo subjetivo, que enmarcamos en lo que llamamos neoliberalismo como tecnología (o neoliberalismo biopolítico). En la tercera parte tomamos la historia del Chile post-Golpe, para hacer emerger la función fundadora de la violencia en el capitalismo neoliberal.

‘Interculturalism as treason’: policing, securitization, and neoliberal state formation in Southern Chile

ABSTRACTThis article offers an ethnographic analysis of Patrullas de Acercamiento a Comunidades Indígenas (Indigenous Community Outreach Patrols, or PACI), a community police initiative of the Chilean police. It situates the program within the broader context of democratization, state-sponsored interculturalism, and neoliberal state formation in contemporary Chile. It shows how the burden of establishing intercultural relations falls upon lower-ranking indigenous officers to argue that in the context of the so-called ‘Mapuche conflict’ the PACI officials stand out as a potential traitors because they are always at risk of being accused of not being in a ‘true’ and ‘inner’ allegiance with either the indigenous communities or the state. Further, we argue that the PACI represents an expansion of the state’s presence in the life of the poor indigenous population. This state expansion reinforces contemporary neoliberal policies where focus is on the formation of a state and subjects that comply with the ideals of a free market economy. The analysis of indigeneity in Chile must therefore take seriously this intimate state presence and the consequences it holds for those involved in these processes.

Fictions that become reality, fictions to modify reality

In this paper, we propose that fiction is not only a false way of referring the social reality or a ruse for the construction of imaginary worlds. On the contrary, we understand fictions as a human capacity highly productive in the construction and organization of the social world, a capacity widely disseminated in this world. We started giving an overview on some discussions in social sciences on the issue of fictionality. After that, we rescue the notions of “real fiction” and “fictional expectations” address the productive character of fiction, with special emphasis on its temporary reference. We conclude by studying the social practice of to act as if the fictional was real discuss its implications in one of the most productive uses that has had in contemporary Chile: the notion of permanent kidnapping proposed by Judge Guzman challenge legal order established by 1978 Amnesty Law.