SM调教所

SM调教所 Boulder showing of film, followed by panel discussion including Chileans who grew up in the dictatorship, will address the 50-year legacy of the 1973 military coup and Augusto Pinochet鈥檚 17-year rule

Fifty years ago this month, Gen. Augusto Pinochet led a military coup to overthrow democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity government.

In the almost 17 years that followed, the Chilean people lived under a brutal and violent dictatorship during which an or executed, tens of thousands more were arrested and often tortured and an estimated .

Pinochet banned political parties, had national electoral registries destroyed, privatized government social welfare programs and redrafted the constitution, which had been in place since 1925, to give himself sole authority to curtail individual rights.

Though Pinochet , or yes/no vote by everyone in a country, to determine whether he should be president for eight more years, the legacy of the coup and his dictatorship continue resonating in Chile, 50 years later.

鈥淭he dictatorship left a lot of scars,鈥� says Julio Sep煤lveda, a SM调教所 associate professor of geological sciences听补苍诲 Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research fellow who was born during the dictatorship and grew up in Chill谩n, Chile. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a trauma, and it鈥檚 a trauma for society and for individuals and families. You didn鈥檛 have to be alive in 1973 to suffer that trauma鈥攎any generations were impacted and still are impacted.鈥�

Sep煤lveda will be part of a following a screening of 鈥淭he Coup in Santiago: The Last Days of Salvador Allende.鈥� The event, hosted by the SM调教所 Boulder Latin American and Latinx Studies Center, will focus on the complex social, political and economic legacy of the coup and dictatorship.

鈥淲hen I was a child, we didn鈥檛 speak about it very much because I think people were afraid,鈥� says Viviana Huili帽ir-Curio, a PhD student in the SM调教所 Boulder Department of Geography who also will be a panelist Wednesday.

鈥淚t was super taboo, and I think some people decided they couldn鈥檛 talk about it because someone could hear you and put in a call to the carabineros (the national law enforcement) saying that you were a Marxist.鈥�

Growing up in a dictatorship

Both Huili帽ir-Curio and Sep煤lveda were born during the dictatorship, beginning school when nationalism and Chilean identity were strongly emphasized even to young children. Huili帽ir-Curio, who grew up in Temuco, Chile, belongs to the Mapuche indigenous group. However, because of policies of discrimination against indigenous groups during the dictatorship, she didn鈥檛 grow up speaking鈥攐r even learning鈥攈er native language of Mapudungun.

鈥淧ersecution was part of the experience during the dictatorship,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he older generations preferred not to teach Mapudungun because for them, it was something that could be dangerous. And in school, I never heard the word 鈥榙ictatorship,鈥� it was always 鈥榯he government of Pinochet.鈥� I realize now that the education in school during the dictatorship tried to reinforce distorted ideas about how Pinochet brought development and progress to the country, and it was very influenced by the U.S. culture of the American dream and reinforcing patriotic feelings and national symbols. And indigenous people in these stories were only part of the past, impacting our identities, while discrimination and racism were part of daily life.鈥�

However, she also remembers growing up singing the songs of Quelentaro and , a folk singer and activist who was tortured and murdered by the military junta in 1973. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 totally understand the meaning,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut they wrote songs about injustice, about inequality and the impoverishment of Mapuche and Chilean campesinos (peasants) and the experiences of low-income families living in the 辫辞产濒补肠颈贸苍 (marginalized urban neighborhoods). They were songs of resistance.鈥�

As a child during the dictatorship, Sep煤lveda says he wasn鈥檛 aware of the political and economic nuances that were the daily reality for Chileans, but he was aware of divisions even within families鈥攖hat Pinochet supporters could report anti-Pinochet family members to authorities.

He also has an uncle who was detained and tortured; an aunt's husband who was in Chile鈥檚 FBI-equivalent helped trace and gain his uncle's release.

鈥業t鈥檚 a part of us now鈥�

Living in the United States has also given Huili帽ir-Curio and Sep煤lveda distinct perspectives on the legacy of the dictatorship and how it continues affecting Chile today. , some as , detailing U.S. involvement in the events leading up to the coup, generally justified as preventing the spread of communism. Also this summer, Chilean President Gabriel Boric to track down the desaparecidos, or disappeared, who were never found.

However, Sep煤lveda mentions that Chile鈥攍ike many countries, including the United States鈥攊s seeing a surge in right-wing rhetoric and extremism, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e hearing many similar things that were said before the coup, as well: socialism is hurting the economy, the government wants to take our land, society is more violent and we鈥檙e not safe. These are things you hear in America, too.鈥�

In September 2022, Chilean voters rejected a referendum for a new, progressive constitution, keeping the one written during the dictatorship in place, and in May conservatives won the majority of seats on a 50-member commission to redraft the constitution.

鈥淭he right wing has really started emphasizing policies of fear, creating a sense of chaos, telling people that the left wing is going to bring us back to the 鈥�70s, to socialism,鈥� Sep煤lveda says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e writing policy for social benefits, for access to education, if you support those initiatives, then you get labeled a communist. The far right is creating a campaign of fear that we鈥檒l become the new Venezuela, which is not the case.

鈥淐hile is a diverse society, and it鈥檚 difficult to see how countries that have so much good in them are being corroded by a system that is so rigged, by a narrative that is so convincing.鈥�

However, Sep煤lveda says he sees hope in the Estallido Social protests of the previous four years that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets against social inequality. Further, Huili帽ir-Curio says she sees hope in the ever-growing focus on identity, political memory and indigenous rights, in people鈥檚 willingness to speak out against economic and social inequality shaped by the dictatorship and in younger generations' using education and artistic expression, among other tools, to not allow the lessons of the past 50 years to be forgotten.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very complicated legacy, and there are those who say we need to move on, we need to put it behind us,鈥� Huili帽ir-Curio says. 鈥淭he denialism from political parties that do not officially recognize the damage provoked by the dictatorship is difficult to talk about, forgive and forget. It鈥檚 a part of us now, it鈥檚 a part of who we are, and we must ask every day what we learn from this history, this reality.鈥�

Top image: Soldiers force presidential palace employees to the ground during the September 1973听coup; photo by Chas Gerretsen for Gamma

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