Papers by Carolina Aguilera
Documento de trabajo nº52 2 2024 COES
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L'Homme & la Société , 2023
Examinamos cómo el estallido social en Chile en 2019 plantea la cuestión de la (des)organización ... more Examinamos cómo el estallido social en Chile en 2019 plantea la cuestión de la (des)organización y espontaneidad de la acción colectiva. Describimos y analizamos la secuencia de la movilización social, centrándonos en los primo-manifestantes. Estudiamos la participación de este grupo en el estallido desde dos dimensiones: por un lado, su (des)organización y falta de liderazgo, y por otro lado, los marcos latentes y emergentes que los motivaron a salir a las calles. Este documento utiliza el material recopilado por el grupo de investigación Escucha Activa del Centro de Estudios de Cohesión Social y Conflictos (COES) entre enero y agosto de 2020, que consistió en un grupo deliberativo y 47 entrevistas con primo-manifestantes del estallido
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DE-COMMEMORATION Removing Statues and Renaming Places, 2023
On 18 October 2019 Chilean society began to experience the most massive protests since the resist... more On 18 October 2019 Chilean society began to experience the most massive protests since the resistance movement against Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-90). 1 Th e protests escalated quickly both in size and scope, turning into an enormous movement against existing social inequalities and the neoliberal model imposed by the dictatorship. Unexpectedly, a few days later, attacks on public monuments and statues of all kinds spread across the country, engaging in a global trend of antiracist and anticolonial demonumentalization. In Chile, several statues of colonial and national heroes were overturned or transformed. Th is mobilization resulted in more than four hundred historic monuments, located in multiple cities, being altered, torn down, decapitated, or burned down. In this chapter, we will focus on what was probably the most theatrical statue intervention that took place in Chile in those days: the case of the city of Concepción. Drawing on press reviews, historical and offi cial documents, and interviews, we refl ect on how the dynamics of the revolt activated repertoires of protest that reverberated upon unsettled postcolonial memories. We conclude that anti-neoliberal protest became, unexpectedly, part of a mobilization that brought to the public space diff erent layers of past oppressions. Protestors not only enacted the continuity of historical injustice but also activated through their actions
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Estudios Sociológicos, 2023
El objetivo de este artículo es compren-der cómo definen los individuos su posición social durant... more El objetivo de este artículo es compren-der cómo definen los individuos su posición social durante la crisis sociopolítica abierta por el estallido social del 2019 en Chile. Se utiliza una encuesta basada en viñetas en una muestra estadísticamente representativa en Santiago y Puerto Montt. Los resultados muestran que las dos formas principales de nombrar la posición social subjetiva, según clase social u otros atributos, abarcan a una similar can-tidad de individuos. Los encuestados que apelan a clase social se autoclasifican preferentemente en la clase media baja, mientras quienes hacen referencia a otros atributos tienden a posicionarse subjetiva-mente en la clase baja. También se estima en qué medida el tipo de posición subjetiva depende de las condiciones socioeconómicas de los respondentes.
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Political Geography, 2022
This article analyzes the political geography of conflicts around memory of the Chilean dictators... more This article analyzes the political geography of conflicts around memory of the Chilean dictatorship (1973-1990). These have intensified since the social mobilizations that began on October 18, 2019, due mainly to attacks on monuments to the dictatorship's victims. Based on a descriptive analysis of their vandalization and an in-depth study of two particular cases, we assert that, although transitional policies permitted the installation of condemnation of human rights violations as the majority position in society, conflicts about the dictatorship's legacy persist, even 30 years after it ended. They are expressed antagonistically (Mouffe, 2013; Bull & Hansen, 2016) by sectors that do not participate in the debate about the past and, instead, undertake actions that position the victims as subjects who must be eliminated, attacking the most iconic representations of public recognition of the victims: memorials in their honor. This article argues that it is still possible to consider the development of agonistic memories within the Chilean memory landscape. It is a path of recognition of the suffering of the other that, at the same time, allows discussion and conflict between political sectors, formed around different interpretations of the past, to become part of the everyday life.
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Memory studies, 2021
This article analyzes the interventions of monuments that occurred in conjunction with the mass 2... more This article analyzes the interventions of monuments that occurred in conjunction with the mass 2019-2020 anti-neoliberal protests in Chile where almost 400 monuments representing Spanish conquerors and colonial and nineteenth-century national heroes were pulled down, contested, or transformed. The article illustrates how a social movement against social injustices and inequalities enacted and engaged with decolonial repertoires of action. It analyzes two performative cases of toppled monuments to Pedro de Valdivia, the leading Spanish conqueror, in the southern cities of Concepción and Valdivia. It then examines recent debate about the anti-racist and decolonial de-monumentalization trend seen around the world and discusses some particularities of the Latin American case. It concludes by arguing that, although the monument interventions involved spontaneous and effervescent ritualistic affects, they are expressive of decolonial challenges to intertwined and long-standing national memories, calling for reconsideration of our national identities.
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Space and Culture, 2021
In this short essay, I explore the recent reassessment of ruined sites haunted by the echoes of S... more In this short essay, I explore the recent reassessment of ruined sites haunted by the echoes of State terrorism across the Southern Cone of Latin America, asking what is at stake in the conservation of former detention centers and focusing on Villa Grimaldi in Chile. The site was initially transformed into a green park but has subsequently become a museum in which remains of the original buildings and artifacts from the repressive past are publicly accessible. I draw on perspectives that claim that even ruins that portray past acts of inhumanity do not necessarily need to evoke melancholic or traumatic retrospection; rather, they are sites of alternative pasts and futures. The transition from the original green park design to a more prominent use of the ruins speaks of an invitation to reassess the past, addressing marginal aspects of emblematic memories, including the political conflict that underpinned the repression. Keywords ruins, Villa Grimaldi, cultural memory, political violence, sites of conscience In recent years, there has been widespread revaluation of ruined sites that reflect the impact of State terrorism across America's Southern Cone and particularly in Chile. Villa Grimaldi is a suburban estate in Santiago that was commandeered by the secret police during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) for the detention, torture, and disappearance of political prisoners. The site was transformed into a green park inaugurated in 1998, following the return of democracy, but since 2007, architecture and artifacts from this period of State terrorism are on public display (Rebolledo & Sagredo, 2020). Londres 38, another former secret detention center, was left unaltered and opened as a public memorial in 2010 (Aguilera, 2019). More recently, a memorial created inside Chile's National Stadium, which was also used as a detention center, preserves unaltered spaces in which marks scratched on the walls by prisoners have been permanently protected (Hite & Sturken, 2019). How is it that these material traces have acquired relevance over time? As Diana Taylor (2009) asks, "What do ruins ask of us as we walk through as tourists, visitors, or witnesses?" (p. 13). Bringing the Past to Bear Witness to the Present Taylor (2009) proposes the act of visiting ruins as a form of performing them-of bringing them to life. Her perspective belongs to a viewpoint which argues that dark ruins, reflecting events of
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Anuario de la Escuela de Historia Virtual
Este artículo analiza las narrativas del contra movimiento que surgió en Chile a raíz del estalli... more Este artículo analiza las narrativas del contra movimiento que surgió en Chile a raíz del estallido social de octubre de 2019 y del posterior plebiscito por una nueva constitución. Se pone el foco en aquellos activistas primo manifestantes, es decir, en quienes no tenían una trayectoria de militancia o activismo político previo. El artículo argumenta que la principal narrativa que sustenta la participación de este grupo es una defensa de lo que consideran un orden social justo en la sociedad, principio amenazado por las movilizaciones del estallido. Desde su perspectiva, el orden social justo a defender es aquel definido por los principios de merecimiento. Mostraremos que esta noción pertenece a corrientes de pensamiento conservadoras y no tradicionalistas, pues no está apegada a la idea de un orden social definido por posiciones adquiridas por nacimiento. Este artículo ha sido elaborado en el marco del Proyecto Escucha Activa del Centro de Estudios de Cohesión y Conflicto Social (C...
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Polis, 2022
Resumen: Este artículo analiza la revuelta social de octubre de 2019 en adelante, en Chile, a par... more Resumen: Este artículo analiza la revuelta social de octubre de 2019 en adelante, en Chile, a partir de una investigación cualitativa realizada en tres regiones del país: Santiago, Valparaíso y Concepción. Se plantea que, si bien ésta puede ser considerada como un evento cúlmine del ciclo movilizaciones iniciado en 2006, ésta presenta elementos que la distancian de dicho proceso. (a) Una parte de estas protestas tomaron la forma de un estallido social y, si bien sus demandas convergieron con las expresadas en movilizaciones anteriores, éstas no fueron conducidas por las organizaciones que participaron en ese proceso. Eso implicó que la masividad, los repertorios de protesta, la difusión y las formas de convocatoria de las movilizaciones alcanzaron a personas que previamente no se habían manifestado en la calle y que tampoco estaban vinculadas con partidos u organizaciones sociales. (b) En segundo lugar, se propone que los sentidos políticos generados a partir de las protestas permiten comprender, en gran medida, el éxito electoral de los independientes en la elección de los integrantes de la Convención Constitucional en octubre de 2020.
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How does Santiago, Chile, remember its dead, the victims of political violence of the 1970s and 1... more How does Santiago, Chile, remember its dead, the victims of political violence of the 1970s and 1980s? The existence of dozens of memorials, monuments, and sites dedicated to the memory of victims of the dictatorship would seem to indicate a settled national cultural politics that recognizes the injustices and crimes committed by a terrorist State. The public, nongovernmental nature of the initiatives is, nonetheless, the first indication that we are dealing with an ambiguous political story. While the central government has supported these initiatives, they are mostly the result of efforts by social organizations and victims’groups. The spatial-temporal reading of the scenario of commemorative markers proposed in this article offers evidence of a geography of memory that is configured, on one hand, by a memory project that has inherited political trajectories which have been passed down for a long time, articulated by small groups that at certain junctures manage to form into producers of local memory. On the other hand, the high socioeconomic segregation in residential areas shapes politics of memory that are territorially discontinuous and that encourage forgetting in residential settings of the country’s elite.
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Latin American Perspectives, 2021
Although ethnic differentiations began with colonialism, racism was not widely addressed in Latin... more Although ethnic differentiations began with colonialism, racism was not widely addressed in Latin American social sciences until recently, since class perspectives were predominant. Within this, studies on residential segregation and urban exclusion have ignored race and ethnicity, with the exceptions of Brazil and Colombia. However, these issues have recently become crucial because of the adoption of multiculturalism, the impact of postcolonialism and postmodernism, the emergence of black and indigenous social movements, changes in state policy, and new trends in migration. A review of debates and evidence from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina shows that persistent colonial ideologies, narratives, and popular perceptions of ethno-racial denial sustain various kinds of urban exclusion in the region. The evidence calls for a new research agenda to decolonize urban studies that adopts a critical perspective on the coloniality of power. Aunque las diferenciaciones étnicas comenzaron con el colonialismo, el racismo no se abordó ampliamente en las ciencias sociales latinoamericanas hasta hace poco, ya que predominaban las perspectivas de clase. Los estudios sobre la segregación residencial y la exclusión urbana han ignorado la raza y el origen étnico, con excepción de Brasil y Colombia. Sin embargo, estas cuestiones se han vuelto cruciales recientemente debido a la adopción del multiculturalismo, el impacto del poscolonialismo y el posmodernismo, la aparición de movimientos sociales negros e indígenas, los cambios en la política estatal y nuevas tendencias en la migración. Una revisión de los debates y evidencia en México, Colombia, Chile y Argentina muestra que las ideologías coloniales persistentes, las narrativas y las percepciones populares de la negación etnoracial sostienen varios tipos de exclusión urbana en la región. La evidencia exige una nueva agenda de investigación para descolonizar los estudios urbanos y adoptar una perspectiva crítica sobre la colonialidad del poder.
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In the last decade, the consensus about the model of development which seemed deeply rooted in Ch... more In the last decade, the consensus about the model of development which seemed deeply rooted in Chilean society for the last two decades was suddenly altered by multi-stranded conflicts, covering different territories and showing new repertoires of collective action of protests. As long as institutions could not process these demands, the breakdown of social and political consensus led to an irritated political climate, making street demonstrations the main channel to express discrepancy. By the end of 2019, the conflict acquired a dynamics that is still deepening the breakdown of the institutional system.
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Golpes a la memoria. Escritos sobre la posdictadura chilena, 2019
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IdeAs. Idées d'Amériques, 2020
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Atenea, 2020
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Informe Anual Observatorio de Conflictos COES - 2018, 2018
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Papers by Carolina Aguilera