Tomorrow there is no school due to the violent protests initiated by high school and college students in response to proposed metro hikes. Though I had heard about the protests last week, it seemed more about disrupting traffic and jumping turnstiles until Friday night and into Saturday when I began to hear about protesters vandalizing metro stations and starting fires. Military forces stepped in, which was very unpopular in our social circles; we had a 10:00 pm curfew on Saturday night. The American Embassy sent us a high alert to stay away from malls, the metro, and crowded places. The Embassy recommends carrying appropriate identification at all times.
We live in a wealthy suburb of the city, though I heard that there were disturbances at Los Trapenses mall (10 minutes away). Protesters also encouraged riots in Lo Barnechea because the real issue seems to be the high cost of living in Santiago and the unrest with the growing disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. This is a really expensive place to live. Since we live in a wealthy neighborhood, protesters seemed to be calling for riots here to get our neighborhood’s attention. This morning the grocery store was closed, but otherwise all was quiet. Max’s baseball games were canceled. Mia was planning on starting roller skate lessons this weekend, which were also canceled.
I asked the neighborhood kids if they ever remembered something like this happening before. “No,” they said gleefully, relishing in the prospect of a day off tomorrow. I also asked the mothers in our neighborhood, who were hanging out in the plaza, restless about the prospect of a long weekend about the last time something like this had happened. “Over 40 years ago in 1973” was their response. Apparently, there is no school in all of Santiago. Everything is still closed. The images and headlines online look troubling. A friend from downtown sent me a video of the protests with power lines dangling and lots of loud chanting in the streets. It is very troubling, and yet it feels very distant to our life in the hills beyond the city. On the one hand, I once again see young people raising their voices and seeking change. On the other, I see hundreds of thousands of damage to metro surveillance, transportation, and equipment. I am not sure how destruction is supposed to effect any sort of change; it just feels like raw emotion- opportunistic and unorganized. However, the proposed metro hike has been rescinded, which feels like a temporary truce in a highly charged situation. I am reminded of Thurgood Marshall that protest is fundamental to democracy; today it feels like a disturbance, but perhaps we should have a bit more patience and listen to their chants because isn’t injustice rather than their anger the real disturbance to democracy?
Living in Chile 