Thinking about showing a bit of History for
you, it was decided to contact someone who
knew about history, and the teacher Rafael
Comte decided to help us. Here are his
thoughts about Chilean society and what is
behind Chileans as history.
-As first question, do you think that
historical events that have occurred in
Chile have influenced the way Chileans
are?
-Obviously, the History is similar to a
particular life of a person, but in a bigger
scale, at social level. Every event of our
biography always mark our lives, such as the
first love, our entrance to the university, our
first job. It also happens in the History with
civil wars, coup d'état, political, economical,
social and cultural changes, modify the way
that human groups are. In this case, the
History of Chile doesn’t determine, but it
influences in the way Chileans are.
-What do you think have been the most
relevant events that have influenced
Chilean society?
If you mean the current society, I consider
that all the history from the second half of
20th century has marked Chileans of 21st
century. The 60’s marked the peak of the
political participation of the Chilean society
that was moving around political and social
movements. This
carried a political
polarization manifested in the 60’s that
concluded in the coup d'état in 1973. It was
a history process that has marked Chileans
and their ideologies until now.
Viatge 30
(…) If I want to add a long term process,
I would say that America’s conquest and
its repercussions that torment us until
now: the trauma of the “hijos huachos”
(fatherless children), it means the
Span ish father who abandoned his child
and the Amerindian woman who takes
care of the child. Other repercussion is
the differences that we have with the
original peoples, specially mapuches, the
classism influenced by the skin color was
common in the colony, and although
today classism doesn’t exist at a formal
level, nowadays it persists. The joy that
appears when a foreigner comes and we
show him/her the country remembers me
the colonial times, being Chile the last
corner of the empire. The foreign visits
were not often, so they were quiet an
event.
-Does Chile have a defined culture?
What has influenced Chileans for
having it or not?
-Talking of a Chilean’s defined culture is
complex. Our cultural base is in the
colonial epoch, where the occidental
elements such as the language,
Christianity, our bipolar way of thinking
(separation between mind- body, goodbad, theory-practice, myth-logic) were
mixed with native elements such as
gastronomy, vocabulary, practices and
beliefs.