On Writing Against the Dictatorship. Reflections on Thirty Years of Work in the Poblaciones of Santiago, Chile

Abstract

An American anthropologist and historian develops how his interpretations of the dictatorship and its legacies have changed while working in the poblaciones of Santiago de Chile during the last thirty years. The coup, the violations of the dictatorship, and the effects of neoliberalism have had particularly powerful and violent effects on pobladores and in their efforts to improve their housing and living conditions. Nonetheless, a perspective that only views the coup through the lens of rupture and change loses an understanding of certain continuities and complexities in the trajectory of the poblaciones, including an understanding of the heterogeneity of their inhabitants and the importance of private property in their lives. The article emphasizes the importance of a dual perspective in interpretations of the development of the poblaciones in the last fifty years, one that not only writes against the horrific effects of the dictatorship, but also resists viewing the dictatorship as the singular motor of Chilean history since 1973.