Edition www.trigon-film.org
Allende, the people support you!
When I was a young filmmaker,
I was lucky that Chris Marker came to Chile.
He liked my first film, "The First Year",
about Salvador Allende's first months in power.
He took it to France and organized its release in movie theaters there.
We exchanged many letters.
It was as if I were doing a correspondence course in film.
I was thrilled.
Later on, when we were making The "Battle of Chile",
he gave me some advice that I remember well:
"When you want to film a fire,
"you must be ready at the place where the first flame will appear."
MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY
On October 18, 2019,
a social outburst set Chile on fire.
This time, I wasn't able to film the first flame.
One year later,
when I arrived with my camera, I was reunited with my old friends
the stones of the Cordillera.
They are scattered around,
there are many of them.
As if it had been raining stones.
The young people, here,
seem to have very clear ideas.
They are preparing something that I wasn't expecting.
I see they are determined to take risks.
They are united by a single purpose
and they act as if they were one single body.
Without leaders, without ideologies.
This is new.
These are the accessories
that I use to protect myself.
With the hood on, it's better.
It protects me from the tear gas.
Do you always wear the flowers?
Yes, this hood is a part of me.
Why do you wear the flowers?
I think the flowers represent me.
I also have them tattooed on my body.
They represent me so much that...
In fact,
with the revolt, I've blossomed.
I could put it like that.
The uprising gave me strength, it gave me life.
Being able to help people, to fight for my people,
that's something that touched me here.
I have nothing to do with politics.
I'm not a member of any party.
And I'm not the only one.
There are many of us who think this way.
We might be killed.
I have a son, I'm doing this for him.
If they kill me, he'll live with my memory.
If I lose an eye, I'll still be there for him.
If they hurt my legs, I'll carry on.
If the cops arrest me, I'll suffer, but they'll let me go.
So nobody must worry, I'll be alright.
Look after my son.
Look after him and if anything happens to me,
take him in and look after him.
That's what I say to myself each time I leave home.
I know that each time I leave, I may not return.
But we must do this so that they listen to us,
so they pay attention to us.
Because there are people who have nothing to eat.
It happened to me.
I had to pay for university
and I had no money left to feed myself or my son.
He is nine years old.
He's a big boy.
He's nine years old.
He has his own hood.
He covers one eye when he sees the cops.
He detests the cops, but I didn't influence him.
It's because of what he sees on TV.
They showed things on TV.
Afterwards, it was censured, but that's another subject.
He saw it on social media.
Videos.
He wanted to be a police officer.
I would say to him:
"Tomás, it's your decision.
"I live my life as I want to, you must do the same.
"I won't say anything.
"But don't be a cop with no morals.
"I didn't bring you up that way."
And he would reply: "I will be a good cop."
Dumb cops!
Cops, I'm ashamed of you!
Murdering cops!
Bastards!
Murderers!
We're all on the frontline.
Everyone is equally important.
Some are braver than others, that's for sure,
but we are all on the frontline,
from those who carry the shields,
to the families sitting on the grass with their banners.
I believe we are all equally important.
It is thanks to us that this is becoming reality.
That's what scares the cops and the State.
We are acting out of love,
we act because we are courageous
and because we must fight.
We are courageous.
I wonder, how is it possible
that I am facing a second revolution in Chile?
What happened that woke up an entire country?
Each time I came back,
I noticed that Chile was turning into a shopping mall,
a display window that didn't show what was behind it.
That lasted for thirty years.
Meanwhile, three fearless generations were born.
When I was young, I lived through a revolution
that was led by the political parties.
Today, the movement is wary of the political parties
and of all the institutions.
I wonder how it all began?
In October 2019,
subway fares increased by thirty pesos.
I never imagined
that this would be the spark that set the country on fire.
Fare dodging, is another way of fighting
If you don't jump you're a cop!
Not paying your subway ticket
was an expression of anger and furious indignation.
The conflict spread.
Fires were started, stores attacked,
pharmacies and banks were looted.
A mixture of things that were hard to understand.
There was an atmosphere of liberation, adventure,
and street fights.
On October 19,
the President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera,
declared a state of emergency.
We are at war
against an enemy who is powerful,
ruthless,
who respects nothing and nobody,
who is willing to use violence
and delinquency without limits,
even when that involves loss of human life.
An enemy willing to burn our hospitals,
our subways, our grocery stores
with one sole objective:
to create the maximum possible damage.
I had never seen, other than under the military regime,
a head of State deciding to call in the army
to resolve social conflict.
As a Chilean, seeing the soldiers in the street
reminds me of the coup d'État.
The people's rejection of them was immediate.
Soldiers get lost!
On Friday October 25,
1,200,000 people
gathered in Plaza Baquedano.
I had never seen anything like it.
They told their president:
"You are wrong, we are not at war!"
It was the biggest people's protest
in the history of Chile.
I am moved to see an entire country
breaking the silence with such determination.
I don't think anybody had foreseen
the effect of the revolt that altered the soul of Chile.
It was very strange
to enter a subway station
and to go out into a very different Chile.
I came out of Santa Lucía station
and there were people with saucepans.
They were shouting and walking towards Plaza Dignidad.
I burst into tears.
Seeing people shouting and waving banners.
People I never imagined I would see at protests.
And I began to cry.
I took my friend's hand and said to her:
"We've been saying it for years."
We've always spoken about this.
People have realized that we are exploited.
This system is permanently oppressing
women, the disadvantaged, the rural areas, the laborers.
It was very moving
to see the image of a woman with a banner
that demanded a rise in pensions or a new model,
while banging her saucepan.
She could be my grandmother who wasn't able to be there,
but people are protesting for her
and for all the victims of this shameful pension system.
It was amazing to come out of the subway into a different world,
a different Chile,
the Chile in which I'd wanted to live for a long time.
CHILE WITHOUT FEAR
I dream of a different society.
I want to live in a Chile that offers basic standards of living.
Not even dignified, just basic, such as housing.
Some children, in the shanty towns, do their homework on the floor.
The State has never taken measures to give them a decent home.
We will fight for what we deserve, which is dignity.
That is all I hope for of this Chile
that we are starting to build.
It woke up, it woke up
Chile has woken up!
"Outburst" isn't the word, it was more of a relief
to be able to go outside and speak or shout your mind.
People were laughing and dancing.
One week later, there was that big march
that was more carefully planned.
There were banners, etc.
But on that Friday, it was chaos.
A marvelous chaos.
There were people dancing, older women...
I still can't quite believe it.
But I'm left with the feeling of a wonderful buzz,
as if the soul has returned to the body.
"It's strange, I am on fire. We are on fire!"
That was the start of the social outburst.
It was the beginning, when the young people revolted.
I remember the emotion I felt at that moment.
People were so happy.
There was no fear and the students were so moved.
They were worked up and angry too.
The fear disappeared.
The young people had had enough of poverty, of exploitation
and of precariousness.
And all of a sudden, they did this.
This is a photo
of the frontline who were defending the protesters.
Those stones were the people's weapons.
They broke the ground with hammers.
They banged relentlessly to release the paving stones.
Those stones were their only weapons.
For me,
this Chile, riddled with bullets,
this half-destroyed Chile
is being transformed.
It is a Chile in flames.
This flag dotted with holes symbolizes the bullets
that they shot at us.
During the first days of the protests, everything was improvised.
People only wore their hoods.
Then, they realized there was a real danger,
a real danger in the streets.
The protesters could be badly wounded
or they could die.
"I want you to take a photo
"just of my mutilated eye."
I asked him if he was sure, because it would be intense.
He said: "I want this to be seen.
"In Chile, human rights are systematically violated.
"Look what they did to me, they burst my eye!
"They shot at my face from less than 20 meters.
"I want people to know that.
"Please, take a photo of me."
Cameras played a fundamental role in this revolt.
They couldn't repress, kill or torture us more
because there were ten cameras filming what they were doing.
That is also the reason why we became targets.
All those who, like me, were observing, journalists and photographers,
we became targets and were shot at.
They shot me in the eye.
The impact...
was very brutal.
I felt a pain...
I had never felt anything like it.
It felt like my head was going to explode.
I felt...
With the impact,
I felt that my eye had knocked against my skull.
It was atrocious.
I fell to the ground, I lost my balance.
I was terrified as I couldn't see anything.
I saw a dark shadow
in my wounded eye.
Your left eye?
You can no longer see well with that eye?
I can see rays of light on the sides.
It is still inflamed.
Looking on the bright side, it could have been worse.
At least I don't need a prosthesis.
But they have still done me terrible damage.
I felt alone, nobody could understand how bad it was
to lose your sight when it's your work tool.
Why did it happen to me?
Why wasn't I wounded in the face or an arm,
why did it have to be my eye?
Your silence is an accomplice
Of the gunshots, of the abuse
Of the humiliation!
Your silence is an accomplice
Of the lies, the violence and the harassment!
Your silence is an accomplice
Of the powerlessness, of the pain
Of the failure of your conscience!
Your silence is an accomplice
Of the pepper spray, of the contempt and of the blindness!
Your silence is an accomplice
I've been a first aid worker for one year.
I never could have imagined
everything that I've seen.
So many seriously wounded...
A panic attack is serious. People think they are dying.
But concerning physical health,
we've had deaths. There's nothing more serious.
I've had to deal with eye injuries,
open fractures, people who've been run over.
Now, all that is par for the course.
I had never experienced confrontation.
I'm not somebody who fights, I'm a peacemaker.
But the fear is there and I will never get rid of it.
The fear that I feel because of what I've seen and experienced,
it won't go away, I'll always be afraid of the authorities.
When it's curfew time, I rush home.
Not because I respect the curfew but because I'm afraid of the military.
Especially because I'm a woman
and they have weapons of war.
As a first-aid worker, I've experienced extreme situations.
I've received blows from a baton.
Colleagues had to protect us from military attacks
while we performed first aid.
They've thrown tear gas at us.
We have to wear shields and protective gear.
Not because we have to kneel down,
but to avoid being wounded by the military.
We are medical staff.
Our role is precious.
Without us, there would be more deaths.
We had to protect ourselves because we were in real danger.
People aren't protesting for just one reason.
The people we see in the streets, after this first stage,
are people who feel a general dissatisfaction.
That won't alter with one law change.
It would be a start,
but right now, they have
parents who receive a pathetic pension,
a brother dying of cancer,
children who are forced into debt to study,
or to whom the banks won't give a loan.
These things will surely change, but people need immediate solutions.
They don't want to give up and go home.
They finally feel part of a movement and can voice their discontent.
What unites us are our moral values, our ethical values.
It's a question of civic-mindedness, it's fundamental.
What we have in common is saving lives.
Colleagues of mine have shielded me and been shot at
to protect me while I was giving first aid.
Nothing could unite us more than that.
It's touching to hear the young say:
"I can't stand seeing my grandparents forced to work,
"selling things in the street to survive."
It makes me want to cry
when I see a 17-year-old boy
collecting the garbage,
who looks at me and says: "Yes, I had to give up school
"because I have to help my grandparents and my parents,
"as they are fragile.
"I will try to go back to school.
"But for now, I'm doing this and I'm proud of it
"because I'm supporting my family."
One year has passed since October 18,
and not a single measure has been taken
to help
and reassure all those who have nothing
and who urgently need state help.
One year has passed.
Not one single measure has been taken
to say to those people: "The system will help you."
How many women
represent the majority of poor families today,
heads of the household,
without a man to help them raise their children?
73% of babies in this country
are born out of wedlock.
73%!
We don't know how many women make up these poor households,
we only know that they count for more than 60%.
But how many are there and in which municipalities?
We would only need to compare data and to go find them.
These women need urgent help.
These are the women who are protesting.
They have nobody to look after their children
so they can't go out to work.
They don't receive any help at all.
I see them every day
and I'm left speechless.
During the dictatorship, women had to search for their partners
who were prisoners
in the concentration camps or who had disappeared.
They travelled all over the country
to look for them in the barracks, morgues or hospitals.
Afterwards, they went out to work,
washing clothes for others, cleaning houses,
then, little by little,
they became housewives again.
This time, there will be no going back.
This movement will have the face and the voice of women.
There will be no going back in this country.
Women are furious.
And they are right.
They are totally right.
The youngest women, the students,
often speak of sexual freedom.
I think they are right,
because the right to make love is a human right.
Of course.
Women have been denied this right for centuries.
But there are many women
who, forced to clean offices from morning to night,
their hands are covered...
with cracked skin.
They can't even caress their children.
They come home exhausted to make food for their children
and notice that one of them has new sneakers.
They don't even ask where the shoes came from,
because they already know: the drug traffickers!
Those women don't even think about making love.
They just want somebody to help them raise their children.
It has never been said
that making love was a human right that had to be defended.
For women.
How long have you lived here?
I've been in this camp for nine months.
What will happen here?
I'm fighting to obtain housing.
I'm head of the Housing Committee "Towards a reality".
That's the name of our school too.
I cannot give up.
People here don't trust the politicians?
They are just lining their pockets.
Here, thousands of people have turned up:
counsellors, deputies,
from all over, from each municipality.
All those idiots, sorry to say it,
they only think of getting rich.
They turn up here to take advantage of us,
to benefit from our needs.
That's the truth, damn it!
We don't see them here the rest of the year,
they only come before the elections.
It proves they think only of themselves, not the people.
Come get some candy!
Irma, did you tell the kids?
Tell them to come get some candy.
No, it's for the under 14's.
Those who live here know the reality.
People may criticize the camps
because it's true, you can find delinquents here.
But there are families too, not just delinquents.
I have three daughters, a husband.
We are a family who came here to find a home.
We want our own space, some comfort. Do you see?
You have to live here to be able to speak of our reality.
Others can't talk about it, they haven't lived here.
They've never stepped outside their bubble.
They've never lacked a piece of bread or some milk.
That is what we are fighting for: equality!
We are fighting for that together, as a community.
There was a feeling of victory, a beautiful atmosphere in the square.
THE STATE IS RESPONSIBLE
We heard
the noise of a saucepan in the distance.
And Nati said to me:
"A saucepan!"
She got up,
we picked up a saucepan and we began
to bang it. We didn't stop to think.
After one hour,
it had become this amazing orchestra.
We went out into the streets where people were gathering.
It was a moment...
Friends came to see us and we began to talk
about this shared feeling we all carried inside us,
deep down inside.
That feeling
of bitterness, of constant sadness,
of disgust and injustice
was a lot stronger than it appeared.
That is what initiated our conversations.
We didn't just wake up one day and suddenly realize.
It had been slowly building up
for quite a while.
But it exploded, it burst,
and now we are going to change things, there's no going back.
Civic responsibility still isn't taught in schools.
Civics just isn't taught.
We grew up hearing people say:
"You mustn't talk about politics or religion."
Isn't that right?
You couldn't express an opinion, that was bad manners.
I think we are disconnected.
The politicians are disconnected from the people and vice-versa.
And people are disconnected from politics too.
I think the politicians deceived us.
They promised us many things.
They sedated us heavily
over the last thirty years.
Major social change takes a lot of time.
We must be patient.
These changes are not for us.
They are for the next generations,
for future generations.
Chile is known for being backward.
If you don't jump you're a cop!
I think there is a flame.
I hope that this flame
will serve an important purpose.
That it will create a fire
that will help to build this new Chile.
We know how to light fires.
My father used to take me on the railroaders' strikes.
There was always a fire and a tin, an empty can...
A can for toasted flour.
In that can,
they put rags and gasoline
when we went into the street.
I'll never forget that because it was very impressive.
There are flames that consume and flames that nourish.
We'll see what happens.
No violence!
We have reached a level of violence that's never been seen in Chile.
I think that violence has laid bare our problem with the police,
which is not something new.
This isn't a result of the revolt, it's an old problem.
The use of the military
to suppress the protests.
That allows them, in some way, to justify their violence
and lack of respect of the rules.
The police force is considered a politicized enemy.
There is total divorce between the armed forces
and the civilian population.
There is no real monitoring by the Chilean State
of what is taught in the military
or the police academies.
That hid many problems inherited from the dictatorship.
Today, with the revolt and the police tactics,
we are paying the price for not acknowledging or resolving
the problems inherited from the dictatorship.
The people, united, will never be defeated!
I cannot believe that I'm in present-day Chile.
I feel like I'm witnessing a civil war.
The police violence reminds me of Pinochet's era.
The armed men
appear to be fueled by unrestrained impulses,
without leadership, without a legal framework.
It really is unbearable.
I never imagined I would see here, once again,
what I saw more than forty years ago.
The repression is so violent
that it provokes anger and despair.
I am anxious about the outcome of this struggle.
Who will lose and who will win?
For a long time, we found it normal to pay for everything
and normal that certain people got rich on the back of cheap labor.
To receive a good education, you had to pay.
To receive good medical care, you had to pay.
We no longer believe that is normal.
There was a feeling of indignation.
That's why they renamed the square "Dignity".
Ultimately, the indignation soaked in.
At the same time, it blossomed.
People began to form Open Councils.
Everybody wanted to take part.
The Open Councils grew and multiplied.
What did people want most?
To change the Constitution.
Why?
Because even though they had tried to hide
the fact that we had a terrible Constitution
and a terrible system of government,
people realized it for themselves.
The information was circulating,
we knew that the Constitution was important.
But never before had social unease
developed a solution:
to change the Constitution.
The objective of the Open Councils
was to determine what people wanted for the country
and what was actually in the Constitution.
We realized it was terrible and needed to be changed.
The social outburst
has also sparked a creative outburst in Chile.
The rupture is violent,
but it is also full of joy.
Now, there are not only stones.
There is also a horizon for the future.
The current economic model seems outdated.
The fear of talking about the chaos has disappeared.
That is the feeling of many families and of society in general.
I APPROVE
These four women wrote a poem
that has been sung by thousands of Chilean women.
All Chilean women were able to identify with this poem,
women of all ages
and beyond borders.
The patriarchy is a judge
Who judges us for being born
And our punishment
Is the violence that you see
It's not my fault, it's not the place, it's not my clothes
The rapist is you!
It's the cops...
Here, in Chile, the popular revolt has being going on for one year.
It is huge.
This revolt comes from the base,
it has no leaders,
no individuals who, in some way,
might lead this revolt towards a fixed goal.
That is what makes it complicated
to initiate negotiations with the authorities.
And that's a good thing, as we don't want to negotiate with anyone.
We just want to change things, that's all!
We want to put an end to this system that has put us at risk
in a deeply inhuman way.
The protesters didn't demand a referendum,
but a constituent assembly.
There was a referendum, we voted for this constitutional change.
We know that symbolically, it is an important first step
because it is very violent to carry on living in a country
governed by the laws of a military dictatorship
and to continue experiencing the direct consequences
of that horrendous period
of our history.
We know that this is the first step,
but the change we are demanding goes a lot further.
It's a socio-cultural change.
That's why us women
think that the demands of the popular uprising,
of the revolt, are also feminist demands.
Therefore, the solutions
should be tackled from a feminist point of view.
These are not lesser demands,
they aren't just about sexual abuse, for example.
They concern everybody's well-being,
everybody's dignity.
We want people to be able to have a life, not just to survive.
That is what we have done for too long in this country.
If you ask us for our opinion:
we hope that the neo-liberal system burns,
that the patriarchy burns,
and that all of the harmful institutions burn,
those that perpetuate
the situation we are in today.
We can no longer live with these kinds of institutions
in our society.
It's impossible.
We aspire to this macro-social change.
We know it is hard, it must be done step by step,
one of which is the rewriting of the Constitution.
But we hope to live to see this concrete change.
Until all forms of oppression have ended,
we will always face the same problems,
that's the reality.
Because it's a very perverse system,
one that unfortunately, has been well constructed.
The patriarchy is a judge
Who judges us for being born
And our punishment
Is the violence you can't see
It's not my fault, it's not the place, it's not my clothes
The rapist is you!
It's the police
The judges
The State
The President
The oppressive State is a macho rapist!
For months,
many people kept the sound of disapproval resounding.
It is the sound of indignation,
like a symphony of protest
that will not stop until there's a solution.
I APPROVE, IF NOT, WHAT'S THE POINT?
I APPROVE
Today, we have the chance to create a true democracy
that reflects the plurality of Chilean society.
We have never had that.
In these thirty years of democracy,
our plurality has not been represented in the political system
because the rules of the game falsify the reports.
They hinder some public policies,
even though many people want them.
But I think we should address the specific problems.
In Chile, the major problems are the excessive elitism of politics,
the concentration of power and exclusion.
We have denied the Indian peoples representation
for far too long.
Chile hasn't advanced, it's one of the most conservative countries,
whose political participation is based on centralism.
To this day,
Congress is composed mainly of elderly men,
most of whom are related to each other.
It really is an inadmissible elitism
during a political period
in which people are demanding different levels of participation.
The people, the people
Where are the people?
The people are in the streets demanding dignity!
A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY NOW!
The constituent process will allow us to be open to uncertainty.
Uncertainty generates anxiety and fear,
but it is necessary for the legitimacy of the policy.
If there is no uncertainty,
there is no democracy.
What is happening is positive,
but I wish it had happened earlier.
If only 400 people hadn't lost an eye for us to get here.
In almost every film I make, we see the National Stadium,
as if I were a football player.
During the dictatorship,
it was Pinochet's biggest concentration camp.
I was imprisoned here with thousands of other prisoners.
That marked me forever.
The Stadium also acts as a polling place.
Today,
people are voting for the end of Pinochet's Constitution
in order to write a new one.
Faced with pressure from the people,
the government and political parties had no other choice
but to organize this referendum.
On the same day, the results are published.
80% of votes want a constituent assembly
to write the new constitution.
That is the victory of the social outburst.
For a long time,
Parliament was the center and the heart
of the country's political history.
A place of discussion, conflict
and laws that were approved or rejected.
After the coup d'État, in 1973,
Pinochet, the dictator, dissolved it
and abandoned it after its evacuation.
For years, it remained empty.
I often filmed here when I made "The Battle of Chile".
I had to come and go
according to the decisions taken by the members of parliament.
For me, the never-ending world of the political game was a mystery.
I remember the hallways and the noise of the comings and goings.
It was a hive
full of smoke and glasses of tea that they served during the sessions.
Today, as if History were being repaired,
this place is finally recovering its purpose.
It is here that the members of the Constituent Assembly
will write the new Constitution over the coming months.
Nobody could have imagined something like this happening
just two years ago.
In chess,
the most important pieces are the pawns
but nobody says that.
People think it's the Queen.
Well, I see a certain symbolism.
There are eight pawns.
It's the only piece that is reproduced eight times
and when all eight work together, they define everything:
the movements of the other pieces,
the position of the defense, the attack strategy,
who controls the center
and therefore, the whole chessboard.
I think that this, in the Convention, is very clear.
Very clear.
We have approved
many popular participation mechanisms.
Generally speaking,
us members of the Convention, that is where we come from.
We are part of these people.
It's not just a number, it's the reality.
When we discuss the various issues
of the new Constitution, regulatory or more important ones,
we see that we all have shared history.
Nobody told us about public health,
nobody told us stories about public education,
we experienced it firsthand.
And that is very precious.
It's a process of constant debate.
We are also constantly listening
to the citizens, the young people, the children.
I think it's quite an intense process.
The most intense process I've been involved with.
In your life?
It's like playing in a chess tournament, but every day.
It's very, very intense.
When we began this process,
we didn't only think about the constitutional text.
We did it, thinking that
writing a new Constitution,
the first one written in a democratic context,
the first one in the world to be written with equality,
was one stage of a journey.
For decades, we've been fighting for matters
that are partial:
we fight for free, decent, non-sexist public education,
we fight against specific extractive projects.
Gradually, we are generalizing our outlook.
We fight against patriarchal violence,
probably one of the most general issues.
But now, we'll be addressing everything at the same time.
Everything.
That will probably cause an earthquake.
My name is Valentina Miranda.
I live in Lo Espejo,
one of the poorest municipalities in Chile.
I am a radical and homosexual activist,
a young, feminist woman,
ex-representative of the Federation of High-school Associations,
the first in my family to go to university,
born of public education and a humble family,
daughter of the slums.
I grew up surrounded by drugs, poverty and extractivism,
violation of human rights and corruption.
I am 21 years old, a hick, a bumpkin, scum, an Indian.
Proud to be a campaigner for the Communist Youth.
I am convinced that the Constitution written here will be ecological,
feminist, multinational, intercultural,
and that it will enable all people to thrive.
I don't forget my origins, as memory is our best weapon.
This is for you, Grandma!
Free the protesters of Santa Adriana!
From the turnstiles to the Convention!
We students have made it here, the humble will triumph.
Thank you very much!
I dared, because I needed to say:
"The young people are here."
Two years ago,
we jumped over the subway turnstiles,
now, I'm writing the new Constitution.
So, it's really...
As well as being gratifying,
it is very moving to know,
to be aware, now,
that everything we went through during the 2019 repression
and everything that happened
led to this amazing process that we are experiencing today.
We students made the first move,
but it turned into a social struggle of all Chilean people.
What we are writing
are the wishes of those who said: "Enough!"
We must build, that is our main responsibility.
Build and move forwards.
And hopefully, in the future,
we won't have to jump over all those turnstiles,
because I didn't just do it on October 18,
I had to jump over many more to get this far.
This is a solemn moment.
I ask the members of the Convention to rise,
please.
Now,
in accordance with article 79 of the General Regulation,
I declare, before the plenary Assembly,
the official opening of the constitutional debate.
Elisa Loncón
is the president of the constituent Convention.
She is also the first Mapuche woman
to take on such a role in the history of Chile.
She makes us feel this breath of fresh air
that is traversing the country.
Each day, we deal with many things,
but I am very happy to be participating in this process.
I am also happy for the Mapuche people,
for the young people and for all those women
who see in me so many delays
but, at the same time, so many opportunities for action.
That makes me so happy and it fuels my dream of transformation.
We are moving forward,
we will achieve the goal we set ourselves.
When we Mapuche, say:
"marichiweu",
that means: "We will never be overcome".
It is a word that has historic importance
and one that is also very colloquial.
I learnt it from my grand-mother.
Whenever she achieved something, she said: "Marichiweu!"
I understood that every achievement should be accompanied by this word.
Marichi means "forever", and "marichiweu":
"We will always win".
You can also say "marichi poyeyu",
"I will love you all my life".
With "marichi", you can create various combinations
to express things that will last forever.
It's a very pretty word.
We also believed in the permanent changes
initiated by Salvador Allende.
We were happy,
but the coup d'État shattered our lives and our dreams.
Today, there is this new hope.
I like to think that the dream is finally happening
and that the country we imagined will become reality.
This square has become the symbol of the street fights,
under the indifferent gaze of General Baquedano,
a military hero from the 19th century.
Baquedano and his horse would never have imagined
that their statue would be the center of these new struggles.
The young people come here
to transform this space into a theater of the future.
What is the greatest danger that could happen?
The first,
would be if we lose faith in the Convention
to the point where the campaign against the leaving referendum
wins, for example,
and we are left with the dictator's Constitution.
For me, that would be terrible.
That could happen, and it would be the worst thing.
The second danger,
is that many things
have fueled a sense of patriotism
that is very painful, in Chile.
These two things together, would be a terrible outcome.
Firstly, that we fail to drive a new Constitution,
we would regret that.
It would be a step backwards,
regretting what we said during the referendum,
that we wanted a new Constitution and that we should defend it.
Secondly, that once again,
far-right sectors of this country are re-established,
as has happened elsewhere in Latin America and the world.
That would be fatal.
Is chess also a fight?
It's a fight, a confrontation.
It's also a space for meetings
and discussions.
According to the legend of the Goddess of chess, Caïssa,
who, at some point, was linked to war,
she said: "Listen, make war on a chessboard.
"Converse, think, imagine, create
"and stop making war outside".
But there is a fight.
Someone dies.
Yes, of course.
You must destroy...
You must capture, rather.
You capture, you never kill.
We capture.
There is a fair trial.
The King is allowed a fair trial.
In order to preserve it, the military removed the statue.
Even so, they built a high fence
around the empty stand.
That provoked indignation.
A huge crowd converged in the square on the second anniversary
of the outburst.
Everything indicates that we have reached the end of an era.
I feel a new era is beginning.
At the same time,
Chile is voting for a new president of the Republic.
The candidate Gabriel Boric wins.
He wins it by 4,600,000 votes
against the far-right candidate.
He triumphs thanks to the huge support
of young people, women,
and of all Chileans who wish for change.
These stones now form
the foundations of a new house,
in which Chile will open its windows wide
to let the air circulate.
I am beginning to see a new imaginary country.
Good evening, Chile!
Po nui
suma aruma, pun may, Chile!
Thank you all,
every one of you,
all peoples who live in this place we call Chile.
Today, hope overcame fear!
As you know, I come from far away,
from the South, from Magallanes, on the edge of the Antarctic,
and I am 35 years old.
I am fully aware that history doesn't start with us.
I feel like an heir,
and that our project is the heir
of a long historical trajectory,
that of those whom, from various positions,
have searched tirelessly for justice,
the expansion of democracy,
the defense of human rights,
and the protection of freedoms.
That, my large family, is what I want to see reunited
in this chapter which we are initiating.
We are facing an historic change of cycle
that we cannot lose out on!
I would like to thank, in particular,
the women of our homeland.
They came together, throughout the entire country,
to defend the rights that they had such difficulty obtaining.
From things so basic as the right to vote,
to the right to be in charge of their own bodies.
From the right to non-discrimination...