"It Was the Freest Country in the Hemisphere:” Chicanas Challenge U.S. Imperialism in Chile

• In Event: Forging Solidarities Across Borders: (Trans)national Feminist Politics in Latin America and the U.S.

Abstract

The 1973 U.S.-backed Chilean coup sparked a transnational movement to end the repressive dictatorship of Pinochet. While the literature on the transnational anti-Pinochet movement focuses on Chilean exiles, my paper uses archives, oral histories, and cultural analysis to explore how Chicana activists embraced the Chilean revolution, internationalized the Chicana/o movement through anti-imperialist action, and shaped women of color politics by framing imperialism as a feminist issue. I analyze films displayed at an event in California organized by Virginia Garza who traveled to Chile under Allende and the establishment of La Peña, a Chilean-inspired cultural center in Texas.

Presenter

• Camila Gavin, University of California, San Diego