The Politics of the Schoolhouse: Press, Violence, and Childhood in the Chilean Dictatorship

• In Event: Violence, Press and Politics in Latin America: the Public Sphere in Slavery and Cold War

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between the press, the public sphere, and political activism in dictatorship. Focusing on the first decade of Chilean military rule, my work shows how Chilean youth fashioned a vibrant public sphere of political debate in schoolhouses, youth programs, soup kitchens, spaces reserved for young people and therefore assumed to be apolitical. This paper highlights the political significance of a particularly rich but often ignored category of material that young people created and circulated informally in moments of harshest repression. It discusses, and draws out the connections that structured a vibrant print-world made up of pamphlets, letters, brochures, booklets, broadsheets, and newspapers that circulated in schools and in streets. And, in so doing, it sheds light on a complex sphere of communication and debate that young people crafted into surprising forms and developed in surprising places.
Simultaneously a history of the public sphere, of the press, and of childhood, my paper ultimately shows how these youthful public spheres and public acts formed as a bulwark against dictatorial repression, and shines new light on the process by which youth activism, first developed in schools, helped fracture the legitimacy of dictatorial rule and bring down a regime almost two decades in power.

Author

• Camilo D Trumper, University at Buffalo (SUNY)