The New Yorker Radio Hour - A Worldwide #MeToo Protest that Began in Chile

Episode Date: December 12, 2019

Three weeks ago, members of a Chilean feminist collective called Las Tesis put on blindfolds and party dresses and took to the streets. The festive atmosphere put their purpose in stark relief: the song they sang was “Un Violador En Tu Camino” (“A Rapist in Your Path”). It’s a sharp indictment of the Chilean police, against whom a hundred charges of sexual violence have been lodged since the beginning of the anti-government protests in October. The lyrics also target the patriarchy in general. The song might have remained a local phenomenon, but someone put it on Twitter, and, in the span of a few days, it became the anthem of women protesting sexism and violence throughout Latin America. A few days later, the protest was replicated in Paris and Berlin, and, shortly thereafter, in Istanbul, where it was shut down by police. The New Yorker’s Camila Osorio was recently in Chile and recounts the exciting story of the creation of a global movement. New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you.  We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better.  Take the survey here.

This is a special episode of the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Camila Osario is a fact-checker at The New Yorker, and she writes sometimes for us about Latin America. She's been covering political protests that are rocking Chile as we speak. Here's Camilla. I was recently in Chile. I went after a protest erupted on October 18,

and I was just fascinated by everything that was going on because it was really a protest that was about rewriting what the country should be, should look like now. People want to rewrite a new constitution, people want to change completely the economic system. So I went there and I arrived to a place that was changed from what it had been. It was a place that was always seen as the most stable country

in Latin America and suddenly the streets were filled with graffiti, Some sidewalks were completely destroyed because people had wanted to get rocks in confrontations with the police. And the violence of the police has been really striking. The police have been accused of killing at least six people since the protest started and injuring thousands as well, including more than 200 people that the police has shot in their eyes with projectiles. and some have lost already one eye or even some two eyes. But this violence has also been gendered. There are several allegations of the police raping or forcing women to get naked in police jails and to squat down.

There have been more than 100 accusations of sexual violence made against the police. But in the middle of all of that violence, it has created so much rage, there's also something quite creative that was born. It happened on November 20th. There was a group of women that organized a performance in the coastal city of Palparaiso,

performance about all of this violence that was going on against women. So you see this big crowd of women. They're like, it's kind of like a feminist line dance. and they're all looking at the same place and they're also kind of like moving back and forth, kind of like dancing or marching. They are blindfolded.

They sing at unison. The patriarchy is a judge and is judging us from the moment we're born. Our punishment is that violence that you're not seeing. It's feminicide. It's rape. It was not my fault, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed. The rapist is you.

It's the police. It's the judges. It's the state. It's the president. And so this protest started as a small thing in the city of Alparaiso. And then it became huge. It's just like every day you would see like women gathering in corners. There's sometimes like thousands of women in front of.

of symbolic places in Chile to say this lyrics over and over again and to basically be telling to the authorities, the rapist is you. And by meaning you, it meant like all of you who are not investigating all of this violence. It is you. It has nothing to do if I had a miniskirt. It is not because I was walking late at night. It is you. It was not my fault. So after the protests happened in Valparaiso, somebody put it on Twitter. started being shared around the world. And it started being reproduced in Bogota, Colombia, in Mexico City as well. Oh, in Italy, in Germany, in the U.S., in L.A. and in New York, there was also a performance. It was translated to French in front of the Eiffel Tower, which is blinking in the

back when the women are singing and dancing. And it has happened in Istanbul. In Istanbul, actually, the police stopped the women when they were performing. It has happened in Beirut. It has happened in Bolivia. And so in every place, you would see how women would change a little of the lyrics. So, for example, in Bogota, at the end of the song, women started adding one line that said, it is not the state who takes care of me. It is my girlfriends who take care of it.

So it's very complicated to have exact numbers on gender violence in life. Latin America. There are a few reports. There's a report from 2016 that mentions that among the 25 countries that have the highest rates of feminismicide in the world, 14 are from Latin America and the Caribbean. And so gender violence in Latin America is clearly an epidemic. And I think that this is why this anthem really resonates among women in the region. It is a moment to finally express on the streets, not only the violence that is lived in the intimate space, but also the violence that happens in the streets. And it's just so common to be afraid in the streets of Latin America. I grew up in Bogota, which is quite a hostile city for women as well.

And I'm always surprised every time I visit family just how I have to be. be reminded to be more alert than here in my normal life in New York. Camila Osorio is on the editorial staff of The New Yorker, and you can find her work at New Yorker.com. Thanks for joining us today.