A Word About Classism

Up until this point in my blog, I have been posting about what I've been doing, what's new in my life here, and other observations about Chilean culture. Let me preface what I'm about to discuss by saying that all these previous things are true. Chile is a beautiful country, with wonderful people and a culture very rich in tradition and national pride. However, that being said, I think it's also important to discuss the darker sides of any culture. We in the US have our own deeply seeded forms of prejudice. Think about the still relevant discussions about racism and our polarized political climate, not to mention the disparity in possession of our nation's wealth.

Chile is no different than the US in many ways. Politics is still very much the national sport here, not just soccer. There's also a great deal of prejudice among different groups of people, and in many ways it's a culturally segregated nation. However, where the US often suffers from rampant racism, Chile suffers from an extreme separation of classes.

You might be wondering why I am all of the sudden discussing this. I have always thought about the classist nature of Chilean society, however I hadn't really had first-hand experience with it until now. Last Friday night, I was at a discoteque in Lo Barnichea, a suburb of Santiago. It's a diverse area; a great deal of it is beautiful homes in the hilly areas to the northwest of Santiago. However, it also has many poorer areas, including an area called Cerro 18, which is a large "campamento" in the suburb (a campamento is essentially a shanty town). Well, in any case, this club was in one of the poorer areas of Lo Barnichea. As I was walking back to the car with a friend, we were shocked to turn the corner to see a group of five guys standing near the car. Our first reaction was to walk the other way in order to avoid any trouble, but then the group walked off and we head towards the car.

As we neared the car, however, one the guys came up and asked me for a cigarette, and at first I didn't want to give him any for fear of assault, but he was alone so I offered him one. As it turned out he was a little drunk, and he began to divulge his whole life's story. In summary, it turned out to be a very touching and educational tale. He told us about how he was born to unmarried parents in Concepcion, his father being a miner. Immediately we knew about his economic situation because miners in Chile were always, and in many ways still are, exploited. He told us about how his parents forced him to go to school, but that it was always hard because he also had to work to help make ends meet. Through sheer force of will and intelligence, he managed to graduate from high school. Now he was trying to work and get into college at the same time. Every day he woke up at six in the morning to work at seven, where he was a security guard, until about 8 or 9 at night. His wage was the minimum of 144k pesos a month, or about $290. With that he had to pay his rent, food, and try to pay for books, in addition to paying 50k pesos every month to an ex-lover for her to care for their daughter. The double-edged sword of teen pregnancy in Chile is George Bush's wet dream, where sexual education is practically untaught in schools and non-profit groups are not permitted to distribute condoms; also abortion is totally illegal and the Church teaches that abstinence is the only option. This kid went on to tell us how he is constantly passed up for scholarships by students from Santiago with worse grades and scores, and that his only option is to apply for scholarships for indigenous peoples. The opportunity is a good one, but he explained that having this on records indicates to those who will read his applications that he is of indian descent and he said that this lessens his chances of being accepted into a better college.

He went on an on with many more details that are too many to explain here, suffice it to say that the overall theme of his story was that he is very limited as far as upward mobility goes, and that the Chilean system coupled with classism and a bit of racism will probably prevent him from ever finishing college.

I know that this is not a unique tale, being as many in the US could express similar experiences. To that I also add this quick story to show the level of classism in this country. As opposed to American bars and clubs, there isn't a single one here that cards anyone coming in because the drinking culture is so much more relaxed. However, two weekends ago Hans and I went to a bar to meet up with some of his friends. The bar was in Providencia near Calle Suecia, a popular strip of bars and clubs in Santiago, notorious now for attracting delinquency and unsavory types of people. We got in line to get into the bar, and saw the bouncer checking everyone's ID's. I was surprised and began to take out my ID when another bouncer walked up to us, pulled us out of the line and let us in. Afterwards I asked Hans why that happened and why we didn't have to show ID, and he said that they weren't looking at drinking ages, they were looking at people's last names "para ver la pinta" with their face. In other words, depending on your clothes and how common your last name was, you might not get in. Had my last name been Gonzalez and I had been wearing a T-shirt, they probably would have asked for my ID.

Well, that was a very long post, but I hope that it was interesting. I am continuing to love my time here, but I thought it important to provide a balanced point of view and not just say that everything is perfect here. As always, I hope you are all doing well and that it's not getting to cold there in the states; today it was 78 degrees and sunny. Have a nice week!