UC San Diego

The U.S.-backed Chilean military coup that deposed leftist President Salvador Allende and initiated the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-90) sparked large-scale opposition as Chileans faced torture, disappearance, and exile. The Latinx Radical Imaginary and Chile: Transnational Feminisms, Chilean Exile, and Culture examines the U.S.-based anti-Pinochet movement, with a particular focus on the activism of Latinas. Opposition to the regime in Chile and the United States was spearheaded by women and these transnational feminist networks were at the forefront of challenging the dictatorship. These Chicana, Puerto Rican, and Chilean women’s opposition to Pinochet was rooted in their support for Allende-era politics. I read archives, interviews, and cultural texts for moments that provide insight into how the Allende era impacted what I call the radical imaginary of these activists. I define the radical imaginary as a set of ideas that expand notions of what is possible, invoke hope and creativity, and spark inquiry into people’s perspectives on revolutionary politics.While scholars have noted the influence of the Cuban revolution and the Vietnam war on U.S. activists, much less is known about how activists responded to other events in the Global South. My research suggests that non-Chilean anti-Pinochet activists are a crucial overlooked aspect of the Chile solidarity movement and, conversely, that Chile was important to the revolutionary and anti-imperialist politics of U.S-based activists, particularly the Chicano movement’s transnational turn and the expansion of women of color feminism’s transnational politics. Moreover, while the literature on the Chile solidarity movement has focused almost exclusively on Chilean exiles, I highlight how the U.S. Chilean exile movement cannot be viewed in isolation from a wider network of anti-Pinochet activity. The dissertation is organized around three core chapters that focus on a particular political genealogy for this radical imaginary as well a specific cultural form that shaped it. Chapter One centers Chicana Marxists and their use of nuevo cine chileno produced during the Allende era to highlight Chilean women’s fight for a reorganization of social reproduction. I focus on the contributions of activist Virgina Garza, who traveled to Chile during Allende’s presidency to witness the revolutionary process taking place. When the coup hit a few months later, Garza opposed the Pinochet regime by lecturing in tandem with the exhibition of these films, arguing that working-class women had gained the most during that time. Chapter Two explores opposition to the Pinochet regime in the seminal women of color literary anthologies Cuentos: Stories by Latinas and This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Through collaboration on these anthologies, these U.S.-based feminists forged connections with the anti-Pinochet feminist movement in Chile. Together they exposed the everyday violence of capitalism and patriarchy, framing the dictatorship as a counterrevolutionary attack on people’s desires for a better world. Finally, Chapter Three centers arpilleras, patchwork tapestries, created by women in Chile and in exile. I examine how a multiracial campaign in Austin, Texas to bring Cecilia Ubilla, a Chilean woman who had been imprisoned, into exile helped build the Chilean feminist exile movement in California because she sponsored more exiles and brought them to the region. Together they circulated arpilleras that paid homage to the Allende era and shared their experiences participating in Allende-era revolutionary politics with other racial and immigrant groups here. Overall, my dissertation contributes to literatures on Allende-era politics and culture, the Chile solidarity movement, Chilean immigration and exile, and Latinx feminisms.