Somos el 90%

November 18, 2013 3:48 PM

At 23 Camila Vallejo became Latin America's newest folk hero.
A leader of the Chilean winter movement of student protests; Camila Vallejo at 25 was elected to a seat in Chile's Congress on Sunday.
See wiki.
posted by adamvasco (8 comments total)

Te Amo Camila Vallejo
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:15 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know if this is just me but why is it when there are protestor battles with the police in other countries it isn't treated as a big deal (or may even be celebrated) but when it happens in the US it's demonized? The "folk hero" link mentions the protests in Paris 1968 and the ones in Chile now but doesn't seem perturbed by them, whereas I feel like they'd spend more time demonizng or trying to explain them if it were talking about here. Correct me if this is a wrong, US-centric POV.
posted by gucci mane at 4:35 PM on November 18, 2013

I get where it's coming from, but the whole 'folk hero' thing, comparisons to Che, Comandante Camila, etc., are fairly patronising.
She's awesome, but not because she matches some lame revolutionary fantasies, but because of the actual work she's put in, and the brains and guts she has in spades.
Please don't put her on a t-shirt, she's much too relevant to become a hipster cliché.
posted by signal at 4:40 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

This kind of victory was, unfortunately, something Occupy seemed a) mostly emphatically uninterested in if not proactively opposed to ; and b) too disorganized to aim for even if they wanted to.

I mean, they WERE pretty explicitly anarchist, leaderless, and decentralized. So kind of the exact opposite of the kind of movement that would strive to get specific people elected. (Whether or not this is a good idea is up for debate, but it's wrong to say they 'didn't get anyone elected' when that was openly not one of their goals.)

I wonder if they'd have had as much success spreading their message if they'd focused on that. Maybe they'd have had more, but I don't know.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:46 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Cameron Whitten, who was involved with Occupy Portland, ran for mayor and was the Oregon Progressive Party's nominee for state treasurer. Not everyone who was part of Occupy was against being in an elected position.
posted by gucci mane at 5:05 PM on November 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

Fair enough- I was in NYC at the time and I think that contingent was more into the anarchist thing...
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:11 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ana Tijoux wrote the song "Shock" during the Chilean Winter protests.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:53 PM on November 18, 2013

Vallejo, a 23-year-old geography student, was singing and marching with a handwritten sign when a squad of military vehicles closed in and attacked her with jets of tear gas. A pair of trucks mounted with water cannons unleashed a barrage of water fierce enough to break bones and scrape a person across the pavement. Vallejo was soaked, a cloud of tear gas was then blasted on to her body. With her skin wet, the chemical reaction was massive and incapacitating. Vallejo was paralysed. Her body went into an allergic reaction and welts from the gas erupted over it.

Jesus. I did the study-abroad thing at La Chile (that would be the University of, the same one Vallejo attends) 15 years ago and inadvertently got tear-gassed due to being on campus at the same time as a student protest. It was horrible, but at least no water cannons. Looks like the security forces have stepped up their game. No wonder the people are swinging back behind Bachelet.
posted by psoas at 7:01 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]