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The Art of Protest in Latin America: A Media Review of Ana Tijoux’s Cacerolazo and Other Protest Art in Latin America’s 2019 Uprisings

2020; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/708335

1545-701X

Andrea Alejandra Gordillo Marquina,

Latin American Literature Studies

Previous articleNext article FreeMedia Essay ReviewThe Art of Protest in Latin America: A Media Review of Ana Tijoux's Cacerolazo and Other Protest Art in Latin America's 2019 Uprisings Cacerolazo. By Ana Tijoux. Produced by Jon Grandcamp, 2019.Andrea Alejandra Gordillo MarquinaAndrea Alejandra Gordillo MarquinaUniversity of California, Los Angeles Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreIn October 2019, Chile erupted into ongoing civil protests. Explained by mainstream media as a response to a hike in the cost of public transportation by 30 pesos (.038 USD), demonstrators insist that the uprisings are not due to the amount of the hike but to the social inequality, police violence, and political abuse generated by neoliberal forces introduced by Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. Often recognized as the world's "laboratory" for neoliberalism (Barder 2013, 111), Chile reflects astounding economic and social inequality. Neoliberalism on steroids has inspired the vast majority of people not able to afford life commodified to take to the streets despite a state of emergency and curfew imposed by Chilean president Sebastián Piñera.On October 21, Chilean-French rap artist Ana Tijoux released on Instagram a 1-minute clip (Tijoux 2019) of a compilation of videos of the Chilean masses protesting set to the tune of a new song, Cacerolazo. The lyrics of this song teach the history of this most recent Chilean uprising. The first verse, "Quema, despierta, Renuncia Piñera / Por la Alameda, es nuestra La Moneda / No son treinta peso', son treinta año / La constitución, y los perdonazo' / Con puño y cuchara frente al aparato / Y a todo el Estado, cacerolazo!" (Burn, wake up, Piñera renounce / Through La Alameda, La Moneda is ours / It's not 30 pesos, it's 30 years / The constitution, and everything we've forgiven / With fists and spoons before the apparatus / And the entire State, cacerolazo!), expresses the Chilean people's indignation with 30 years of neoliberal violence, an oppressive constitution, and abuse from the government, particularly the presidency under Piñera, who has been urged by his people to resign.Cacerolazo's lyrics are not the only aspects of the song that teach a history of rebellion. The song is set to the infectious beat of pots, pans, spoons, and other kitchen utensils, alluding to Latin America's long history of using household items as weapons of rebellion. Dating back to the 1980s in Chile and Argentina, making noise with cacerolas (the Spanish term for kitchen pans) have been the last resort for many to express their indignation, unify, and replace their fear with joy and courage (Kammerer and Sánchez Roncero 2005). In a context where the state uses heavy militarization to suppress mass uprisings, defiantly using pots and pans to protest is a symbol of indignation and courage as people from all political orientations and experiences refuse to stay silent before a range of injustices. Cacophonies of pots and pans can be heard emanating from houses and apartment complexes, filling the silence of oppression with the music of people uniting. This overcoming of fear central to cacerolazo philosophy is evident in Cacerolazo lyrics like "No tenemos miedo" (We are not afraid) and "Nos quitaron tanto que quitaron el miedo / Apunta, dispara, asesino del pueblo / Si no hay justicia, no hay paz para el Gobierno / Ahora tú dime quién es el violento" (They took everything that they took our fear / Aim, fire, murderer of the people / If there is no justice, there is no peace for the Government / Now tell me who is the violent one).The song also teaches audiences to engage in Cultural Media Literacy, which takes into account the public pedagogy that we experience daily through interactions with culture and expresses that we must engage in our ability to critically "read" and "write" media as we do with traditional forms of literacy (Kellner and Share 2007). For example, Cacerolazo's lyrics encourage audiences to think critically about an audio message from Chilean First Lady Cecilia Morel leaked on October 22, in which she expresses her incredulity at the uprisings in Chile and advises to "keep a cold head." Tijoux plays a clip of the audio in her song, complementing it with the lyrics "No hay cabeza fría, hay cabeza vendi'a" (There is no such thing as a cold head; there are only heads that sell out). She engages with rhetoric from the governing elite and reads it for what it is: an attempt to extract emotion and power from the justified rage of a people oppressed.Outside of the classroom, we engage with culture through a sort of permanent education in the public sphere in which "identities are being continually transformed, power is enacted, and learning assumes a political dynamic" (Giroux 2004, 60). While often overlooked by scholars in education and leaders in education policy, public pedagogy is vastly influential in teaching and learning not only academic information but cultural codes because of its accessibility and omnipresence; movies, music, media, the Internet, and so forth, all influence the ways that we organize society and live our lives. The arts, part of this permanent education, are capable of "emancipating and enriching divergent social realities" when critical (García Camargo 2017, 128) because of their quality of radical imagination, needed to see and create alternate worlds. We see the power of public pedagogy evident in Cacerolazo, which transmits information about the history of neoliberal Chile and encourages audiences to critically engage with media.The public pedagogy evident in Cacerolazo is echoed in all of the art central to struggles for dignity all over Latin America, many of which rose alongside the protests in Chile. Artists quickly rose to accompany the rallying cries, creating protest art that has spread all over the world facilitated by social media and the Internet, serving as the fuel for what many are calling a Latin American revolution. A photograph of Santiago's historic Plaza Italia overrun by people as if it were an anthill, the Mapuche flag at the top of a statue at the center, framed by the billowing smoke produced by the city aflame, transmits information about the public space and history that the Chilean people reclaim and the emotion with which they do so (Hidalgo 2019). A Facebook video depicting thousands of people in Cali, Colombia, on the streets playing and dancing salsa, protest signs and chants visible and audible in the frame, communicate the energy and joy of a people united (Asociación Nomadesc 2019). Comparing these forms of art reveals many similarities in different contexts of social unrest, as well as the differences that set them apart.Perhaps one of the most prominent examples of the power of the public pedagogy of the arts is the November 21 public performance intervention of the Chilean collective, Las Tesis (2019), who chanted in unison: "El patriarcado es un juez / Que nos juzga por nacer / Y nuestro castigo / Es la violencia que no vez / Es feminicidio / Impunidad para mi asesino / Es la desaparición / Es la violación / Y la culpa no era mía, ni donde estaba ni como vestía / El violador eres tú" (The patriarchy is a judge / That judges us for being born / And our punishment / Is the violence unseen / It is femicide / Impunity for my murderer / It's the disappearances / It's rape / And it wasn't my fault, not where I was nor how I was dressed / You are the rapist). Its poignant lyrics and simple format have facilitated its spread all over the world, adapted by thousands of women who have posted videos of manifestations by the thousands interpreting the song in their own contexts. Not only has the performance taught the world about gender-based violence, it has aided in collective healing of those that suffer from it directly.The public pedagogy created by the arts has taken a front seat in the struggles for dignity in Chile and other parts of Latin America, facilitated by social media and the Internet. Partly a strategy to make visible what mainstream media keeps invisible, the spread of various accounts of the protests through social media also serves to inform the rest of the world about what is happening, record local memory, and to organize those on the ground. 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