This article examines Nicolás Palacios's 1904 work Raza Chilena as an attempt to resolve the anxiety of racial mixture in Latin American nation-building by redefining purity itself. Through a fantastical historical narrative that synthesizes Visigothic and Araucanian origins, Palacios constructs the Chilean “roto” as a pure mestizo type.
FRIDA VALENTINE C. WESETH
MA in History
University of Oslo
The Chilean military coup of 1973 brought both violent political repression and conservative conceptions on sexuality and gender. In this context, in 1984, Mónica Briones Puccio was killed in Santiago, Chile. While the police framed the crime as a car accident, the murder would later become Chile’s first documented lesbophobic hate crime. The police’s decision to cover the real motives shows the state’s refusal to recognise violence against queer people. For lesbian women in Chile, this denial showed them that their safety was not assured by their own government. Amidst fear and violence, a climate of resistance appeared, notably through the creation of Ayuquelén, Chile’s first lesbian feminist collective.
ZOÉ STYLIOS, Master’s student of European History University of Oslo
Fortid er et historisk fagtidsskrift og en ikke-kommersiell virksomhet stiftet 2004. Fortid er en arena for formidling av historie til den historieinteresserte allmennhet. Redaksjonen er tilknyttet historiestudiet ved Universitetet i Oslo.
