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On the basis of previous research on the cultural action of the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990), especially linked to the visual arts, this article reflects on some critical nodes in pursuit of an interpretive framework for that cultural action: identity and periodization, denomination, ideological affiliation, cultural reach of the rupture, comparison with South American dictatorships, manipulation of the media, and recognition of artistic and cultural action in relation to repressive identity. The article proposes the consideration of temporal, institutional, and content fluctuations in order to overcome dichotomous or absolute explanations that mythologize and obscure understanding of authoritarian cultural action and, therefore, of the dissident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are therefore saying that the work of expanding the habitual levels of life is the only valid art installation / the only exhibition / the only work of art that lives. We are artists and we feel ourselves participating in the grand aspirations of all, presuming today, with South American love, the gliding of eyes over these lines. Oh, South America. In this way, together, we construct the beginning of the work: a recognition in our minds; erasing the trades: life as a creative act ... That is the art / the work / this is the work of art that we propose. — ¡Ay Sudamérica!, Colectivo Acciones de Arte, July 1981 At 11 a.m. on 11 September 1973, the Chilean Air Force bombed the presidential palace, La Moneda, as part of an attack that ended the presidency of Salvador Allende, suspended democracy, and initiated the repressive military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Eight years later, on 12 July 1981, in the midst of dictatorship, six airplanes again flew over Santiago in military formation. This time, however, the planes did not drop bombs. Instead, they scattered four hundred thousand pamphlets with a text that urged Chileans to claim their space, thoughts, and lives by asserting the potential for artistry within all people. This art action, titled ¡Ay Sudamérica! (Oh, South America!) and orchestrated by the Colectivo Acciones de Arte (Art Actions Collective, or CADA), subversively re-created a central moment from the violent history of the military coup in order to disturb and articulate an alternative course for that history (Fig. 1). In doing so, CADA challenged the regime's conception of Chilean citizenship by calling for an expanded space of existence and invoking the possibility of an artistic and contestatory subjectivity within everyone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"B. D. Q. C.," as he signed his letter, must have felt pretty special that New Year's Eve of 1973. Some time that evening, the 15-year-old Communist boy from Santiago de Chile kissed a 17-year-old Communist girl admired for her beauty by all the young Communists from the local headquarters of the Juventudes Comunistas de Chile (JJCC), or Jota, as the youth wing of the Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCH) was nicknamed. He had never dated an older woman before, and though he bragged about having kissed thousands of other girls, he had never truly fallen in love until then. "I dated her for only 13 days. We broke up, but every day that goes by I love her more and more," he confessed in a letter to the editor of the young Communists' magazine a few days later. To make matters worse for our lovelorn teenager, the object of his affection did not stay single for long. "She is now dating another guy from the Jota. Every day that goes by I grow more jealous of him and of everyone who talks to her, because even though I'm not with her any more, I dream we are still together, and I have hopes to be with her again." The existence of a place like the JJCC local headquarters, which all the people involved in this romantic affair visited regularly, was the cause of both solace and affliction for this young man: "I waste the whole afternoon in the headquarters waiting for her to arrive and greet her, so my eyes can take her in. I think about her every minute, while she has thousands of things to think about, and I have only one." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coloniaje Exhibition, held in September 1873 in Santiago, Chile, represents a milestone in the history of Chilean museums. As the first retrospective display of the history of the Chilean nation, it was an important precedent for the collections that led to the construction of the National Historical Museum in 1911. By examining the ideas associated with the history of the colonial era and the museography related to the exhibition, this article analyses the ambiguous ways in which the Coloniaje Exhibition mobilised the colonial past in the context of the ascendancy of liberalism and the transformation of Santiago's urban social life. Situated between alienation and identification – between critiquing the colonial system and celebrating its imprint on Chilean society – the Coloniaje Exhibition is important for the understanding of postcolonial societies in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The striking development of Chilean public primary education during the nineteenth century has often been noted, Existing explanations emphasize industrialization and social change in shaping societal demand for schooling, and elite consensus, the role of individual leaders, and low levels of inequality and social heterogeneity in shaping the state's educational provision. This article complements existing state-centered arguments by showing that the institutions of local and regional administration were also crucial in transforming policy changes into real progress in primary education. As Chilean schooling spread and became systematized over the course of the nineteenth century, local state officials not only effectively carried out the state's educational policies but also refined it independently and even pushed for the deepening of educational development, and particularly the systematic control of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the role of young women as apostles to the poor in Chile from 1922 to 1932 in the absence of priests and how they contributed in shaping the history of modern Catholic Church in Chile. The mass defections of Chilean men from participation in organized religion is addressed and the reason why this did not result in a feminized historiography of the modern Catholic Church is explored. The changes to women's religious culture and roles in the early 20th-century and its impact on the Chilean society and the Catholic Church is examined.

Discusses the relationship between company towns and peripheral cities by looking at the evolution of two Chilean towns between 1917 and the 1940s. Argument that the construction and the regulation of company towns created acute social conflicts and economic contradictions in urban settlements located in the periphery; Analysis of how the periphery both challenged the hegemonic dreams of planned communities and became an important tool in easing tensions from the camps; Impact of Andes Copper's decision to build a company town on the urban and social structure of the region; Growth of Pueblo Hundido and the construction of Potrerillos as a modern mine; Working-class culture and labor history.