Chile: A Desire for Change

Submitted by Alyssa Santiago on the 2020 winter session study abroad program in Chile sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures…

My first week in Chile has been nothing short of memorable. There is so much to see here and so much to do. I live in a little, cute home with a host mom that is absolutely amazing. She has taken my roommate and I in like we are one of her own and spoils us with delicious food, fruitful laughs, and anything else that we may need. The university is a two minute walk from our house and our neighborhood is filled with so many delicious restaurants, convenience stores, the metro, and so much more. Santiago is like the convenience and abundance of New York City, but also the beautiful views and mountains of the countryside. Everything is so much cheaper here that when I left lunch the other day at a local restaurant, I felt I was stealing. Tips are always included and are 10% and Ubers are never more than $5.

Each district of the city has something special to offer, but there is one in particular that has gone through a drastic change in the last few months. Plaza Italia was once a luscious green area bursting with life, but has turned to a graveyard of lost hope for the Chilean people. Protesters have run rampant throughout the plaza setting any greenery on fire and spray painting the whole city in slurs and aggressive acronyms against the cops. The cement of the streets have been broken off and thrown at store windows to further express their rage. But why are they so mad? They want change. They want understanding. They want equality. Chilean people work hard and are constantly inflicted with rising metro prices, sexism, deceasing amounts of social welfare systems, deteriorating education systems, and large socioeconomic gaps. These people want to be heard and feel their president is not doing them justice and sending cops to shoot people in the eyes leaving them blind, suffocate them with tear gas, and use extensive force to silence their voices. Chile fairly recently escaped a dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and people fear their fate is heading in the same direction. Chile is a fruitful country with diverse climates, food, and nationalities like the USA, but the Chilean people have been unable to live to their full potential. I am so lucky to be able to embark on this journey and experience this life everyday but I am also so lucky to be an American.

The Virgin Mary on San Cristóball Hill. Chilean people will go all the way up the hill to pray to the Virgin Mary. There are many ways to get up the hill; you can bike, walk, drive, or even take a gondola lift. It took us almost 1.5 hours to hike to the top, but there are many places to stop to use the bathroom, eat, refill your water, or even swim.
A shopping plaza at Los Dominicos. Many artists come here to sell their art to the locals and tourists. There was everything  from clothes, wooden crafts, stones and crystals, authentic leather products, alpaca sweaters, and even animals. They also keep a lot of birds there like peacocks, hens, roosters, chickens, and pigeons.
Hiking up a volcano in Puerto Varas. There is a cute ski lodge on the volcano that you can hike up in the summer here and ski and snowboard down in the winter here. We drove up most of the way so the hike was not very long, but it was very steep. The view was breathtaking.