Angel Parra and the Chilean Division

Angel Parra is one of the band members of the group Los Tres. Los Tres was created in the 1980´s and they have appeared on 90´s shows like MTV, when music on the channel was actually good, and released several albums over the years. Angel is part of the famous Parra family in Chile. The Parra family, over the years, has raised some of the most famous Chilean artists in its history. The family leans toward the political left and is loved by many Chileans because it actively opposed Pinochet´s right-wing dictatorship.

On Friday, June 11th, we had our almuerzo at a sushi place with Angel Parra. Angel, like many in his family, believes that a country´s fair social policies towards all its citizens is just as important as having a great economy. He is a strong critic of the right and he, along with many other people, was shocked when Piñera won the last election because there was a strong belief that the left was the majority. His opinion about the United States is that it´s similar to a coin with a shiny, clean side, while the other half is marred with an ugly rust. I, along with the group, agreed to this point that he was making. He mentioned that the United States is stained with its gruesome and unjust social policies over the years towards minorities. However, he is in love with the United State´s culture in terms of its music. Angel believes that the United States has a rich music scene and history and that the country pays homage to those who have contributed to it. He mentioned this because he later talked about how Chile does not respect those former Chilean artists that are now long past their fame. Specifically, he told us about his great-aunt, Violeta Parra, and how it took an eternity for her famous paintings to be given a location in downtown Santiago to be displayed.

Another interesting comment that he said that later gave birth to a semi-heated debate within the group after he left was his belief that Chile was too divided to be one right now. He didn´t mention that it was to the point of civil war but rather that Chile´s political left and right suffer from many scuffles and disagreements with the other. The right fears the left while the left distrusts of the right.

Afer Angel Parra left the room we discussed how much we enjoyed having Angel and the intellectual topics we discussed. However, some members of the group compared Chile´s divisions with the United State´s divisions and there was an argument that Chile is more closely tied than the US. Some talked about how the United States is not only separated by class and politics, but by race as well, and how Chile doesn´t suffer from the race issue because it´s more homogeneous. However, others in the group mentioned the Native Indian struggle and how they have been mistreated because their indigenous. This added another dimension to the Chilean unity argument because in Santiago you don´t hear much about Indians since they either live to the north or south, or if they live here they change their names to Spanish in fear of persecution.

Another subject that dissolves the country´s unity is the concept of immigration. Argentinians that emigrate to Chile receive better treatment because they are seen as equals by Chileans. It is similar to Western and Northern Europeans in the U.S. Because they are perceived as equals, Argentinians usually live in the nicer areas of Santiago. In contrast, Peruvians and Bolivians are looked down upon because of their native looks and because they are countries that are economically-inferior to Chile.

This opened my eyes to see that we still don´t know enough about Chile. If we spent all our time in Santiago and never went anywhere else, then we would have an erronous perception of Chile. I´m excited for our trip to Talca, which is about 5 hours south, so we can get a larger feeling about how Chile actually is.