Original article: Y ahí aparecieron todas, todas (las radicales, las ferroviarias, las del Partido Nacional y hasta las del MEMCH, que le dicen): La histórica concentración del Teatro Politeama By Osvaldo Carvajal M. , Faculty of Literature and Doctorate in Applied Humanities, U. Andrés Bello The skyrocketing food prices, inflation eroding wages, a President reluctant to take meaningful steps to alleviate a global crisis, and a feminist march violently dispersed by police… What year are we talking about?
Believe it or not, it is 1936. The women at the center of this story came from nearly all political and social backgrounds. Although it is sometimes confused with the first International Women’s Day, the context is entirely different.
Let’s explore the archives. In an October 1936 statement, Elena Caffarena, Secretary General of the Pro-Emancipation Movement of Women in Chile (MEMCH), called on her members to participate in a significant women’s demonstration “for the reduction of living costs,” spearheaded by the Female Radical Party. The event was set for Sunday, November 11, at Teatro Politeama (now Estadio Víctor Jara), after which participants intended to march to La Moneda to present the outcomes to the President.
Why was gathering so urgent? During his second term, Arturo Alessandri had to confront the lingering effects of the 1929 crisis. By the time he took office, the country was grappling with high unemployment and soaring living costs, a situation he chose to address with brutal repression.
Little is mentioned about how this time, the “Lion” was far from populism and affection for his “beloved masses. ” In fact, during the military parade of 1936, the rallying cry was not the patriotic “long live Chile,” but a desperate “lower the potato prices! ” It was the lack of bread for their children that compelled these diverse women to gather at the Teatro Politeama.
Our special correspondent on-site, Rosa Uberlinda Parra (who wrote under the name Heliana de Santiván in Acción Femenina), reported that that day, Cora Cid from the Radical Party (“militant feminist”), Elcira Rojas from the Civic Women’s Party (“active, capable feminist”), and Cleofa Torres from the National Party (“apolitical and discreet”) shared the stage, representing a broad political spectrum. But the diversity did not stop there. With a full house, in a touching scene, three leaders from the working class took the floor: a representative from the railway workers in Concepción, Norma Calderón on behalf of the female workers of Santiago, and a young woman representing store employees.
Heliana recorded, deeply moved, the impact of their stories: the unsanitary tenement, the empty pots, the hungry children. One of their demands, shouted passionately, summed everything up: “Education for our children, since we lack it…” As the event was nearing its conclusion, it was announced that permission to march on La Moneda had been denied, and the order was “calabaza, calabaza” (leave, leave)… However, here comes our other special correspondent, or rather, war correspondent. Delie Rouge —a writer and MEMCH activist— was in a group that decided to disobey and attempt to advance down the Alameda regardless.
Their path was blocked by a group of police, and following the shout “let us pass, we fight for your children’s bread,” chaos ensued. In her column ironically titled “Modern Heroism,” Rouge denounces police violence from a “pale, skinny lieutenant” who snatched their banner, trampled a demonstrator with his horse, and then paraded triumphantly before them. La Hora (the Radical Party’s newspaper) reported that after they were “beaten,” one of their reporters gained exclusive access to the confiscated banner with subversive messages: “Lower the cost of living,” it said.
Meanwhile, El Mercurio and La Nación (a government newspaper) claimed that instead of acting cowardly, the police “strictly fulfilled their duty and deserved applause for it”; they even mentioned two detainees allegedly inciting chaos, who supposedly had ties to… the Communist Party. They say history doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. A curious note: at the beginning of her piece, Heliana de Santiván admitted attending the demonstration to dismantle the “prejudice that all feminist gatherings will end in brawls and uncontrolled shouting.
” The negative image of feminism traces back to ancient times, but if it didn’t intimidate British suffragists, it certainly didn’t frighten these Chilean women who, thanks to this unusual ideological convergence, would eventually secure the right to vote in presidential elections in 1949. Thus, when someone tries to discredit the movement with the phrase “feminists were different back then,” they inadvertently flatter a long-standing tradition of struggle. Excellent service.
Osvaldo Carvajal M.