7/30- Murals and Graffiti
Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: 2012:
Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: 2012:
I couldn’t help but notice that throughout the entirety of our trip, we kept on seeing walls upon walls of creative graffiti art that was very politically oriented. They were most present in Santiago and Valparaiso, but were also evident in La Isla Negra and Pomaire. From the tours that we took through the homes of Pablo Neruda, the famous poet, writer and artist, I gathered that as a member of the Communist party, he was very politically active. It was mentioned that he was going to run for president at the same time as Salvador Allende, however, it was decided that it would be more efficient for the Communist party to align and support the Socialist Party so that Allende could become president. This was the most efficient way to get a left leaning party member into office at that time so Neruda gave up his bid. Pablo Neruda is evidence that artists were incredibly influential in the fervent political climate of Chile, otherwise, the military dictatorship would not have made such an effort to throw him into exile. They also realized the power of such a medium to swing public opinion and political sentiment. It is because of the work of Neruda and other artists that the world is able to view the historical timeline of Chile and see the emotional upheaval of the citizens. Through film, murals, graffiti, old journalism pieces etc., we are able to put together a telling history of the Chilean story.
Many of the topics on this trip have me intrigued. How do we rectify years of neo-liberal agenda in the political realm and undo the mistakes of the past? Do the benefits of market pressures and competition offset the negatives of the system in educational contexts? Perhaps Chile would be in a worse off state than now if these agendas had not been followed. People tend to criticize what has been done and find the negative ramifications, however, we must not discount the benefits out of bias. There are more schools than there were before to help alleviate some of the gaps that previously loomed. Even though public education is seen as subpar and society is stratified by socio-economic status, at least the facilities exist to improve for the future. Many places in the world don’t even have that.
It is clear that many questions have been raised by the topics addressed in this study tour and that more research needs to be done in order to understand them comprehensively.
References for Material in this Blog
Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program. (2005). Global competence and national needs: Recommendations: Breaking the one-million-student barrier. (). Washington, DC: Lincoln Commission.
Bellei, C. (2005). The private-public school controversy: The case of chile. Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Chovanec, D., & Benitez, A. (2008). The penguin revolution in chile: Exploring intergenerational learning in social movements. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 3(1), 39-57.
Frizzelle, C. (2010, May 7, 2010). 180 degrees south: Lindy, do I really have to review this movie? SLOG News and Arts, , 1.
IMDb. (2012). 180 degrees south. Retrieved 7/1, 2012, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1407927/
Larraín, C. (2012). Cinema in chile
Lawrence, R. (2010). In Lawrence R. (Ed.), Insight guide: Chile and easter island (5th ed.). London, England: APA Publications.
Pena, M. (2012). The penguins' revolution (Lecture ed.)
Spencer Global. (2012). The portal to all southern chile. Retrieved 7/25, 2012, from http://www.allsouthernchile.com/southern-chile-environmental-issues/135/518-patagonia-dams.html
Wikipedia. (2012). 180 degrees south: Conquerors of the useless. Retrieved 7/5, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_Degrees_South:_Conquerors_of_the
Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: 2012:
Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: Valparaiso: Art as a Political Landscape: 2012:
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