Tengo miedo torero - Pedro Lemebel.

Another post that was pending is the onde corresponding to session seven. 

In this case I will write about a book that I like very much. This book is called "Tengo miedo torero" and it was written by Pedro Lemebel. This novel tells the history of love between two men during the dictatorship in Chile. The protagonist is a homosexual who has had a very hard life, but everything change when he meets a young student who was part of the "Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez". The two men live a love story, but finally, when the young man must escape from Chile, this history ends whit the madwoman in front alone in Chile. The name of the book refers to the password that the men established to communicate without being detected by the police. It was the lyrics of a song that the madwoman in front liked. This novels tells the story of love in times to dictatorship, and also tells the harsh history of the country during those days, and those who resisted in hiding. 

"Tengo miedo torero" is a brave book, written by a break-up author that has marked my life as a reader. 

About my decision to enter the university

Today I will update my blog with some post that were pending. 

This corresponds to blog number two, about my decision to enter the university.

When I was a girl, I wanted to be a detective, because I liked to play research. But when I grew up I realized that I wanted to study a career related to the social sciences. That's how I got to know Anthropology. This was the option that I liked the most, I even interviewed an anthropologist to learn more about this career. For a moment I had doubts about whether it would be possible to study Anthropology, since this career was only in Santiago, and I am from Talca. But then, I was notified by the university that I could enter the race for a scholarship, and that made me finally decide. My experience at the university has been difficult but very enriching. I have also learned to mature. When I finish studying I would like to work on public policies, especially on issues related to women and childrens. 

Construcción Social de lo ambiental.

The subject that I like most of this semester was "Construcción social de lo ambiental". In this subject we review a perspective that indicates that the environment and the risks associated with it it are socially constructed. This subject has a systemic approach, but try to dialogue with others perspectives.

During the class we learn different theories about the environment. We not only review theoretical contents about environment and its social construction, we also carry out workshops in groups where we apply those theories to some cases, principally from Chile and Latin America.

I like this subject because it develops a new perspective that studies the relationship between environment and society. In this way we can understand that the socio-environmental risks we see today en Chile are also consequences of our actions. This perspective allows us to think about the projections of our environment and begin to act in a conscientious way with resources.

Finally, another thing I like about this subject is that is it thought for a woman. I think that is important that women have a place in academic theory.

Gayle Rubin

  

    A person that I admire within anthropology in Gayle Rubin. She was born in 1949. Rubin is a US cultural anthropologist, better known as an activist and an influential theorist on sex and gender policy. 

    One of his most important essays is: “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex”. In this essay Gayle Rubin explains very well the fact that the gender is a social construction that determines the ways of being male and female. So, she says that this division gives rise to the oppression of women. In her analysis Gayle Rubin argues that the relationships between sex and gender make up a "system that varies from society to society," establishing that the place of oppression of women and sexual minorities is in what she calls the sex / gender system. 

   

    I'm interested in Gayle Rubin because she is one of the few women anthropologists who do theory and who do it from feminism, and because I think it's important to know that there is no single way to be a man and a woman, or roles that must be met to be male or female.

Photography

This photography was taken by Marcelo Montecino. This is a photo that causes me a lot of pain, because it shows the history of the "cueca alone". This is a dance that began the family women of detainees disappeared during the military dictatorship, and who presented for the first time in the first act of the day of women celebrated in dictatorship, in 1979 in the caupolican theater. As we can see in the photography, this dance it was characterized because the women sangs, while one of them went out to dance the cueca, but in all these dances the woman did not have a partner to dance. They put a photo in your chest that showed their husband disappeared. The cueca is transformed into a sign of sadness and it was no longer a reason to celebrate. This is a photo that I would like to rescue because it tells a story of how important women were in resistance to the dictatorship.

Feminism

This post corresponds to session three. On this occasion I would like to talk about feminism, since we are mobilizing on this issue. Feminism came to my life at a very hard time and taught me to relate better to myself and also to my partners. Feminism has taught me that we often endure violence out of fear, but that within us is the courage to say no, not to endure violence anymore.

The university is a place where the patriarchal logics of society are reproduced, we can see it in the classes and in the relations with teachers and classmates. That is why it is important that we change these logics.

This is why this mobilization is so important, since it marks a milestone towards the strengthening of a university and a feminist society. I thank all my colleagues who today dare to fight to end patriarchy.

About me

My name is Pía Camila Aravena. I'm 23 years old. I was born on september 26nd 1994 in Talca, in the region of Maule, Chile.

My family lives in Talca. They are my mom, her husband and my three brothers, Martín, Antonia y Joaquin, I’m the oldest sister. I came to Santiago to study anthropology in 2014. Now I live in the center of Santiago with my friend Pablo. He studies geography in the Universidad de Chile.

I like Santiago, it’s a city with a lot of culture and entertainment, but when I finish studying I want to live in a smaller city, because I would like to have a quiet life away from the noise of the big city.