Santiago

I have to admit that is delightful to me to speak about cities.  Precisely because I like to think, live and go through human spaces, analyzing the structures, the meaning of the constitution, in a material and discourse sense in which are builded. I really enjoy to see how spaces are a place in which we find lots of meanings and dispositions. Particulary, cities are a center of human activities and, because of that, is full of material and metaphysic senses.

In that way, Santiago is a very important space to me. I like to walk for hours without a definite course. I consider the excercise of walking through the city  as very relevant, because it shows on some events some aspects of our society. For example, is not coincidence that, as a girl, I am not able to walk alone along the city without experiencing  Street harassment, or the fact that if you walk through a bad neighborhood, or “dangerous streets”, you will be surely a victim of assault. Then, in that sense, Santiago has very good things that I love, like those spaces that recall history events and are patrimony (Barrio Yungay, for example), and those places that are full of culture and arts. I dislike those spaces that are determinated by material conditions and socioeconomic level, not by itself, but because there where designed places that reproduce social injustices, becoming guettos and focus of violence. Those places are usually not pleasant to community.

To make Santiago a better place, I think it has to be more democratic. In first place, there must not be able to have the level of segregation that characterize our city. And then, I think we have to socialize every space, and eliminate neoliberalism that stalks our city. But I’m convinced that first we have to change radically the social structure and values that are deeply in the heart of Santiago. I hope I will be alive to see something change.