Allende v. Pinochet – Unpacking the Chilean Coup of 1973
Posted by Ariel WarshawStudents in 7th grade Humanities have been exploring Chilean history as a complement to their literary study of I Lived on Butterfly Hill. After an introduction to the geography and culture of the Latin American nation, we began our examination of General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup d’état that violently deposed the government of President Salvador Allende. After analyzing the events of Pinochet’s regime, students created a “human timeline” using photos and descriptors of each. They read first hand accounts of the September 11, 1973, coup and learned about various domestic and international responses to Pinochet’s rule. Our study of this time period focuses on acts of protest through art, and so students have been viewing examples of Chilean arpilleras and reading dissident poetry. After listening to Victor Jara’s “Estadio Chile”, his last poem before being killed, students were asked to think about the role of dissent in democracy. What is lost in a society when freedom of speech and protest are limited? The seventh graders were asked to silently respond to various questions provided on large chart paper. This offered them time to reflect and think critically, and their responses will serve to focus our future discussions around governance and freedom, in our Chilean case study and beyond.
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