Exactly fifty years ago, our country was totally different. Without the internet, major highways, or technological advancements, Chileans lived on a “neighbourhood scale,” shopping in stores and living at a different pace.
Exactly fifty years ago, that is to say in 1973, our country was totally different. Without the Internet, without major highways or technological advances, The Chileans lived on the “scale of a neighborhood”, buy in department stores, in large supermarket chains.
Through a series of photographs, To belong to In the field, foundation dedicated to the collection of old photographsit is possible to observe what Chile looked like at the time, daily life, marked by the presence of railways, streets with little traffic and a few milestones, such as the arrival of the metro.
Raúl La Torre, historian and coordinator of the Cultural Extension of the Andes University, points out that fifty years ago, Chilean society It was extremely different from the current one in several respects. “We were a predominantly agricultural country, with a large rural population, high rates of poverty, malnutrition and school dropouts. If in the 1990s and 2000s the concern of a sector focused respectively on access to higher education, its quality and its freeness; In the 1960s, the concern of part of the political class was centered on the consolidation of the basic school and the expansion of just over 30% of children with access to secondary education”.
We could also say that it was a society that feared the political context in which it lived, very affected by the global context of the Cold War. “A paradigm shift was seen in many aspects, including the political issue finally landing in family conversations, which heightened the perception of general division. Access to information has increased, generating an ideological position which, in turn, has generated a great and unusual interest in political participation,” adds La Torre.
In the cities a structure of social classes prevailed which established the privileges of some over those of the vast majority, “which constituted a fertile ground for political ideologies, all with a marked utopian character which posed ideals of society presented as possible to achieve in a short time. In the countryside, on the other hand, the tension had an obvious element: the agrarian reform and the way in which it was going to be applied. There was no doubt about whether it was going to be implemented, but about how”, establishes the historian.
A long list of differences and changes could be made between the society of the 60s and 70s and the Chile of today, but I think one of the main ones is that today’s society takes the experience of “in democracy” and “of democracy” for granted. It seems to me that this is perhaps one of the most relevant and different aspects. “Current demands go in the direction of consolidating or improving acquired rights, the majority of the Chilean population lives in cities, access to higher education is not limited to a few and its offer is much broader, among other aspects; but the loss of fear of coups or the possibility of government disruption is something that is not noticeable today,” La Torre says.
Economic growth, technology, improvements in primary health care, the growth of cities, among other aspects, “add to the difference from one era to another, but I emphasize, I believe that the perception of democracy, its fragility and its consolidation – this is perhaps the big difference”, he adds.
It was Chile in 1973: between railways and suits and ties
Source: Latercera
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