{"id":135323,"date":"2025-04-27T20:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T20:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/i-used-to-laugh-at-my-chilean-fathers-paranoia-about-life-in-the-us-not-any-more-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T20:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T20:39:32","slug":"i-used-to-laugh-at-my-chilean-fathers-paranoia-about-life-in-the-us-not-any-more-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/i-used-to-laugh-at-my-chilean-fathers-paranoia-about-life-in-the-us-not-any-more-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"I used to laugh at my Chilean father\u2019s paranoia about life in the US \u2013 not any more – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having fled here from Chile after Pinochet seized power in 1973 my father feared the state\u2019s arbitrary power to turn lives upside down. His outlook has never felt more relevant
\u201cDon\u2019t open the door to nobody,\u201d my father warned throughout my childhood \u2013 right up until the day he died. He trusted no politicians, no organized religion and definitely no strangers knocking unannounced.
Lately, his words echo louder than ever.
In California, where I teach at university, the year began with wildfires. They\u2019re out now, but there is no containment for the political blaze sweeping through higher education. One after another, Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s executive orders have scorched the landscape: slashing funding, silencing communication, terminating grants, capping research.
Each one feeds the fire. As Trump remarked in his address to Congress, he\u2019s \u201cjust getting started<\/a>\u201d.
So between grading papers and making dinner, the real questions linger: will I still have a job next year? Will my department survive? Will my students be safe? Will my work be banned for using words like disability<\/em> or inequality<\/em>?
These questions aren\u2019t paranoid. They\u2019re familiar.
They\u2019re the same kinds of questions my father asked himself in 1975 before fleeing Chile<\/a> for the US, trading a brutal dictatorship for freedom.
The speed and ease with which words like \u201cpurge\u201d, \u201cerasure\u201d and \u201cforced removal\u201d have flooded our lexicon, crammed into news updates about attacks on minority groups and immigrants, brings to mind 11 September 1973.
Though I wasn\u2019t born yet, that day lives beneath my skin as one of Chile\u2019s daughters. On that day, the military overthrew the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and ushered in a 17-year dictatorship under Gen Augusto Pinochet.
The new regime tortured and murdered thousands of Allende supporters. And because Pinochet feared free speech and a free press, public debate and intellectual freedoms, he specifically targeted writers, academics, students and artists.
Authoritarian regimes always do.
Now consider what\u2019s happening today to those <\/strong>on Trump\u2019s growing enemy list. This includes the recently detained Palestinian activist and legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil<\/a> at Columbia University, my alma mater. Trump hasn\u2019t even tried to hide his desire for retribution; instead, he vowed that Khalil\u2019s arrest would be the first of \u201cmany to come<\/a>\u201d.
Since then, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has revoked 300 scholars\u2019 visas<\/a> and federal agents have detained at least a dozen students and professors, often without clarity on charges or alleged crimes other than protesting and speaking out.
The case of the Tufts doctoral student R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk\u2013 arrested in broad daylight by plainclothes Ice agents \u2013 stands out for me. Her only known offense was co-authoring an op-ed in the campus newspaper that criticized the university\u2019s response to students\u2019 demands to divest from companies with ties to Israel over the Gaza conflict.
Some ideas are now deemed so dangerous they must be erased, free speech be damned.
With the thought police now in full force in my<\/em> country \u2013 our <\/em>country \u2013 I can\u2019t help but think of the killing of V\u00edctor Jara, the Chilean singer-songwriter often dubbed<\/a> the Bob Dylan of Chile. His curly hair, olive skin and Mapuche features so resemble my father\u2019s that I tear up watching black-and-white performances of El Derecho de Vivir en Paz<\/a> (The Right to Live in Peace).
Born into an impoverished peasant family and a fierce supporter of working-class and Indigenous people, he threaded their stories into song. \u201cWe\u2019ve had enough of that music that doesn\u2019t speak to us, that entertains us only for a moment, but leaves us empty,\u201d he said. \u201cWe began to create a new kind of song. It was music that was born out of total necessity.\u201d
Jara was closely aligned with Allende\u2019s leftist Popular Unity<\/a> coalition, even rewriting the lyrics to its anthem, Venceremos<\/a> (We Shall Prevail), which made him a prime target for the opposition.
Like many workers, Jara responded to Allende\u2019s call on the morning of 11 September to occupy their workplaces in defiance of the unfolding coup. As a professor at the State Technical University, he went to campus. Despite a strict curfew \u2013 anyone found on the streets risked being shot \u2013 hundreds of students and faculty sought refuge in university buildings, which were later shelled by tanks and raked with machine gun fire.
A survivor, Osiel N\u00fa\u00f1ez Quevado, recalled in a documentary<\/a>: \u201cWithout absolutely no warning, they began machine-gunning the university\u2019s central building. They got everybody out, putting professors and students on the floor with hands on their heads. There among them, was V\u00edctor.\u201d
Pinochet\u2019s forces found Jara\u2019s message so threatening that when he was identified among the prisoners brought to Estadio Chile \u2013 the stadium later turned into a detention center and renamed to honor the singer\u2019s memory \u2013 he was singled out for torture in an especially cruel way.
Soldiers broke his hands and wrists, then taunted him<\/a> to play his guitar and sing. Badly beaten and bloodied, in the two hours before his death he secured a pen and paper from a friend and gathered the strength to write his final song, Estadio Chile<\/a>.
He defiantly performed Venceremos before his captors killed him with a gunshot to the head, further riddling his body with 44 bullet wounds<\/a> before dumping his corpse in the street.
Such brutality, forever seared into the consciousness of Chileans like my father, has shaped generations across national borders, thousands of miles, and decades. The ghosts of a decimated democracy haunted Dad\u2019s nightmares, and they continue to haunt me.
When I turned 18, my father actively discouraged me from voting, fearing that my name could end up on a list used against me one day, that I could be killed like one of los desaparecidos \u2013 <\/em>the thousands of Chileans who were abducted by state forces<\/a> during Pinochet\u2019s rule, never to be seen again.
The deeper I dig into history, the more parallels I uncover between then and now.
I recently learned about Chile\u2019s failed coup<\/a> in June 1973, which eerily resembles the January 6 assault on the US Capitol. Riding on growing discontent within the military, Lt Col Roberto Souper launched an unsuccessful attempt against Allende. Though poorly coordinated, it served as a kind of dress rehearsal, helping the military understand the conditions necessary for success in a future attempt.
The commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, Gen Carlos Prats, helped squelch the rebellion. But by August, having lost the military\u2019s support, Prats resigned and personally recommended his replacement: his second-in-command, Pinochet. (The following year, while in exile, Prats and his wife Sof\u00eda were killed in a car bombing in Buenos Aires, carried out by Chile\u2019s secret police.)
Pinochet swiftly pardoned those arrested during the failed coup attempt \u2013 mostly men from various branches of the military \u2013 and assigned them to guard the Estadio Nacional, where so many were tortured and killed.
The similarities are impossible to ignore: a failed insurrection, full pardons for the perpetrators, and ensuing vengeance.
As the attorney Almudena Bernab\u00e9u observes<\/a>, \u201cDictatorial regimes are fueled by arrogance and by the ability to deny that their power will ever end.\u201d
Emboldened and once again in power, Trump\u2019s ire threatens most of the American public, save for a small segment of wealthy oligarchs.
And just as in Chile, where poverty soared<\/a> in the dictatorship years, the most vulnerable Trump voters will suffer most from rising prices and cuts to crucial social safety net programs.
Allende\u2019s wide-ranging platform had promised to alleviate extreme inequality, at a time when 28.5% of Chileans lived in poverty<\/a>. He had pursued a number of reforms including increasing wages, providing free milk to poor children and nationalizing the copper industry. He won a close race, after having garnered nearly 37%<\/a> of the vote, partly thanks to worker and peasant turnout<\/a>.
But his victory came at a time of extreme political polarization and foreign interference. The National Security Archive<\/a> contains a trove of documents exposing the US government\u2019s efforts to eradicate the perceived communist threat by attempting to prevent Allende\u2019s win and then undermining his presidency with anti-leftist propaganda and economic encroachment to destabilize the country.
Severe inflation and scarcity had left people like my father \u2013 an intended beneficiary of Allende\u2019s policies \u2013 disgruntled. His frustrations help me understand the deep dissatisfaction and distrust felt by the large swathes of midwestern voters who supported Trump.
Dad had never graduated from high school. He had toiled in nitrate mines in the Atacama desert, loaded cargo on ships, hauled trash in buildings \u2013 dirty jobs that left his hands calloused and his psyche bruised \u2013 eventually securing a union job as an elevator operator and later doorman.
He would often recount his dissatisfaction with Allende, given long food lines and the exorbitant prices for black market goods, and <\/strong>had been especially stung by the indignity of a waiter at a \u201cnice\u201d restaurant handing him newspaper to wipe his hands instead of napkins.
Between the lack of economic opportunity, especially for those like Dad born into the working class, and the violence and repression during the dictatorship, my father emigrated in 1975. He joked: \u201cI left because I wanted to be rich.\u201d
Chile\u2019s right wing capitalized on growing discontent, organizing the 1971 protest March of Empty Pots and Pans<\/a>, which, according to a CIA memorandum<\/a>, \u201cdrew more support from angry Chilean housewives than had been anticipated even by the sponsors\u201d.
Artists, writers and intellectuals continued to offer Allende strong support<\/a>, including Chile\u2019s celebrated poet Pablo Neruda, his friend and adviser. Neruda died just 12 days after the coup<\/a>, before he could seek refuge in Mexico, prompting the recently confirmed speculation<\/a> that he had been poisoned.
This is Pinochet\u2019s legacy: layers and layers of horrific secrets that are still being unveiled, which might explain why Dad urged me never to vote for fear of being tracked down.
I had the privilege, then, of laughing off such worries. \u201cDon\u2019t be paranoid, Dad. They don\u2019t keep track of who you voted for here,\u201d I said, explaining secret ballots. He wasn\u2019t convinced.
Suddenly, Dad doesn\u2019t seem so paranoid any more.
I\u2019ve never been good at keeping my big mouth shut. My father was a masterly kvetcher and, as a New Yorker, I consider complaining my birthright. While I enjoy commiserating as a way to connect with others, my griping also helps me search for answers, question what we take for granted, and untangle vexing puzzles.
Perhaps naively, I once believed tenure would grant more academic freedom \u2013 that our right to dissent would be protected. But as we slide toward authoritarianism, the train\u2019s moving in reverse. Instead of my horizon expanding as I near that milestone, I feel the walls closing in.
Earlier in my career, when I voiced doubts, a mentor wisely cautioned: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to twist yourself into a pretzel for a job you don\u2019t want any more.\u201d How far will we twist, bend, compromise, modify, avoid \u2013 or hide? One of my personal heroes, the photographer Bill Cunningham, memorably declined food and drink while working events, explaining: \u201cMoney is the cheapest thing. Liberty is the most expensive.\u201d<\/em> What price are we willing to pay for an academic job?
I inherited many things from my father \u2013 his hazel eyes, his acid reflux, his politics of fear \u2013 and his stubbornness. I\u2019ve come too far to hide now. I spent years ashamed of my socioeconomic background and ethnic surname, but I\u2019ve come to see that what once made me feel like an outsider also sharpened my tools \u2013 especially the way I observe the world as a sociologist.
And I\u2019ve gained a deeper respect for my father\u2019s distrust. He never returned to Chile, yet despite the pain bound up in that homeland, he held on to a fierce love for it \u2013he never burned the bridge back. That bridge may one day provide me with an escape route, thanks to my eligibility for Chilean residency through him.
Dad\u2019s lifelong fear kept him metaphorically sleeping with one eye open, always listening for danger in the distance. Now, it\u2019s helping me prepare for a new era of terror. I will still vote. I will still speak my mind \u2013 because he often couldn\u2019t. But I\u2019m no longer naive about the repercussions.
Lately, I\u2019ve caught myself practicing the words: \u201cI was once a college professor.\u201d<\/em> It\u2019s been a meaningful ride, but if it ends, so be it. I\u2019d rather say, \u201cI used to be a college professor\u201d<\/em> than \u201cI once stood up for my beliefs and values.\u201d<\/em> Because what good is all this education if I haven\u2019t learned the most important lesson?
In that case, I might as well light the match myself.
Stacy Torres<\/a> is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of At Home in the City: Growing Old in Urban America<\/a>.
Spot illustrations by Angelica Alzona.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Having fled here from Chile after Pinochet seized power in 1973 my father feared the state\u2019s arbitrary power to turn lives upside down. His outlook has never felt more relevant\u201cDon\u2019t open the door to nobody,\u201d my father warned throughout my childhood \u2013 right up until the day he died. He trusted no politicians, no organized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}