Chilean Life by Eric Leon

Santiago de Chile is a very busy city with about 6 million people making up it’s population.  There is no doubt that I lived in a booming city. My first month in Chile consisted of me getting comfortable with my surroundings and acclaimed to a life in Chile this fall of 2019.  I was quick to notice the social conflicts within the country, where the society brings attention to these conflicts by protesting. Protests became normal, and they were very inspiring too, where many Chileans would protest peacefully in an attempt to see change come about in their society.  In the middle of October, an attempt raising the metro prices provoked many students to begin to come together to protest. These protests quickly got out of hand, where the rise in metro prices wasn’t the only issue at hand. A series of events pertaining to social issues brought Chile to an instant uprising of rebellion against the government on October 19, 2019 .  The country was declared to be under a state of emergency and a curfew was established to help diminish the violence and damage playing out within the protests. Chile brings to question the rise in metro prices along with many other issues in the everyday life of Chilean society. These issues include, but are not limited to, the unfair salaries, an unjust retirement pension plan, poor education system and other major issues. Another issue that awoke in the hearts of the Chilean society is that constitution of Chile was formed during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.  This is now being considered to get a tie to a time period of great violence during the 1970’s. In March, new group of representatives will attempt the changing of this constitution. Hopefully with this we can begin to see a society within Chile now aware of what changes are needed and how to bring about these changes. Today there is a fight still in Chile, where civilians are trying to deconstruct the governing system that for so long has been taking into consideration solely the desires of the elite groups in Chile. 

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