Tag Archives: feminicidio

Their anti-rape performance went viral globally. What next for LASTESIS?

LASTESIS was part of a progressive movement in Chile. Then voters rejected the country’s new constitution. So now what?

Sibila Sotomayor, Dafne Valdés and Paula Cometa, members of LASTESIS, in Valparaiso, Chile | Courtesy of Maca Jo

This article was written by Naomi Larsson Piñeda and published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.


Back in November 2019, a group of women took over the streets of Valparaiso, Chile. Moving their bodies in unison, they chanted words that would go on to resonate with hundreds of thousands of people across the world.

This performance by the collective LASTESIS (The Thesis) became a global feminist anthem within days. Blindfolded and wearing the green scarves of the Latin American abortion rights movement, they called out patriarchal and state violence against women. “It’s not my fault, not where I was, not what I wore… the rapist is you. It’s the police, it’s the judges,” they cried.

These words are “absolutely global”, LASTESIS tell openDemocracy over a blurry WhatsApp call. “When people asked us why we think this performance went viral, we say we don’t know, but probably because patriarchal violence, and specifically the sexual violence that we denounce in this performance, is everywhere.”

‘Un violador en tu camino’ (‘A Rapist in Your Path’) spread across Latin America and very soon the rest of the world. Performances took place in Poland, Kenya, to the UK, even outside the trial of convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein. It’s believed that it was performed in about 200 cities globally, with the countries translating LASTESIS’ words into their own languages.

They add: “It’s incredible for us to see, despite our cultural and linguistic differences, that we can always connect.

“The way of approaching the subject may be different, or how we relate, but the problem is the same. On the one hand it makes you feel part of a much broader, transcultural, cross-border, underground community, but on the other hand it is very depressing to see that the work needs to be done everywhere.”

‘Un violador en tu camino’ performed in Valparaíso in November 2019 | Courtesy of Camila R. Hidalgo

In the wake of ‘Un violador en tu camino’, and while shut inside their homes as the pandemic closed the world down, LASTESIS wrote their first manifesto, ‘Quemar el miedo’ (‘Set Fear on Fire’). It is a fierce, raw testimony of what drives them as a collective, but also an angry account of the violence and struggles they face as Chilean women, as Latin American women: they are daughters of political refugees, they have had illegal abortions, they have raised children alone, they have been abused, they have been persecuted for speaking their minds. But like their viral performance, the manifesto speaks to an intersectional, cross-border struggle.

“[We show] that there’s a feminist network with its own causes and its own fights, but also with common causes. We can communicate in different ways but we can work together to solve things together,” they say.

LASTESIS are speaking to me as they sit together in a corridor between panel talks at a New York University. Daffne Valdés Vargas, Paula Cometa Stange, Sibila Sotomayor van Rysseghem (a fourth member, Lea Cáceres, left the group a few years ago) are in the United States to celebrate the launch of ‘Set Fear on Fire’, the new translation that will bring their feminist writing to the English-speaking world. As a collective, Daffne, Paula and Sibila prefer to speak as one. In their book, they write as “we”, not as individuals, which backs up their call for a unified feminist struggle.

They’re all close friends, having met years ago while studying; but their relationship feels exactly as you would define ‘collective’. It is one of mutual respect and love, but they also have a level of understanding and ease between one another that feels deeper than many familiar relationships.

All artists and creatives, they formed LASTESIS in 2017 to engage feminist theory and activism through art and performance. Their work is based on feminist thinkers such as Silvia Federici, who critiqued the joint forces of capitalism and patriarchy that feed off oppression. ‘Un Violador en tu Camino’ builds on the work of Rita Segato and Virginie Despentes and their exposure of sexual violence as a political issue.

“We chose this way of expressing ourselves and working because we believe in art as a tool for social transformation,” they say, adding that the medium of performance “allows you to transmit ideas, transmit demands, but also pass them through the body. Not all people can relate to words in the same way, but the language of the body… is another form of communication.”

The performances (which can be most simply explained as the expression of themes and ideas through lyrics and movement) are clear and powerful, dissecting issues such as police brutality, to the complexities of abortion and fight for reproductive rights.

‘Set Fear on Fire’ includes the lyrics of past performances, and although every word written then is still relevant, so much has changed. The world of 2019 feels very distant – especially for many Chileans.

LASTESIS first performed ‘Un violador en tu camino’ within the context of a historic social uprising that saw people of all ages and identities across the country protest against inequality.

Read also: ‘The Violator Is You’ Women In Chile Perform A Protest Chant

For a time, millions were trying to erase the neoliberal and violent hangovers of its past dictatorship. There were glimmers of hope: the right-wing billionaire president Sebastián Piñera was replaced by leftist millennial Gabriel Boric. The protests demanded the rewriting of the country’s Pinochet-era constitution, and the proposed alternative was viewed as one of the most progressive in the world. But it was rejected by 62% of the citizens last year.

“We’re in a much more depressing time now, but the ideas in this book are still topical,” they say.

“There’s a whole chapter dedicated to the abortion rights that the new constitution was going to guarantee. But that was then rejected, and now we’re starting again at ground zero.”

This month, Chile launched a fresh attempt – less inclusive and with an expected more moderate outcome – to come up with a new constitution, with a group of experts appointed by the Congress to work on a preliminary draft of 12 constitutional bases within the next three months. This document will set the groundwork for a 50-member constitutional council to be elected by popular vote in May. The council should achieve a final text for a vote of approval or rejection in December.

Since the 2022 repeal of Roe v Wade, the ruling that had enshrined the right to abortion in the US, “we’ve seen more losses of rights than gains… As feminists we have to always be alert,” they add. “On the other hand, in Argentina, for example, abortion was legalised. So we’ve also had an important victory, but it derives from a very powerful level of organising they were doing for almost 15 years.”

The book’s English version acknowledges this international, shared struggle; the group’s calls for safe and legal access to abortion and their criticisms of the capitalist structures supporting patriarchal violence resonate beyond borders. But the movement of these ideas has another level of significance. As they write in the updated prologue: “Our bodies remain in the South, but our convictions and many of our uncertainties migrate to the North.”

“With all the criticisms we have of the English-speaking colonial linguistic hegemony, it’s equally a reality that this [book] will allow our ideas to migrate north… when most translations come from the North to the South,” they say. “So this movement also seems important for the feminist struggle in the South.”

The fact that they were invited to New York to celebrate the launch of ‘Set Fear on Fire’ feels especially significant, particularly as Latines. “Our ideas travel here but in the meantime there are many people who are physically emigrating and are not well received – they’re received with precisely all of this violence that we denounce in this book,” LASTESIS say. “So it is a bit of a statement knowing that this book was going to reach the north and reminding them of the policies of exclusion and violence that are happening at this very moment on its borders.”

LASTESIS want to leave open the “invitation for people to get a bit more angry”, as indifference sustains the status quo, they argue. “The lack of empathy allows everything to continue as it is, reproducing this violence and oppression that have simply been normalised. And thanks to rage we can mobilise ourselves, and also mobilise the world.”

Police Forces In Chile File A Formal Complaint Against A Feminist Collective For Their Music

According to Freemuse “the Chilean Police Force–Carabineros de Chile–have denounced the feminist collective Las Tesis for alleged crimes of “attack on authority” and “threat”, after the collective published a video against police violence on 27 May on YouTube”.

Read more: https://freemuse.org/news/chile-police-force-files-complaint-against-feminist-collective-for-allegedly-inciting-violence-against-them-in-video

and: https://shoutsmusic.blog/video-of-the-day-1312-by-pussy-riot-ft-parcas-dillom-muerejoven-video/

Las Tesis on Instagram

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Femicide and the Punk Rock Scene in Chile: Interview with Sin Lencería

This article was originally published in The Advocate

At the time of writing this article Chilean president Sebastián Piñera has declared a state of emergency in his country. In one of the strongest economies[1] in Latin America inequality reigns[2] and the country’s citizens are currently voicing their frustration by taking to the streets in protest.

Economic inequality is far from being the only thing Chileans have had to protest in recent years. A little over four decades ago its citizens had to experience a U.S. backed military coup that overthrew the government. This resulted in more than 2,000 people being killed and thousands of people tortured, among those internationally acclaimed protest musician Victor Jara[3].

Events like these are bound to leave marks on a nation. It was not until 2004 that the liberty flame that Pinochet ignited in 1975 was put out. Not only are these flames (popular in many countries) a waste of energy and usually commemorate war and violence, but for decades families of those murdered by Pinochet had to see that flame burning.

The inequality in the country shows its teeth in other aspects of society as well. Femicide (feminicidio), although not as rife as in Mexico and Colombia, is a grave problem in the country. The term started being used in Latin America due to the hundreds of women murdered in northern Mexico[4] since the 1990s. A specific term had to be coined for this type of homicide to design situations in which women were being murdered solely because they were women.

One of the main problems for women living through this history of violence towards them and their sisters is the lack of action from the governments that are supposed to protect them. Fortunately, this is changing – in some countries at least. In Chile, law number 20480[5], now also known as the femicide law, shows amends to violent intrafamiliar offenses[6] and increases punishment for those crimes. These small steps come with many hurdles still, because the people in power of the judiciary system continue to find ways to lower sentences twisting language to their ways.

But all is not lost and today rises a new generation of musicians and activists that keep the protest flame lit and the legacy that Victor Jara and other artists left behind alive. One of these artists are the young women that make punk rock band Sin Lencería (which translates to ‘without lingerie’).

The band has been active since 2012 and since day one they have used their voices on and off stage to communicate to their audience the injustice their fellow women face in general society as well as in the very ‘machista’ punk rock scene. Their album Sin Lencería, Ni Miedos came out last August and, as they told me via email, the band has no other plans but to keep speaking up for women around the globe and fighting the good fight.

Halldór Bjarnason: Your music is a fighting tool against gendered violence. How have you perceived ‘machismo’ and gendered violence so far in the music scene around you and your community since the start of Sin Lencería?

Sin Lencería: Even though the punk scene tries to be more aware of social conflicts, it’s still in debt with gender related problems. There’s still harassment at gigs and very little participation of women in the public and as part of the bands and that’s something that needs to change.

Being female musicians hasn’t been easy, the band started in 2012 and since the beginning there’s been prejudice against us and the way we play, some people used to think less of us just because we’re women and because we look young. And sometimes even the compliments were weird, like one time a guy told our drummer that she was so skilled that she “played like a man”. He was trying to be nice but he didn’t even realise that by saying that he was implying that women usually are bad at playing their instruments.

But there’s still a bright side. There are some local collectives inside the punk scene that are trying to change this situation like “Femfest” or “Mujeres Al Frente”, they create different types of musical events that encourage inclusiveness and invite women to be part of the scene – providing safe spaces. Women are getting together and we’re raising our voices. “Mujeres Al Frente” has done 4 different feminist shows in these past years in Chile and one in Mexico. We love those events because they’re one of the few times that we get to see so many girls gathered together and at the center of the mosh pit with full energy!

HB: Has your music always been political or made in protest?

SL: Yes, since the beginning we’ve wanted to show our discomfort and talk about the problems that affect women in their daily lives. The band starts from that base point, from realising that it’s time to talk about sex harassment, gender violence, feminicides, discrimination, prejudice, etc. We need to change that Latin American culture that’s so patriarchal that needs special words that does not exists in other languages like “machismo” to explain how bad things are and the lack of equality that exists.

HB: Feminicidio (feminicide) is a fairly young term but an age-old problem that furthermore has been quite the plague on South, Central and North American countries. How do you feel your government is tackling this problem that you have sung about?

SL: In our country there’s still a long way to go for these problems to be taken seriously. There’s been some improvements over time but it’s not enough. A couple of years ago the government created the “Ministerio de la Mujer y Equidad de Género” (Ministry for Women and Gender equality) that supports women that are victims of violence, providing legal and psychological help. There’s also a “Ley del Femicidio” (Feminicide law), but these laws are still too soft towards this type of problems and the feminicide law only works for violence inside legally married couples or couples that live together.

The Chilean law is working on new ways to protect women that are not married and people that suffer couple/partner violence, but to this date it’s still not approved. The only thing women can do when they suffer harassment from a violent partner is to make a legal complaint with the police and they’re usually very questioned in the process, and even if they make repetitive complaints the best they can get is a restraining order in most cases and, even then, they’re left with fear that the violent partner could easily ignore the charges against them and find the victims anyway.

An example of the problems with the femicide law in Chile, that also affected the punk community, happened in 2017 with the murder of Isidora “Dorito” González. Her case was very brutal and cruel because she wasn’t only murdered, but her body was also dismembered. Once they found the culprit and took him to trial, he was initially sentenced to 40 years of prison for femicide. But later his lawyers argued that the victim and the culprit didn’t have a romantic relationship, nor they lived together or were married, so his sentence changed from femicide to simple homicide and they reduced his sentence from 40 to 15 years. And that makes it clear that the laws are still very basic and don’t reflect the Chilean reality, where women are still getting killed just because they’re women.

HB: How do you feel people have been receiving your feminist music? How do you get your message across to the people that need to hear it the most?

SL: People have been very supportive in general, we think it’s because Latin America is going through a period of change and we’re speaking up for women rights and diversity. What we like about making songs is to think that the same things we feel and go through are also experienced by other women and at the end of the day we’re not alone, instead, we are a huge net of sisters fighting for the same reasons.

“…we like the fact that the song makes some people uncomfortable, because it’s the first step to start questioning why it makes them feel that way.”

But we’ve also been criticized by some people, especially because of our song “No quiero tus piropos” (I don’t want your catcalls) that speaks against street harassment and has some insults in its lyrics. But we like the fact that the song makes some people uncomfortable, because it’s the first step to start questioning why it makes them feel that way.

Our message flows in our songs by essence, but we also use other resources to get our message across. Playing live is very important, because it can help women to feel represented and motivated to start their own bands. Sometimes we create zines and sometimes we use social media to share our thoughts. We also try to participate as much as we can in collectives like the ones that we mentioned before.

Besides, nowadays is easier to share our music because of technology, in the past the options were limited and even if your music got some recognition, there was the fear that the media would misunderstand your message, like what happened with the press blackout of the Riot Grrrl! movement in the 90’s. In our case we manage our own media and that give us a lot of freedom to express what we want and to have a closer bond with people.

HB: What do you hope to achieve with your music?

SL: We hope that our music works as support for women that don’t feel protected or represented by social norms. And that when they listen to us, they can feel freedom to shout as loud as they can about everything that’s bothering them and that they had to keep quiet in the past. On the other side, we also hope that singing about these issues could help people to start questioning themselves and open up to be a little more understanding and empathetic.

HB: What bands or musicians influence you? Are you following any contemporary protest musicians?

SL: Our strongest influence is Bikini Kill and all of Kathleen Hanna’s projects in general. We’re also very inspired by L7, Joan Jett, The Distillers, 7 Year Bitch and other classic punk and postpunk bands like Ramones, Misfits, The Clash, The Slits and Siouxsie & the banshees.

On a Latin American level, we have influences from the Peruvian band Los Saicos, with his classic “Demolición” which we like to play live from time to time. And we also feel influenced by Chilean bands like Los Prisioneros, Los Ex and Lilits. In the present, we admire the work of a lot of our fellow hardcore and punk bands like Portaligas, Dizclaimers and Límbico. We’re also listening to music from around the globe and we like bands like Vivian Girl, The Coathangers, The Regrettes, Skating Polly and Hands off Grettel.

HB: What is on the horizon for you?

SL: At the moment, we want to keep speaking up for feminism, we plan on continue making music and recording new material, because we still have a lot to say. And in the near future we would love to travel around sharing our songs.

HB: Lastly, thank you for participating and for your music. Anything else you’d like to shout from the rooftops?

SL: Don’t be afraid to make music, don’t be scared to say what you think if you feel something’s wrong, your opinions are important, you are important.

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Endnotes:

[1] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-richest-countries-in-south-america.html

[2] https://www.borgenmagazine.com/economic-inequality-in-chile/

[3] https://shoutsmusic.blog/2018/07/05/justice-finally-served-for-1973-murder-of-chilean-musician-victor-jara/

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez

[5] https://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1021343

[6]https://books.google.es/books?id=dkNuDQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA263&dq=law%2020480%20chile&pg=PA263#v=onepage&q&f=false