Looking Forward

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On October 25, 2020, exactly one year after the largest demonstration in Chilean history, the Chilean people voted overwhelmingly in favor of writing a new constitution. The members of the Constitutional Convention are currently meeting to take up the unprecedented work of drafting a new constitution, one which will be voted upon in another national referendum in 2022.  Two notable features of this body are gender parity and the guarantee of a certain number of indigenous seats.  The architects of the new constitution will have to grapple with complex and interlocking issues of gender, indigenous and immigrant rights; access to natural resources and social goods, and territorial ownership, as well as competing political demands. But one thing is clear: the estallido social–with its rich arsenal of artistic iconography–has altered the course of Chilean history.