Diego Alonso Virgues (Convospeak) | How People Protest: How People in Latino Countries Protest @ConvoSpeak | Uploaded June 2020 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Banging pots and pans? As part of everyday conversations? Discover the different ways people from Latin America countries have found to protest in the streets.
Today we will look at the ways people in other countries protest. In light of the demonstrations across the world, we wanted to do something different and talk about the ways people in other countries protest.
Link to support the fight for civil rights in the African American Community through the ACLU
aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/blacklivesmatter
Transcript
As people in the United States raise against police brutality against African Americans and take on the streets to protests, I started thinking of the different stories of protests and resistance that have happened across generations in Latin America. Today I am going to look at some the characteristics of the culture of protests in Latin America. What do we do differently and what is unique about protests in Latin America.
I have to start with the most obvious characteristic. EL cacerolazo. A cacerola is a pot and when you add -Azo at the end of a word it means that you are hitting that something. Hitting pots and pans is one of the most common forms of protest in Latin America. The loud sound of the pots is a sign of disapproval, and sometimes literally hunger. The tradition started in France actually during the 1800’s. However, in Latin America it started in Chile. When Chileans took on the streets to protest food shortages during the Presidency of Salvador Allende. The same method was used to protest the dictatorship of Pinochet who toppled Allende. Americans, the cacerolazo is a great way to make it loud and clear for the government that the needs of our people are not being met.
A second characteristic is the important connection that protest has to music in Latin America. There is a whole genre of music that is called Cancion Protests, it includes people like Victor Jara who was killed in the Chilean dictatorship, Mercedes Sosa from Argentina, Ana y Jaime from Colombia. Yes a lot of the musicians I am mentioning come from the 60’s and 70’s during the times of extreme American interventionism and support for ruthless dictatorships, but our parents made sure we listened to their music from the….. And today there is a resurgence of songs related to protest. Puerto Rico is a great example. 2019 was a year of widespread protests in Puerto Rico due to government corruption. The big protagonists of the protests were Residente, Bad Bunny, Nejo FLow and Ricky Martin. Residente and bad bunny in particular produced the song desahogo which roughly translates to the moment when you release everything you have to say and you are no longer choking. I would argue that Residente has created cancion protesta for a long time. The song Latin America is a song about unity and identity of Latinos against US imperialism. Music flows through the veins of an uprising. Salvador Allende said there is no a revolution without songs.
The last characteristic is that in my opinion protest is part of everyday life in Latin America and are in everyday conversation. I used to go to a public university, La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and I guarantee you there was no semester in which there was not a strike for one reason or the other. I feel that our countries have faced so much that people are always paying attention. We always in touch with what’s going on, and mobilization happened in large numbers all the time if it’s something we don’t agree with. The 2019 Latin American spring was huge but it was not the only major protest in Latin America in the past 20 years. Protests happen all the time because there is always something too crazy happening.
Protests are often creative. Take the feminist chant that made it all the way to Europe, again this came from Chile that seems to be the heart of a lot of protests. Protest are diverse with indigenous groups joining, people from the country, the city. Protests are at the heart of Latin America.
Now, it is important to point out that racism and police brutality also exists in Latin America. I hope Latin America participates more in the global protests against racism that are happening because it is a problem that affects us as deeply as it affects the US.
I hope you guys enjoyed the video. These are only some characteristics about protest in Latin America. Do you guys know any others? How do people protest in your country? How about the US?
Banging pots and pans? As part of everyday conversations? Discover the different ways people from Latin America countries have found to protest in the streets.
Today we will look at the ways people in other countries protest. In light of the demonstrations across the world, we wanted to do something different and talk about the ways people in other countries protest.
Link to support the fight for civil rights in the African American Community through the ACLU
aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/blacklivesmatter
Transcript
As people in the United States raise against police brutality against African Americans and take on the streets to protests, I started thinking of the different stories of protests and resistance that have happened across generations in Latin America. Today I am going to look at some the characteristics of the culture of protests in Latin America. What do we do differently and what is unique about protests in Latin America.
I have to start with the most obvious characteristic. EL cacerolazo. A cacerola is a pot and when you add -Azo at the end of a word it means that you are hitting that something. Hitting pots and pans is one of the most common forms of protest in Latin America. The loud sound of the pots is a sign of disapproval, and sometimes literally hunger. The tradition started in France actually during the 1800’s. However, in Latin America it started in Chile. When Chileans took on the streets to protest food shortages during the Presidency of Salvador Allende. The same method was used to protest the dictatorship of Pinochet who toppled Allende. Americans, the cacerolazo is a great way to make it loud and clear for the government that the needs of our people are not being met.
A second characteristic is the important connection that protest has to music in Latin America. There is a whole genre of music that is called Cancion Protests, it includes people like Victor Jara who was killed in the Chilean dictatorship, Mercedes Sosa from Argentina, Ana y Jaime from Colombia. Yes a lot of the musicians I am mentioning come from the 60’s and 70’s during the times of extreme American interventionism and support for ruthless dictatorships, but our parents made sure we listened to their music from the….. And today there is a resurgence of songs related to protest. Puerto Rico is a great example. 2019 was a year of widespread protests in Puerto Rico due to government corruption. The big protagonists of the protests were Residente, Bad Bunny, Nejo FLow and Ricky Martin. Residente and bad bunny in particular produced the song desahogo which roughly translates to the moment when you release everything you have to say and you are no longer choking. I would argue that Residente has created cancion protesta for a long time. The song Latin America is a song about unity and identity of Latinos against US imperialism. Music flows through the veins of an uprising. Salvador Allende said there is no a revolution without songs.
The last characteristic is that in my opinion protest is part of everyday life in Latin America and are in everyday conversation. I used to go to a public university, La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and I guarantee you there was no semester in which there was not a strike for one reason or the other. I feel that our countries have faced so much that people are always paying attention. We always in touch with what’s going on, and mobilization happened in large numbers all the time if it’s something we don’t agree with. The 2019 Latin American spring was huge but it was not the only major protest in Latin America in the past 20 years. Protests happen all the time because there is always something too crazy happening.
Protests are often creative. Take the feminist chant that made it all the way to Europe, again this came from Chile that seems to be the heart of a lot of protests. Protest are diverse with indigenous groups joining, people from the country, the city. Protests are at the heart of Latin America.
Now, it is important to point out that racism and police brutality also exists in Latin America. I hope Latin America participates more in the global protests against racism that are happening because it is a problem that affects us as deeply as it affects the US.
I hope you guys enjoyed the video. These are only some characteristics about protest in Latin America. Do you guys know any others? How do people protest in your country? How about the US?
