Intertwining memories of women in peripheral territories about the Civic-Military Coup in Chile

Abstract

The memories of women in peripheral territories are essential to understanding the political-social impact of the Coup d'état in Chile, contributing to making visible the subalternate processes by historiography focused
on the socio-political dynamics of large cities. This article is a process of inquiry and rescue of memory through the testimonies of women in the Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos regions. With this purpose, we seek to
intertwine the invisible testimonies through the study of memory, highlighting the role of women in the political, historical, and social aspects that underlie the Coup d'état and that describe the experiences in peripheral territories.
The research is qualitative and is approached as a multiple case study through fieldwork in which group and in-depth interviews were carried out. The data analysis was based on an open coding process to develop categories inductively.
Through the articulation of the narratives, the results show four categories: (1) democratic breakdown and repercussions in daily life; (2) experiences of violence; (3) fear and trauma, and (4) family protection and collective care. The findings allowed us to uncover the ways of life that the populations adopted after the 1973 institutional breakdown, as well as the forms of resistance and care dynamics among women in the peripheral territories of southern Chile.