Santiago, Chile

Part One, City Overview

      The city of Santiago de Chile is the capital city of Chile. Santiago lies in the middle of the country, which is notable for its very long vertical thin shape. Chile runs up the pacific coast on the southern part of the continent. It was founded by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1541. In 1818 Santiago was named the capital of the new republic after its decisive victory over the Spanish that year, according to the CIA   World factbook. Since Chile’s independence, the country would grow economically as well as physically, especially after their victory in the war of the Pacific against Peru and Bolivia. In 1970, the socialist medical doctor who had worked as minister of health previously,  Salvador Allende, was elected president. Allende was elected by a slim margin. This and the Cold War made his presidency face many challenges from the start. The US also interfered in Chile’s economy. Eventually, Allende faced dwindling support and a military coup, backed by the US, ensued.

Augusto Pinochet became the military leader most affiliated with the military rule, beginning on September 11, 1973. His regime unleashed terror on Allende supporters (Marxists, Communists, college students, intellectuals and others) and countless human rights violations. BBC News reports that approximately 3,000 people were killed or forcibly “disappeared”, and thousands more were tortured. 

 

 It was an important moment in Chile’s history, and should be emphasized due to the long lasting effects that can be seen when examining the effects on the current day citizens. Pinochet  would stay in power until forced out in an election in 1988, shifting the country back to democracy. Since Pinochet’s dictatorship, Chile has been a fairly stable democracy that has seen the dramatic reversal of the desperate economic state that allowed Pinochet to take power, especially when compared to other South American countries that have had much less success with democracy and economic growth. Despite this success, there had been first peaceful and then violent protests in Santiago during 2019 and 2020. According to the BBC, they started in October of 2019. In an odd contrast to the unrest in the United States, the riots in Santiago died down as the coronavirus began to spread over the globe.

90% of Chileans live in the middle third of the country. Very few people live in the northern and southern thirds of the country. The current population of the Santiago metro area, which has been growing rapidly since 1950, is estimated at about 6,767,000. According to Societe generale, Chile’s overall economy relies heavily on agriculture, livestock, and mineral mining. Copper has especially dominated. However, a Brookings institute report asserts that the fastest growing industries include transportation, business services, and financial services that are chiefly based in Santiago. This shows that Chile is diversifying their economy with higher end service industries. Because of its central location, Santiago is the main hub for rail travel throughout the country, and also contains the largest international airport in Chile. On top of their infrastructure for travel in and out of the city, Santiago has an extensive public transit system of buses and metro. The metro as of now carries 2 million people per day, close to a third of the population. Because of Santiago’s massive urbanization and location in a valley, smog is a problem. Earthquakes are also a problem, but because they are so common Santiago is mostly built to withstand them. 

        Santiago’s social class structure is a bit peculiar for South America. It has incredibly high rates of income inequality as much of the continent does. However, their poverty rate has drastically decreased. They’ve gone from a 30% poverty rate in 2000 to 3.7% in 2017, and their economically vulnerable population has shrunk from 43.9% to 30% between 2006 and 2017. Despite this, income inequality still remains a primary issue for most of the lower and middle class, which has resulted in social unrest even before the pandemic. Despite the reduction in poverty and economically vulnerable people, the middle class still remains small, with most of its population falling somewhere into the lower class. The brookings institute agrees that this income inequality is the main barrier to further prosperity for Santiago. This was one of the big issues with demonstrators in the 2019-2020 unrest in Santiago mentioned earlier. The initial flash point was the rise in the costs of metro tickets but morphed into a movement against the income inequality that is present in the country. According to Time magazine, the main issue is whether or not to overhaul the constitution of the country which was written during the Pinochet regime. Despite the economic growth that Chile has had during and after Pinochet’s removal, it places severe limitations on what the state can do regarding economic matters. This is believed to be one of the causes of the income inequality problem. According to the magazine most Chileans agree that the constitution should be changed in some way, but there are stark differences on how far and in which ways these changes should happen. Some want to make subtle changes that would allow the government to address the inequality, while others want to start a new constitution from scratch.

Part Two: Character Overview

The character we developed is, Alonso Diaz, who is a working-class cis-gender male who lives in Santiago. He does not have a college education, and hovers above the poverty line.  He is a gardener who works for a wealthy family that lives outside of the city and he needs to use public transport to get to work every day. Alonso is a native to Chile, and his parents both worked in agriculture as he grew up, so he was never accustomed to an extravagant lifestyle. Alonso lives in Santiago because that’s where he grew up, and his commute to work on gardens is simple. Being an uneducated person is hard enough in a city with extreme wealth inequality, and Covid-19 has only made that harder for him.

Alonso looks out of a window of a small apartment located in one of the less wealthy areas of the city. It is located in the south Metropolitan area, one of the areas in Santiago that is not going through a rebuilding stage. It was once loud outside his window, however, now it is quiet, as the city recovers from the ongoing pandemic. A lot has happened for Diaz to look out this window, as his life has never been easy. He has to work hard for everything he has, as do most of the people that live around him. He is the father to three young girls, who live with him and his wife.  His daughters all share a room, and subsequently  there is not much free space in the house. His wife does not work, so she stays at home with the kids during the day. The children are able to go to public school for free, however their education levels are not as good as kids from the richer parts of the city, such as La Florida. However, his children are all determined to be successful and work very hard in school. 

Alonso takes the subway to work. The subway in Chile is growing rapidly, with new lines added in 2018 and more to come in 2026. The subway is fast and efficient, however extremely crowded during certain hours. The subway is also home to thefts and other petty crimes. These are all things that our character has to deal with on an everyday basis. Here, a peer reviewed journal concludes their discussion on Santiago’s metro, “Transantiago was one of the most publicly questioned policies in recent decades. The poor quality of service that was evident from its first day of operation inspired constant gradual contractual changes over more than a decade of the system’s operation.” (Malliet et. al)

There is definite segregation of wealth in Chile’s capital city. “Santiago, which is home to 40 percent of the Chilean population, is one of the most segregated cities in the country,” Matias Cociña, a researcher for the UN Development Program (UNDP) in Chile, told EFE.

“The eastern part of the city is known as the ‘income cone’ because it contains the neighborhoods with the highest income in the capital. Meanwhile, the poor (zones), which (are spread throughout the city), are characterized by their concentration of low-income people only,” Cociña said.” (EFE) 

Covid-19 plays a significant role in the life of Alonso Diaz. Like many others, he lost a loved one to Covid-19. His father died in May of the deadly virus. His father was a miner during the communist era. Copper has been a huge natural resource of Chile, and his father was a part of the dictatorship style government program of mining. Because of this, he was in poor health before he passed. He and his father both got the virus in April, and quarantined in one of the special hotel rooms that the government in Chile had set aside for coronavirus patients. While he had no severe symptoms, his father was not as lucky, and passed away. The virus has made life difficult for Alonso, as his work has slowed down significantly as he mourns the loss of his father still. Here, the AP lays out some facts about covid in Santiago, “At that time, Chile was going through some of the worst days of its pandemic with around 4,000 new cases reported daily. The government said the number of new cases was surging because of increased testing and because many people in the capital weren’t following lockdown measures. Chile now has more than 425,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, the sixth most in Latin America.”

Part Three: Our Character in the Time of Covid-19

In this section, we describe the issues that the character (s) faced before covid-19. We then discuss how Covid-19 impacted the character (s). We then simulate, with a question and answer format, questions that an urban design team ask our character (s) in their quest to improve the city in the aftermath of Covid-19.  The character we have developed is intended to give our reader more of an accurate sense of what life is like in Santiago de Chile. As a working class citizen who  often relies on public transportation for work, there remains a stark difference in a Pre-Covid life and now. As a “blue collar” citizen  and not having a college education, he would have to rely on the public health system, which has historically not been as reliable as the private hospitals and clinics. The wealthier members of society are afforded the luxury of having their social security and other benefits from employment are privatized, and therefore “safe”, in the event that they are unable to work. This allows them the best possible social amenities, as they have the money to do so.  Alonso Diaz does not fall within this category, and many people who are in similar situations are excluded from the narrative regarding income inequality, and equal access to resources.  

Our character is the grandson of a political prisoner during the Pinochet regime, which makes the implementation of these strict lockdowns, but specifically on low-income neighborhoods, seem like a calculated move to discriminate even further. Although it may not be fair to draw a close connection to the atrocities of the Pinochet regime to the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that poorer communities in lesser developed parts of the world are being affected  disproportionately by this virus.  Those without consistent access to medical care, like our character, are often forced to continue to work, even though they may be sick, and further adding to the transmission of the disease. Victims of the Pinochet regime were often students, and those of low socioeconomic status, as are many of the worst hit communities in Santiago. Prior to the pandemic, the social discrepancies were easier to overlook and to disregard. As NPR reported earlier this year, Andrea Insunza, a journalist in Santiago says, “Santiago is a very segregated place… you can actually live your whole life and do not see poverty once. Never.”( NPR). Similar parallels could be drawn between the  long lasting  effects of the period of the military dictatorship, and the long lasting effects this pandemic will have on the inhabitants of Santiago, like Alonso Diaz and his family.  Another key point of interest, that occurred prior to the pandemic, was the movement demanding the government rewrite the country’s constitution. It has remained since the Pinochet regime, and was never amended following his removal from office. According to an article by TIME, “ the constitution… is implicitly designed to protect Chile’s model: minimizing the role of the state, limiting voter’s political choices, and making it harder for Chilean governments to expand social welfare, and interfere with businesses.” (TIME). The actions taken by protesters, directly contributed to the government amending the constitution, which officially was successfully voted on in October 2020. 

More examples of the protests that resulted in the referendum vote on the Chilean concentration.

 According to the IMF, Chile will see a 6% decrease in real GDP growth, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inflation rate also very minutely increased, as a result of increasing consumer prices, by 2.9%. As is being seen throughout the entire globe, decreases in industrial output as well as internal development has been put on a semi-permanent hold, until the country regains control of the virus.  This is just one of many changes to life that many are seeing. Alonso’s work has decreased some since the pandemic began, with his days starting early to catch the subway, and not finishing until late. The wealthy family he works for has mostly been spared from all the perils of COVID-19, and Alonso has not suffered as greatly as many others have. 

An article titled, “In Chile Life Goes on for Loved Ones after COVID” briefly summarizes, yet  perfectly captures how many in Santiago are feeling. Jose Collantes Navarro very suddenly lost his wife to COVID-19, who was seemingly a healthy individual. She was buried in a mass grave in Santiago, like so many others who were killed by the virus. The Associated Press notes that Chile has been one of the hardest hit countries in Latin America, possibly due to an increase of medical negligence, and lack of necessary medical supplies. At the time when this article was written in September, Chile had been experiencing, “4,000 new cases daily because many in the city (Santiago) were not following lockdown measures,” (Associated Press). Additionally, it is quite telling that Jose has not worked since April, as he was previously employed as an electrician, and has received inadequate unemployment compensation. We see many similarities between the character we created and the real life experience as described here. 

How has this pandemic revealed previously unrecognized issues within our global system, and from the perspective of urban design as well? 

This is an interesting situation, as interesting as a global pandemic can be, that one of the most wealthy countries in Latin America could be suffering the worst. I suppose that the world could not have prepared for this, nothing of this scale. Even the best of us could never have imagined that the characteristics that define this twenty-first century world, would be the exact reason for our downfall in terms of preparing for a crisis of this scale.  I think the global implications the virus has is something that demands to be studied further, and will be interesting to see in the long term.

Bibliography for Part One:

Macrotrends.net. 2020. Santiago, Chile Metro Area Population 1950-2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/20439/santiago/population>

BBC News. 2020. Chile Country Profile. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19357497> 

BBC News. 2020. Chile Protests Turn Violent On Anniversary. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-54594707>

Cia.gov. 2020. South America :: Chile — The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency. [online] Available at: <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ci.html> 

Internations.org. 2020. Living In Santiago De Chile | Internations GO!. [online] Available at: <https://www.internations.org/go/moving-to-santiago-de-chile/living> 

Import-export.societegenerale.fr. 2020. Chilean Market : Main Sectors. [online] Available at: <https://import-export.societegenerale.fr/en/country/chile/market-sectors> 

World Bank. 2020. Overview. [online] Available at: <https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/chile/overview> Repositorio.cepal.org. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/44563/1/RVI126_Perez.pdf> Web.archive.org. 2020.

Explore Chile -Economy. [online] Available at: <https://web.archive.org/web/20090815064403/http://www.santiago.cl/general/economy.html> 

BBC News. 2020. Chile Recognises 9,800 More Victims Of Pinochet’s Rule. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14584095> [Accessed 4 December 2020].

Abel, A., 2020. The Most Underrated City In South America: Santiago, Chile. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/annabel/2015/05/12/the-most-underrated-city-in-south-america-santiago-chile/?sh=788ec3f85f55> Npr.org. 2006.

Augusto Pinochet: Villain To Some, Hero To Others. [online] Available at: <https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6606013>.Brookings.edu. 2016. Global Santiago. [online] Available at: <https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/BMPP_GCI_Santiago_Final-LowRes-1.pdf>

Nugent, C. (2020, October 25). Will the 2020 Constitutional Referendum Change Chile? Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://time.com/5900901/chile-constitution-referendum/

Bibliography for Part Two

Mapocho River Keeps Rich and Poor Apart in Chile’s Capital. 27 Mar. 2019, www.efe.com/efe/english/life/mapocho-river-keeps-rich-and-poor-apart-in-chile-s-capital/50000263-3936930.

“In Chile, Life Goes On For Loved Ones After COVID-19”. AP NEWS, 2020, https://apnews.com/article/santiago-virus-outbreak-archive-chile-1441fb40832a46660cad067e141a3aa9. Accessed 4 Dec 2020.

Maillet, Carrasco. “Regulation and Business Power: The Case of Public Transportation in Santiago (2007-2017).” Revista de Administração Pública (Rio de Janeiro), vol. 53, no. 5, FapUNIFESP (SciELO), Sept. 2019, pp. 942–59, doi:10.1590/0034-761220180079x.

“Living in Santiago De Chile.” Expat.cl, 4 July 2019, www.expat.cl/guide-chile/living-chile/living-in-santiago-de-chile/.

Bibliography for Part Three

Chile Profile: Import-Export. 2020.   https://import-export.societegenerale.fr/en/country/chile/market-sectors

Associated Press. “In Chile, life goes on for loved ones After COVID” September 10, 2020. https://apnews.com/article/santiago-virus-outbreak-archive-chile-1441fb40832a46660cad067e141a3aa9

International Monetary Fund: Chile Profile. 2020. https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/CHL#countrydata

 Jason Beaubien, “How Chile Ended up With one Worst COVID -19 Rates.” July 2020. National Public Radio, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/02/885207834/covid-19-exploits-cracks-in-chilean-society 

BBC News.”Chile Recognizes 9,800 more Victims of Pinochet’s Rule”. August 2011.   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14584095 

Authors:

Dylan Audi

R. Macchiarolo