Interview 1: Jose Cebolla Patada, board member of CONACIN (Coordinador Nacional Indianista)
What is the function of CONACIN?
The goal of the organisation is to support the Indian society and to protect the Indian culture. We want to develop a different Social-political system. We do that by organising the Indian societies and by information to the media. We want to revive the Indian culture, its dances, music and ceremonies. How is the situation for the Indians in Chile today? There is a big conflict with the state since they are using our natural resources in an irrational way. The Natural resources are where the Indians are. Multinational companies are coming to our villages and try to exploit our ecological system. For example timber and fishing industry are coming and using the resources that the Indians have preserved.
What happened when the Spanish Conquistadors came to Chile?
They brought a new culture that newer have understood how the Indians are living and thinking. They saw the resources that the country had and sought to exploit them. They never respected the wishes of the Indians.
What to you think of the future for the Indians in Chile?
The Indians have worked for their rights and an agreement that would result in a law to defend the rights of the native peoples in order to stop the exploitation. Among other things in this agreement it said that the Indians would be recognised as an ethnical group in Chile. But after the treatment of the agreement in the parliament, several important parts of it were removed before it was made a law. But it is still a tool to work with to preserve parts of our culture. What is missing in Chile is respect and understanding for different cultures. The Chilean people do not respect the culture of the Indians. For example, the Aymaras (in northern Chile) and Mapuche in the southern parts of Chile have developed good methods for farming and other things, but this is in no way even considered by the Chilean society. They do not respect our will to develop ourselves. We are just another part of the marginalised and poor population of Chile. What we consider most important is our culture, not the material things. But respect is essential.
What is the biggest problem for the Indians right now?
The biggest problem is the Rasco dam in Bió-bió in the south of the country. A multinational company wants to build a dam and by doing that destroy a great area of nature that the Indians considers to be theirs. We had hoped that the new Indian-law would help us to stop the building of the dam. Instead this case proves that the law is very weak can be interpreted very fortuitous -as the government pleases to. Besides of that the Indians have very few possibilities to bring forth their opinions and will. The government does not show any will to help the Indians or other groups with similar problems, the political opposition does not seem to be any alternative either today.
Have you tried to create an alternative?
The problem is that there are also differences between different groups among the Indians. There are fundamentalist fractions that do not want to work with other, non-Indian, organisations. But I think that the best solution would be to work together with non-Indians too –in order to find an alternative. Therefore we work together with environmental groups in Chile. The great conflicts develop when people from outside try to force upon us a way of living. If the Indian tribes do not accept we are punished. The society is sick and I think that it would be good if people adapted to a more peaceful way of life. There is much to learn about the Indians perspective of the World. Right now the Indians are generally discontent with the government’s politics.
Interview 2: Alexis, student and Chairman of “Centro de Alumnos” of the historical faculty on the University of Valparaiso.
How is the situation for students on the universities in Chile?
There is a crisis among the student-organisations of Chile. We are far away from being a real student-movement. We have lost the power we had during the 80’ies, but the problems we had to fight against still remains, for example recruitment. There are also many structural problems within the educational system.
There are two different Systems of Education in Chile, which of them are the best?
The education of the state universities still has high status, as the private universities not yet have consolidated themselves. But some specific private-universities in Santiago have a very high status. The state-universities still have a good standard on their education; this has not always been the case with the private universities that are run for profit. Lately many private- universities have gone bankrupt. The biggest problems are really not the differences between private and state universities. The problems are created because of the differences between the state and private secondary schools, that system creates biased social recruitment. The tragic thing is that the state have privatised the system of education to a high degree. The state does no longer care about education. They do not care about the state universities either. Before the coup the government had a will to develop education. There is fewer people studying at the universities now than in the 60’ies and 70’ies.
Are the students discontent with this?
Yes, there is a left-wing movement that criticises the whole development. But there are also many students that independently of their political belonging criticises what is happening today.
So it is not only the Left-wing movement that criticises the system today?
No, there are also many Christian democrats and Social democratic students that are discontent. I do not think that we have changed the system created under the dictatorship. The government is only continuing to manage the old system. The Chilean people did not only vote against Pinochet in 1988, but also against his political system. A system that still remains almost intact today.
Interview3: Claudio Dias, lector at the historical faculty of the university of Valparaiso.
How much money do you make?
I work halftime and make 300000 pesos (ca 55 pesos=1 SEK, 300000 =ca 5500kr) a month. On the private universities they recruit teachers from the state universities. They often pay much more, but sometimes less. Teachers often work at two places at the same time in order to survive. Our salary is good in comparison with a secondary school teacher though; they only make 250000 pesos (about 4500SEK), full-time.
What is your picture of the Chilean system of education?
While too few children are born in the Western World the problem is the opposite in third World countries. This is often followed by a high rate of death resulting in that many of the children do not reach adult age. But Chile is developed to such a degree that not many babies die. At the same time we are experiencing an increasing birth rate. This will mean that we need an expanded school system. The government does not want to put any money into the school system, even though our GNP is much higher than most other Latin American countries. Before the dictatorship we had a very good level of education in Chile. Since the independence a lot of money had been put into education. Before that the country had been very undeveloped, worse than Peru. Thirty years after the independence Chile had the best system of education in Latin America. This changed after the coup. During the dictatorship he same thing happened to education as to most other things run by the state. The system lost its status and became smaller. The system we have today is quite similar to the system in United States. How is it supposed to work in Chile when it hardly can work properly there? The state universities are probably going to be privatised too. No new teachers are hired today. Therefore many new teachers are leaving the country. All knowledge disappears as the old teachers are retiring. There are also other problems. As we often have to work double we do not have any time to read and examine critically. There is no development of knowledge. Therefore it is important to fight against this development. The Students Organisations are important in this struggle. Through large demonstrations the development they have been able to stop some of the changes the government have intended to do. The Communists have arranged many of these demonstrations. I am not a communist, but it seems to be the only way to make the government back off.