Slides from the session on Machuca

1. Machuca
Classroom Conflict

2. Machuca

3. Machuca
•
Andrés Wood 2004
•
Aged 8 in 1973, St. George’s College, Santiago
•
Story inspired by the real life events at the
school under the Headship of Fr Whelan

4. Historical Context
•
Santiago de Chile 1973
•
Salvador Allende UP (Unidad Popular)
•
Military Coup September 11th 1973

5. Salvador Allende
•
1908 - 11th September 1973
•
Marxist, democratically
elected as President Chile 1970
•
La vía chilena al socialismo
•
Policies of nationalisation,
welfare provision, education
reform
•
Tensions between indigenous
and settler populations

6. Augusto Pinochet
•
1915 - 2006
•
Commander in Chief of Army
•
Lead coup, overthrowing
democratically elected
president
•
Ended civilian rule
•
Brutal suppression of
opposition, ‘caravan of death’,
‘the disappeared’

8. “No a la guerra civil”

9. “…a la guerra civil”

10. Gonzalo Infante
•
From Santiago’s upper class
•
Family - anti Allende
•
How is his social class
signified?
•
Status, freedom granted by
class

11. Pedro Machuca
•
Indigenous
•
Lives in one of the
neighbouring poblaciones
•
Streetwise

12. Silvana
•
Indigenous
•
living in the poblaciones
•
Precocious
•
Symbolises a (class) alliance?

13. Father McEnroe
•
Liberal priest, head teacher St. Patrick’s School for Boys
•
Grants places to poor boys social integration project
•
Metaphor for Allende’s
socialist policies
•
“This is no longer a holy
place”

14. Representations of
Education

16. A site of conflict
•
(Fisher, Harris & Jarvis)
•
Signifiers of class differences
•
Racialisation
•
Silence
•
•
•
The son of the lady who
washes our clothes
Meetings mediated through
violence
Martín-Cabrera and Voionmaa
(2007)

17. Opposition
•
Opposition to the experiment
•
Angry parents/parental choice
•
Opposition to Allende
•
Questioning the social role of
education?

18. References
•
Martín-Cabrera, L. and Voionmaa, D.N. (2007)
‘Class conflict, state of exception and radical justice
in Machuca by Andrés Wood’, Journal of Latin
American Cultural Studies: Travesia, 16(1): 63-80
•
Poulson, S.K. (2009) ‘History, Memory and
Nostalgia in Childhood Films’, CinemaScope:
Independent Film Journal, 5 (13) [Online] http://
www.cinemascope.it/Issue%2013/PDF/STINNE
%20KROGH%20POULSEN.pdf [Accessed 6th
February 2014]