중남미

In 1957, the citizens of Iquique sought to challenge the Chilean state when their request for a duty-free zone was given deaf ear. What had begun as a request turned into a demand, and this demand ultimately turned into a desperate act of defiance that sought to catch the attention of state and nation. In this paper, I chronicle the event that led up to the mythical Protest of the Black Flags of 1957, and discuss its implications within the context of Chilean political historiography. Political historiography on Chile has focused mainly on the power struggle among political parties to attain control of the state, which reflected the various demands of different social actors. In this paper, I call attention to the region, more specifically regional citizens as agents who struggle against the state to make themselves heard and make demands to improve their condition of life. Regional forces have not been considered as a meaningful political agent in the history of Chile, but the Protest demonstrates that instead of being aligned along class lines or political parties, Iquique’s citizens from all backgrounds and political leanings came together to denounce en masse the state’s apathy to a region that was apparently facing an economic crisis. The protest, the first one ever in Chile’s history to declare secession from the state, was a projection as well as praxis of a deeply ingrained belief in democracy and civil rights.