The Puntarenazo and the strike of a beast.

We are facing a documentary work capable of communicating an open wound, the slash of a predatory beast that slipped through the cracks of our history. The musical group Lluvia Ácida has offered an account of testimonies and images that document, “El Puntarenazo”, the first demonstration against dictator Augusto Pinochet in his presence, which took place on February 26, 1984, in the main square of the city of Punta Arenas. There, the tyrant in his uniform from uncertain battles and his gray cape encountered the reaction of a people who, behind the bars of the cathedral, accused him of his crimes, baseness, and felonies. All of this led to a series of episodes linked to the political expression of the regime, culminating in the tragic events of October 6 of that same year: the installation of a bomb that destroyed the parish of “Nuestra Señora de Fátima (Our Lady of Fatima)” and which also ended the life of the army lieutenant who placed the explosive.

The music and the progression of the documentary provide the viewer with a significant universe, an eloquence to appreciate, on the one hand, a mark of pain. And in another sense, the beautiful symphony of civic organization. I am aware that as a musical group and also as audiovisual artists, Lluvia Ácida have a long history of developing themes related to the social struggles of our southern community.

“Puntarenazo” is a work where the voices of the past coexist to convey a new pact with history. It goes without saying that many times there is a tendency to emphasize the Coup and the dictatorship as something that mainly happened in Santiago, the political and administrative capital of our country. But there was also Dawson, Tejas Verdes, Isla Quiriquina, Pisagua, and, in the same way, citizens from different areas of the territory protested against tyranny. In this case, the southernmost continental city in the world was the stage for that gesture of rebellion, forged in different town hall meetings held in the heart of the community.

Where do the silenced words and the pains that never healed persist? It is a truth and a certainty that art is often there to interrogate that trauma, to dive into the depths and bring back the lessons of history, sometimes even exposing the matrix of an era. Therefore, Lluvia Ácida has created a unique, impeccable document that unearths a time when horror and infamy were the daily currency. Amid the amnesiac choruses that some propose in our present, they have addressed the need for memory and the epic of a distant community that rose up against the dictates of a hooded and cruel general who betrayed the most elementary principles of a republic.

Oscar Barrientos Bradasic
Escritor / Writer
(Punta Arenas, Magallanes, Chile. December 2023)