Choreographed Resistance: Feminist Solidarity Against Gender-Based Violence Through "Un violador en tu camino" and The Civic Imagination (1 of 2)

Choreographed Resistance: Feminist Solidarity Against Gender-Based Violence Through "Un violador en tu camino" and The Civic Imagination

Andrea Alarcon, Paulina Lanz, and Rogelio Alejandro Lopez

Last December, we participated in an organized performance of “Un violador en tu camino”. It was the LA iteration of this Chilean protest song, which formed part of the larger social protests on Chile at the end of 2019 (and into 2020)."Un violador en tu camino," (which translates to "a rapist in your path,") includes a dance routine paired with the lyrics of a song — which quickly became popular and spurred performances in Latin America and globally, to decry gender-based violence. It was created by the feminist art collective Las Tesis and most notably performed on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25, 2019) in Valparaíso, Chile.  

As we arrived at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), we quickly recognized fellow protesters. Women wore black attire with red, green and purple bandanas, some carried signs and flags, and most appeared to be Latinas. We had both seen videos of the performance held in our home countries (Mexico and Colombia), and we were happy to see that women in LA organized the event to bring us all together. It was a rainy Sunday morning, and the organizers worried that the weather would deter people from coming. The gathering brought women from (what appeared to be) distinct social classes and backgrounds together: academics (who organized the event), members of a cleaner's union, and Hollywood socialites. We even spoke to a few English-only speakers, who memorized the steps even though they could not sing along. Chilean flags could be seen proudly flown. We spent an hour rehearsing the song and its choreography, and also making sure everyone had a blindfold (a required accessory for the routine). As the sky cleared up, more and more women arrived, including young girls.  

“Y la culpa no era mía / ni dónde estaba / ni cómo vestía.” (And the fault was not mine / nor where I was / nor how I was dressed.)  

“El violador eres tú.” (And the rapist IS you)

[Extend LEFT arm straight out in front of you, pointing] 

The song addresses layers of violence against women: with the chorus switching the usual blame on victims, to blaming the rapists. It pays attention as much to intimate-partner violence as to the state's complicity in perpetuating gender-based crimes. After numerous mobilizations in Chile's city centers in late 2019, the performance spread throughout Latin America where the song was quickly adopted by women due to the shared Spanish language and a communal sense of Latinidad (which we will discuss later on), but more importantly because women across the region face similar harmful circumstances due to gender violence. Eventually it reached various countries across the globe: as of February 2020, it had been performed in 52 countries. 

A few things we noticed while participating included the feminist and gender solidarity, across nationality, age, occupation, and socioeconomic background in the LA performance. Also the strength that came from the song, the performance, and the women who practiced for an hour to get it right. A disconcerting yet thought-provoking occurrence as we performed was who was facing us: the men in these women’s lives, behind cameras and smartphones, observing and recording the performance. The positioning of the scene was also a bit unsettling. After all, we kept pointing to these men and saying “the rapist is you,” over and over again, as the chorus demands, meant to switch back blame to the observer.  A notable actress in the crowd encouraged women to “thank the men who were supporting us,” and we wondered if highlighting the supportive men meant they may think that the song was not intended for them. How many of the “good men” see violence against women as an external problem unrelated to them, patriarchy as an evil of other men, the rapists, the bad men?  

While we have participated in many women’s marches, this performance was different: the speech is commanding and straightforward, its purpose clear, and the militant resonance of a synchronous choreography equalizes women as victims of patriarchy, while also unifying us to fight it.  

A rapist in your path

 [Keep arms loose at your side, march in place to the beat for the first eight verses] 

Patri-archy is our judge

That imprisons us at birth

And our punishment

Is the violence you DON’T see. 

Patri-archy is our judge

That imprisons us at birth

And our punishment

Is the violence you CAN see. 

It's femicide.

[Place hands behind the head, squat up and down]

Impu-nity for my killer.

[Repeat movement above]

It’s our disappearances.

[Repeat movement above]

It’s rape!

[Repeat movement above] 

[March in place, but without lifting feet from the ground; move forearms up and down in sync with] 

And it was not my fault, nor where I was, nor how I dressed.

And it was not my fault, nor where I was, nor how I dressed.

And it was not my fault, nor where I was, nor how I dressed.

And it was not my fault, nor where I was, nor how I dressed. 

And the rapist WAS you

[Extend LEFT arm straight out in front of you, pointing] 

And the rapist IS you

[Extend LEFT arm straight out in front of you, pointing] 

It's the cops,

[Use LEFT arm to point behind you]

It’s the judges,

[Use LEFT arm to point in front of you]

It’s the system,

[Raise arms, pointing in circle around the head]

It’s the president.

[Cross forearms above the head forming an X] 

[Use LEFT arm and pump a closed fist]

The oppressive state is a macho rapist.

The oppressive state is a macho rapist. 

And the rapist WAS you

[Extend LEFT arm straight out in front of you, pointing]

And the rapist WAS you

[repeat movement above]

And the rapist WAS you

[repeat movement above]

And the rapist WAS you

[repeat movement above]

A lyrical breakdown (of patriarchy) 

The lyrics of "Un violador en tu camino" (re-translated into English above) provide a kind of popular examination of how and why gender-based violence is so prevalent not only in Chile and Latin America, but across the globe. The opening alludes to forms of "invisible" violence, such as domestic violence that has high rates of incidence in Chile yet is often underreported in the media, but also more visible forms, such as femicide (mentioned directly in the song).  With a middling Gender Inequality Index (GII) score from the United Nations, Chile, despite its relatively high social and economic status in the region, lags behind other democratic nations in elevating women to positions of power (with the notable exception of former President, Michelle Bachelet).  

According to the Chilean Network of Violence Against Women, the Chilean government, from police to politicians, is deeply implicated in perpetuating "patriarchal violence" by regularly refusing to prosecute gender-based crimes, and a recent human rights report by the UN found that police and military used sexual violence against protestors and political dissidents in late 2019. Further solidifying the dual critique of patriarchal violence and the oppressive state more broadly, “Un violador en tu camino” directly addresses the victim blaming often associated with gender-based violence — a discourse replicated by Chile's own President, Sebastian Piñera, when he suggested women were to blame for placing themselves in positions to be sexually assaulted. To this, the anthem responds, "it was not my fault, nor where I was, nor how I dressed." Further down, we see the conflation of patriarchal violence with the systems that uphold it, "this oppressive state is a macho rapist," proclaiming how "the rapist WAS you", followed by an assertion that “the rapist IS you” — as much a condemnation of individual perpetrators as of the state.

A road sign by the Carabineros de Chile, with their now defunct slogan "un amigo siempre" ("always your friend") [Photo credit: Benjamin Dumas, 2011].

The title of "Un violador en tu camino" is an allusion to a 1980s publicity campaign by the Chilean police force "Carabineros de Chile" (translated as "Riflemen of Chile"), with the slogan “a friend in your path.” The song links the Carabineros, who claim to be a “friend” that protects women, to the patriarchy embedded in the systems of governance which are constantly violent to women. In spite of its transnational appeal, some of the song's references are local to Chile. For example, the phrase "duerme tranquila" ("sleep calmly") is a direct reference to the Carabineros de Chile's anthem that was widely criticized in the Chilean protests last fall. The anthem is titled "Orden y patria" (“Order and the motherland"), and was sung in schools during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990). That particular stanza (below), as well as the crouching choreography, was a way to call out the forces that had reportedly asked women to strip and crouch in police custody during the protests.

Duerme tranquila, niña inocente, (Sleep calmly, innocent girl,)

sin preocuparte del bandolero, (without fear of bandits,)

que por tu sueño dulce y sonriente, (for over your sweet dreams,)

vela tu amante carabinero. (your police lover watches.)

___________________________

Andrea Alarcon's interests lie in the intersection of Science and Technology Studies and Cultural Studies. She is particularly interested in studying the appropriation of social media platforms in developing countries as gateways to the web, and transnational, online labor cultures. She received her MSc degree from the Oxford Internet Institute, and her BSc in online journalism from the University of Florida. She also worked as a Research Assistant with Microsoft Research's Social Media Collective. Before academia, she worked as a web producer and editor for the World Bank, and in social media for Discovery Channel in Latin America.

Rogelio Alejandro Lopez is PhD candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, where his work centers on social movements, civic media, and youth culture. His dissertation is a comparative look into the role of media strategies and cultural production in developing a “civic imagination” among contemporary youth social movements.

Paulina Lanz is a PhD Student in Communication at USC. She identifies in buildings and in urban places a source of memoirs and nostalgia. Cities have led her to research in a convergence among culture and media studies at the hand of film. The theoretical immersion to space and cultural studies through an aesthetic perspective has been a stimulus for developing an interdisciplinary commitment from former disciplines to present endeavor. The object takes on a new meaning while researching buildings as media, an emerging mechanism to focus storytelling through spatial remembrance, as a blueprint-incepted testimony. Paulina is a member of the Civic Paths group and involved in research in the Skid Row and Homeless Connectivity Project, and the Mobile Devices Global Mapping Project. She is a founding member and organizer of Critical Mediations, a Communication and Cultural Studies Conference.