la discriminación en Chile

Chilean society is very conservative. Until 2000, no divorce law existed. You could get a marriage annulled, however. When people got married, they would intentionally lie on their marriage license about something so that if and when the time came for divorce, they could say "Look, it says here that María lived at Calle Roble 43, but she actually lived at Calle Roble 44!" The judge would then grant the annulment.

In a country with an economy growing as quickly as Chile's, it is easy to understand everyone's preoccupations with money and obsession with keeping up appearances. Hatred of the poor is rampant in Chile. Chileans call themselves "white" because they abhor the thought of "inferior" native blood running through their veins. I haven't had a hard time here as far as discrimination on appearance goes, but only because I think I embody what Chileans really think they are: fair-skinned, light hair, light eyes. I would like to point out, though, that I stick out like a sore thumb here. Wanting to be something and actually being it are two different things.

In yesterday's edition of La Tercera, I found these rather unsurprising survey results:

Study reveals that 92% of Chileans consider themselves discriminatory
The principal factor of discrimination is socio-economic level


517 Chileans were asked, "On what basis do you discriminate against other people?"

37% - Being poor
24% - Skin color/physical appearance
9% - Not being well-educated
8% - Being elderly
5% - Being handicapped
4% - Being of foreign origin
3% - Sexual orientation
3% - Place of origin
3% - Being an indigenous person
3% - Being a woman
1% - Being "nobody important"

I say BOLLOCKS to pretty much this whole survey. I don't think people were very honest with their answers. The only thing worse than being poor in Chile is being of indigenous descent. Even today, the cries for more legal protection on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Chile are ignored. The more "westernized" Chileans do everything they can to distance themselves from the inescapable fact that the vast majority of them have some indigenous genes mixed in with European blood. As for the sexual orientation factor; well, Chile is a Latin American country, and while it isn't as "machista" as other nations, the "machista" factor still factors into the Chilean mindset.

While I strongly disagree with the results of this survey, I think it does show how difficult it is for a rapidly-developing society to come to terms with itself. Although Chile's president is a woman and a socialist, women still make on average much less than their male counterparts, and the poor in Chile just keep getting poorer.