Encountering Chile: influence of Chilean exiles on United States popular opinions in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

This project seeks to define the effects that exiled Chilean intellectuals had on popular perceptions of Latin America within the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. The diaspora of "creators" following the 1973 coup in Chile had at least two effects on contemporary opinions. First, displaced Chileans came into contact with new audiences, for whom they became authorities on the recent history of their country and region. Second, the causes of their emigration produced a desire to expand their audiences in the United States. These exiles were instrumental in perpetuating the memory of the Allende years and the coup that toppled him, as well as offering interpretations of those events, including criticisms of both Latin American social structures and North American corporate and military action. This study proposes the concept of "historical agency" as a means by which to understand the significance of these exiled Chilean creators, and it implicates them as creators of popular history.