Chile`s Bicentennial Year: Celebrate good times? I don’t think so.

This essay is about my country particular birthday, in other words, the Chilean bicentennial year. The official history says: Chile was an independent country since 1810, September 18. In that date was happen the first government reunion, in Santiago. The leader of that reunion, called “Primera junta de gobierno”, was Mateo de Toro y Zambrano, an aristocrat man. Paradoxically, he was unconditional whit Spain and its King, “Fernando seventh”. Nevertheless, another people think the correct date of Chile`s independence was in 1818, when Chile wins the independence war, and the leader of the resistance was a military men, called Bernardo O’Higgins. Themfore, O’Higgins is named “the father of nation”. But, in my opinion, Chile never has been independent. Now, I’m gonna talk about it.

First of all, I will make a question. When a country is independent?. I think Chile is not an independent nation for one simple reason. I don’t believe in that. I don’t think we can divide the countries in categories like “independent” and “not independent”. But, Why?. Following Marx, social classes are not part of a country, but in the world are divided equally, maintaining inequalities. On the one hand we have the bourgeoisie, who control the means of production, and on the other the proletariat, which has no means of production, but works directly with them. Thus we have a society sharply divided into two classes, unequal. The role of the nation and the homeland is to make people forget their material conditions, and cling to invisible items, such as nationalism. So I think that nationalism, like religion, are the cause of most wars and tragedies that occur.

But, by no means whatsoever the popular traditions doesn’t exist. Obviously there exist, and I love a lot of them. For example I like so much the empanada, the corn cake, curanto, and the chicha and wine. All of them are traditional Chilean Food. Also, the soccer’s teams like Universidad the Chile and Santiago Wanders, or “Condorito” and “Mampato” (populars comic), or the traditional music, for example: Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Inti Illimani, and Los Jaivas. I´m a big fan of them, but it doesn’t mean that I’m a nationalist and patriotic.

Finally, I must confess that I´m not a patriot person, because I believe in all American integration without the artificial frontiers, without the wars, and first of all, without the social inequalities caused by an aggressive economic system. Evidently, you may say I´m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.