A semester in Chile, an experience of a lifetime

Today there is a distinct murmur about Santiago as I stroll around Cerro Santa Lucia, a park of grandiose fountains and colonial structures built on top of a hill at the heart of the city, elevating you from the bustle of busy city life. Yet as I tiptoe my way carefully down the steep, unsteady steps, the peace the Cerro usually offers is interrupted. Even this 16th century cannot escape the power of the students’ struggle that absorbs the city.

Curious I follow the clamour of discontented chants accompanied by the clanging of pots and singing in Spanish to find a mass of people stretching across Santiago’s main street, La Alameda. Although it’s clear the thousands of demonstrators are unhappy, as students, grandparents, workers and even children gather together, marching towards fairer education for all, an education where students profit rather than private institutions, there is an air of togetherness: a solidarity worth celebrating as the voice of thousands of students screams.

The march is quickly broken up as green policemen, equipped with shields and batons swarm into a wall preventing further steps towards the future. The advancing processions is halted and the plea of the Chilean people is choked by a heavy air of thick tear gas stained smoke. Opportunists rush out with shopping trolleys brimming with lemons to alleviate the effects of the tear gas now consuming the air. The crowd disperses. Protesters, passerbys and onlookers dart down back streets, scrambling to escape the threatening tanks armed with huge water cannons.

But while the demonstrations are swiftly broken up, the spirit of the Chilean people cannot be so easily extinguished.