A tough school
Since the Lagos reform of 2003, schooling has been compulsory from age 6 to 18. Then, if you want to go on to university, you have to pass an exam, the Prueba de selección a las universidades (PSU). Private education is quite common, sharing students with the public sector. Depending on their PSU results, students can enroll in universities, vocational institutes or technical training centers. Despite a high literacy rate (96%) in a country with a fairly efficient education system, some of Chile's remote regions and countryside are exceptions due to their isolation and low population density. Most schools and universities are concentrated in Santiago, the capital. In the Atacama Desert, Araucania and Patagonia, schools are few and far between, and universities are virtually non-existent. While the University of Santiago has over 20,000 students, the University of Punta Arenas has barely 1,000. In the most isolated regions, students walk or ride to school, covering many kilometers a day. Finally, school curricula are sometimes adapted to the region's geographical and cultural specificities: taking care of animals, training in agricultural techniques or learning mapadungun, specific to Mapuche schools. Unfair and heavily criticized, the education system has not escaped the neo-liberal system put in place under the Pinochet dictatorship. In other words, private education is favored to the detriment of the public sector, and free higher education no longer exists. University enrolment costs an average of €5,000, while average salaries are around €500/month: inequalities continue to grow, and access to higher education remains out of reach for many young Chileans. Families often have to go into debt so that their children can study, and the difference between public and private education in terms of cost and quality of teaching is very great. Students have been demonstrating for ten years to demand educational reform. In 2011, following huge mobilizations, over 80% of Chileans supported the students' demands. Unfortunately, this recurring movement has yet to bear fruit. As a result, more and more Chilean students are crossing the Andes to study in Argentina, where the school system is recognized as one of the most advanced in South America.
Proud but humble
Chile is a land of encounters with those who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, settled in these once inhospitable territories. Proud of their history and the traditions they still preserve, these descendants of pioneers have inherited a unique identity. Humble and discreet, Chileans are both generous and selfless. They have an ability to put things into perspective, to move forward and to rely on the elements around them. They live in the moment, without being overly attached to schedules or organization. They are kings of improvisation and quilombo, which means chaos, bazaar, a belief that says you don't need to get organized. In Chile, you have to let things happen and let things come to you, to experience the best that life has to offer. The family is the basis of all social relationships: friends are cousins, acquaintances are childhood friends. Social categories rarely mix! Conservative and religious (though less and less practicing), men are sometimes macho, preferring their daughters to marry before devoting themselves to a career. The personality of the Chilean generally differs from the Latin mentality. Renowned for their nonchalance, Latinos are passionate, seductive and quick to give their opinion on everything, but Chileans are always a little more reserved, at least at first sight! They are also very attached to social rank: it's not uncommon to be asked about your family name, your educational background or your qualifications. Unappreciated by their Latin American neighbors, they are often referred to as desgarro chileno (the Chilean "tear" or "fracture"), never satisfied with what's to come, not because of a lack of ambition or desire for progress, but because life is considered unfair. Their unique way of approaching the world (casual, placid, rebellious, with a certain restrained hysteria, as if compressed by the opposing elements surrounding this "cigar by the sea") is said to come from the Mapuche. For the Mapuches did not build illustrious monuments: their monument was the spoken word, mapudungún. There's no official history book, just an acid sense of humor, just proud, vain, idle talk that values "being" more than "having". As the saying goes: " Humanity is divided into three categories: Chileans, who know nothing; foreigners, who know a little; and the Mapuche, who know everything".
Women's rights
Despite some progress in recent years, Chile remains under the considerable influence of the Catholic religion: divorce was only legalized by the Civil Code in 2004, despite the hostility of the Church. Faced with the abject plight of abused women, Chile decided to react in 1994 with the enactment of the Law on Domestic Violence, which defines violence within the same family as unlawful behavior and liable to prosecution. The figures also reveal the importance of the role played by women in the country: almost 30% of them are the sole breadwinners of their households, earning at least as much as their spouses. It was for these women that the government decided to create a support program in 1991, known as the National Women's Service (SERNAM). In 1989, the country ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
There is still the thorny issue of abortion: prior to 2017, abortion was completely prohibited in Chile. After two years of parliamentary debate, the Constitutional Court partially decriminalized voluntary interruption of pregnancy on August 21, 2017 with the "ley tres causales" ("law of three cases"). This law allows abortion in just three situations (risk to the life of the pregnant woman, non-viability of the fetus and rape). A victory for President Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician by training, who fought this battle against conservatism throughout her term of office. However, in July 2019, the protests resumed, with thousands of people demonstrating for the total decriminalization of abortion. The current law, which allows recourse to abortion in only three situations, is very poorly applied, not least because of the conscientious objection invoked by many doctors. It should be noted that one in 5 sexually active young Chileans experiences an unplanned pregnancy, and there are no fewer than 200,000 clandestine abortions a year. Finally, in the spring of 2018, to protest against the recurrence of feminicides, the Ni Una Menos ("not one [woman] less") movement organized itself through numerous student revolts against sexism. Then in November 2019, in the midst of a wave of social protest, Chilean feminist movements shook up the international scene. In the heart of Santiago, Chilean collective Las Tesis performed "Un Violador en Tu Camino" (a rapist on your path), a poignant choreography accompanied by a song with incisive lyrics. Denouncing sexist and sexual violence, the performance quickly went viral and was taken up all over the world, from Istanbul to Sydney to Paris, on International Women's Rights Day. The Chilean anthem has become a global rallying cry. In May 2021, in Santiago de Chile, Irací Hassler, a 30-year-old feminist, became the first woman mayor to lead the Chilean capital. In 2023, at a time when the foundations of the constitution are being questioned, the country no longer seems unaware of the long struggle of Chilean women at the heart of the latest popular uprisings.
Sexual diversity
Long subject to conservative politics, Chile has been fighting a long battle for the recognition and rights of homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals. The first rights granted to homosexuals date back to 1999, when homosexuality was decriminalized. Since then, the country has regularly been in the spotlight for its advances in this area. Since 2012, a law has finally sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation, even if equality before gender and sexual orientation is far from achieved. In June 2018 and 2019, the "Marcha del Orgullo", or Santiago Gay Pride March, took place. Under rainbow flags, LGBT people gathered to reclaim their identity and accuse the homophobic acts recorded last year, in 2017. Dubbed "the year of fury", the figures recorded were bloodcurdling: with 45.7% more complaints than in 2016, it was the year of all records in terms of homophobic and transphobic violence. In recent years, demonstrators have also been calling for the introduction of marriage for same-sex couples. Indeed, despite a first bill in 2008, marriage is still not allowed for same-sex couples in Chile. Since January 2015, only the "Civil Union" has authorized unions between same-sex couples, conferring the same rights as marriage. While in 2019, the Chamber of Deputies approved a reform of the law on adoption for same-sex couples, in 2021, President Piñera, who had opposed marriage for all during his election campaign, surprisingly resumed consideration of the bill to legalize marriage between same-sex couples in 2021 (a bill initially put forward by the government of the socialist Michelle Bachelet). On March 10, 2022, Chile became the seventh country in South America to legalize same-sex marriage, and the thirtieth in the world.
