On the benches of the school
Despite a high literacy rate (96% in Chile and 98.1% in Argentina) in two countries with rather efficient education systems, Patagonia is an exception due to its isolation and low population density. Within this vast rural area, where schools are scarce and universities are almost non-existent, differences in school enrolment are at the very least noticeable compared to the rest of Argentina and Chile. Since the 2003 Lagos reform in Chile, schooling has been compulsory from 6 to 18 years of age and access to university is through an examination, the Prueba de selección a las universidades (PSU). Private education is quite common in Chile and is shared with the public sector. Depending on their results in the PSU, students can enrol in universities, vocational institutes or technical training centres. Injust and heavily criticized, the education system is today in crisis: families often have to go into debt in order for their children to study, moreover the difference between public and private education in terms of cost of studies and quality of education is very great. Thus, 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. Despite some shortcomings aggravated by the 2001 crisis and the favouritism of private institutions, Argentine universities are more accessible than the Chilean education system. Moreover, it is interesting to note that in Argentina the university system, with its morning and evening hours and the possibility of spreading courses over several years for the same exam, allows young and older working people to continue their studies or start new ones while working. In Patagonia, there are few universities: while the University of Temuco has just under 10,000 students, the University of Punta Arenas has barely 1,000. In Argentina, there are only five universities: the National University of Tierra del Fuego opened its doors barely ten years ago. Many students finish school at the age of 14 before taking over the family business or specializing in agricultural work. As for primary education, infrastructure is still lacking. Interesting detail: before the 1980s, when the Chilean Carretera Austral was not yet built, Chilean schoolchildren had to cross the border to study in Argentinean schools. In the most isolated regions, students still go to school on horseback, swallowing miles of steppe in stormy winds. Finally, school curricula are sometimes adapted to the geographical and cultural specificities of the region: caring for animals, training in agricultural techniques or learning mapadungun, which are specific to Mapuche schools.
At work
Often owners of their land for generations, heirs to a know-how and a culture that marginalizes them from the rest of the country, Argentines and Chileans in Patagonia escape the subway, work, sleep of the big cities. Without neglecting the industrial jobs that exist in the mining or fishing sectors, a large part of the active population lives from multiple small jobs of employees or self-employed workers (those referred to here as " monotributistas ") in service activities. Depending on where one is located, the areas of agricultural activity differ: many Chileans living in northern Patagonia live off the products of the land or the sea: the landscapes are green, sheep farms abound and the fjords are teeming with fish. Sheep farming is a very active industry: with no predators or competition for grazing land, Patagonia is the most important region internationally for this type of farming (up to 21 million heads in 1951). Between oyster farming and mussel farming, fishing and aquaculture provide employment for 25,000 people. Finally, even though Argentina and Chile are among the best economies in Latin America, social inequalities persist... and Patagonia is no exception. Most people know that they have to work hard to earn little and still support themselves. There is a social moroseness everywhere in Patagonia, fuelled by the shrinking of public services and social assistance and a feeling of abandonment of rural areas and small towns by an indifferent government with little concern for the condition of the working classes.
A strong and distinctive identity
One feels alone in the world in these infinite great spaces, but when one crosses the path of a Patagonian, one quickly feels well surrounded. Patagonia is a land of encounters with those who, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, settled in these once inhospitable territories. All of them suffered from isolation, bad weather, capricious nature, hard work and dependence on their neighbours. Yet, proud of their history and the traditions they still retain, these descendants of the pioneers who remained in the Grand Sur have inherited a unique identity. For a long time, they lived from the exchange of products within a tightly knit community, far from geopolitical interests, indifferent, even, to the concept of borders. For while Patagonian identity is obviously nuanced by nationality (whether Chilean or Argentinean), for many it is an art of living carried above all by a free spirit (embodied by the strong symbols of the gauchos and huasos). Thus, in Alex Bowen's film "Mi Mejor Enemigo", Argentinean and Chilean military patrols meet during a conflict in 1978 without knowing which side of the border they are on. Chileans or Argentinians? No, Patagon. An identity without obvious landmarks, an allegory of the whole concept of Patagonia - a region and a mystical identity shared by both countries. Like its borders, Patagonian identity cannot be described precisely, however it is possible to portray certain traits. Humble and discreet, the people of Patagonia are both generous and selfless. Having made particular life choices in a hostile territory, they have a capacity to put things into perspective, to move forward and to rely on the elements that surround them. They live in the present moment without being overly concerned with schedules and organization, kings of improvisation and quilombo (chaos, bazaar), a belief that invites us not to organize, to let things happen and things come in order to experience the best that life has to offer. Isolation is certain, but loneliness is less so: every opportunity is good to gather and feast, around a mate or an asado. The family is the basis of all social relationships: friends are cousins, the entourage is made up of acquaintances from childhood. Social categories very rarely mix! On the southern routes, they wave to you and are always ready to exchange a discussion. Conservatives and believers, men sometimes turn out to be macho and prefer their daughters to get married before devoting themselves to a career. And even though the boundaries don't seem to mark any great differences, the personality of the Chilean man stands out from the Argentinian mentality. Known for their good humour and nonchalance, Argentines are passionate, a bit seductive and don't fail to give their opinion on everything."Argentines are Italians who speak Spanish, think they're English and dream of being French," says the saying. People with poor touch should be warned: you may get a " mi amor " on your first exchanges or an abrazo when you signal your departure. Chileans, on the other hand, are hospitable, calm and very attached to social status: it is not uncommon to be asked about your surname, your schooling or your diplomas. Not much appreciated by their Latin American neighbours, they are often referred to as desgarro chileno (the Chilean "tear" or "fracture") in keeping with an equally fractured nature. Their unique way of approaching the world is said to come from the Mapuche. For the Mapuche did not build illustrious monuments: their monument was the word, the mapudungún. No official history book, but a sour humour, proud and vain words in the air that valued "being" more than "having". There is a proverb that goes like this: "Humanity is divided into three categories: Chileans, who know nothing; foreigners, who know a little; and Mapuche, who know everything". However, we are not far from thinking that the fresh wind of new social freedoms that is blowing in the country today finds its expression (and its birth) in the complexity of a proud and warlike identity inherited from the Mapuche people.
Women's rights
Despite some progress in recent years, Chile and Argentina are still under the considerable influence of the Church. Faced with the abject fate of abused women, Chile decided to react in 1994 by enacting the Law of Intrafamily Violence, which defines intrafamily violence as illegal and prosecutable behavior. The figures show the importance of the role of women in a country like Chile, as almost 30% of them support their households entirely on the same or higher salary than their spouse. It was for these women that the government decided to create a support program in 1991, known as the National Service for Women (SERNAM). In 1989, Chile ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. And, only since 2004, divorce has been legalized. There was still the thorny issue of abortion, recently decriminalized. After two years of parliamentary debate, the constitutional court finally validated the law decriminalizing abortion on August 21, 2017. From now on, abortion is allowed in Chile in cases of risk to the pregnant woman, non-viability of the fetus and rape. A victory for President Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician by training, who led this fight during her entire term under the weight of conservatism. On the legislative front, since obtaining the right to vote in 1947, women have benefited from several positive discrimination laws, even if parity is not yet on the agenda
Argentina became the first country in the world to adopt a minimum quota for women's participation in the legislative branch, although the numbers sometimes struggle to be met in practice. President Christina Kirchner, who is very involved in the cause of women, strengthened the law against white slavery and prostitution in Argentina in 2008 and imposed a law against violence against women in 2010. This law allows, among other things, to register crimes to establish a picture of the situation of violence against women in the country and to provide free assistance to victims. According to the association La casa del encuentro, 277 feminicides were recorded in 2014, some of them aggravated by acts of extreme violence, and 235 in 2015. Following several particularly atrocious feminicides, a spontaneous movement was born in the streets of the capital in the spring of 2015 that protested against violence against women and quickly spread across the continent: "Ni Una Menos" ("Not one more dead"). As for abortion, a first step was taken in March 2012; it was legalized, but only in cases of rape or threat to the mother's life. Then, in March 2018, the law to legalize abortion was rejected by a vote of the Senate: Argentina missed the historic opportunity to pass legislation that was overwhelmingly demanded by the population. But the new Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who had openly advocated legalizing abortion during his candidacy, supported a new bill presented to the Chamber of Deputies that was passed on December 11, 2020. The Senate, renewed by one-third since 2018, validates the project on December 30, 2020, putting an end to as many as 400,000 clandestine abortions per year. In November 2019, in the midst of a wave of social protests in Chile, Chilean feminist movements shook up the international scene. In the heart of Santiago, the Chilean collective Las Tesis began "Un Violador en Tu Camino" (a rapist on your path), a poignant choreography accompanied by a song with incisive lyrics. Denouncing gender-based and sexual violence, the performance quickly went viral and was performed around the world, from Istanbul to Sydney to Paris, on International Women's Rights Day. The Chilean anthem became a global rallying cry.
Sexual diversity
A region subject to the politics of two conservative countries and regularly in the spotlight in recent years as a result of its advances in this area, Chile and Argentina are waging a long-term struggle for the recognition and rights of homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals. Since 2012, a law had finally been adopted to punish discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, but equality before the law on gender and sexual orientation was far from being achieved. In Chile, in June 2018 and 2019, the "Marcha del Orgullo", or Santiago Pride March, took place. Under rainbow flags, LGBT people came together to claim their identity and blame the homophobic acts recorded last year, in 2017. Nicknamed "the year of fury", the figures recorded are blood-curdling: with 45.7% more complaints than in 2016, it was the year of all records in terms of homophobic and transphobic violence. Over the past two years, protesters have also been calling for the introduction of marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples. Indeed, despite a first bill in 2008, marriage is still not allowed for same-sex couples in Chile. For the time being, only civil unions have been authorized since 2015. In Argentina, since 2006, the city has been a revelation for the gay public, so much so that it is increasingly being given the nickname "Buenos Gayres". Statistics from the prefecture show that 20% of the tourists who enter Argentina every year are gay, or about 500,000 visitors each year. In 2008, the local social security system extended the right to widowhood pensions to homosexual couples with at least five years of cohabitation. In 2010, in an atmosphere of polemics and hesitations between the justice system and the Argentinean political class, the first gay and lesbian marriages began to be celebrated. Of course, needless to say that, as everywhere, the capital and the big cities are more progressive in this matter and the countryside remains more conservative. In May 2012, the Senate approved a bill on sexual identity that allows transvestites and transsexuals to declare the sex of their choice to the administration.
