Remembrance and cultural resistance Chilean lira popular in the 70s

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the awakening of a poetic structure that wasn’t standing for more than 40 years. The corpus will be studied as an example of the general kind testimonial literature. The rebirth of this poetic structure will be analyzed along two dimensions. First, the social function of the Lira Popular. It was the “Voice of the people”, at a period when the Chilean people had almost no channel left. The rebirth of Lira Popular (String Literature) partly due to its social function in the aftermath of Pinochet’s 1973 coup d’etat. Partly because of specific censorship and partly because of the general ban on free-expression used against the regime’s dissidents there was precious other means of expressing dissidence. Second, the metric used (décima espinela) has been the traditional vehicle for popular remembrance constituting one of the identifying features of Old Chileans.