Machuca: Bridging the gap over troubled waters
There are many examples in literature where children’s eyes are used to envision an intensely difficult times. Anne frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl on the holocaust, young favela boys in City of God and City of Men or the young boys and girls from Mumbai’s slums in SlumDog Millionaire. Machuca is no different. Machuca explores a variety of social relations Chile in the year 1973 through the eyes of protagonists, kids Pedro Machuca and Gonzalo Infante.
The movie revolves around the friendship of these two boys, how they come together under the socialist regime of Salvador Allende. Their friendship shows as a breaking barrier between classes under socialist times. But their friendship is only temporary and comes to an end with the Allende government collapsing due to a military coup d’état.
With this paper I plan to describe how the class and social conflict present in the Chile is addressed in the movie through their friendship and political events of the time. This paper will also attempt to discover how the use of visual metaphors emphasizes this topic in a subtle manner in the movie.
The movie is broken down to three parts for discussion via a specific scene. The first part show how socialism is budding in the Chilean society under Salvador Allende’s Unidad Popular government. The second part will discuss how these socialist policies are not well received, and there are troubles and friendship between Gonzalo and Pedro begins to break. And the third part will discuss the events of Augusto Pinochet’s military coup d’état.
According to Britannica, “Marxists in particular tend to depict social life in capitalist society as a struggle between a ruling class, which wishes to maintain the system, and a dominated class, which strives for radical change.” This forms a basis for a social conflict theory.
The initial parts of the movie show how the socialist government is bridging this gap between ruling and dominated class. The Unidad Popular government of Allende is trying to transform the society from a capitalist to a socialist one, and somehow trying to overcome the prevailing social and class conflicts present in the society. There are socialist headlines in the papers, and we see words such as ‘Death of Capitalism’, ‘right wing end’, ‘right wings beware’.
Gonzalo Infante is a rich pre-teen boy studying in an upper class school. The priest, Father McEnroe is the principal of his school and is trying to implement socialist policies of Allende’s government.
Class conflict is apparent when Father McEnroe introduces the kids from shantytown to the upper class school. Boundaries are clear, rich v/s poor, uniform v/s ragged torn clothes. On asked whether any student knows any of the new student’s, a boy identifies a shantytown kid as the son of a lady who washes his clothes. This distinction is amplified by this revelation. On being asked his name, one of the poor kids Pedro Machuca answers in a low timid voice. Father McEnroe is angered, and asks him to speak louder until he shouts his name out. Father McEnroe hence tries to thrust power to the repressed class, another socialist act. This new found power is later exercised by Machuca when he is bullied; he says “Take it up to the priest.” Signifying that Father McEnroe is a source of power to him, just as Allende was fighting for the empowerment of the poor. Father McEnroe places the students randomly and Machuca happens to be seated behind Gonzalo. This is the first step towards friendship between them.
These acts of Father McEnroe such as empowering the poor and social mixing in the school can be considered analogous to acts of Allende’s Unidad Popular socialist government; with the friendship serving as a metaphor for breaking the barrier between classes.
While Gonzalo helps Pedro in school, his family problems lead him to come close to Pedro and his cousin Silvana. For a small time, they share growing up experiences together; first experiences of sexuality and alcoholism. Machuca falls in love with the rich lifestyle which includes Adidas shoes, comic books and bicycle.
As the movie progresses class distinction become more prominent with the rising political tensions.
While selling flags at a rally, the three of them are jumping to mock ‘mummies’, chanting ‘jump if you’re not ‘mummie’. Gonzalo asks about what ‘mummies’ mean – to which Silvana replies “someone rich and spoilt like you.” Gonzalo is taken aback by this pointing of distinction by Silvana.
Tensions include Silvana’s fight with Gonzalo’s mother and her derogatory remarks about his mother, and Pedro’s alcoholic father blatantly pointing out what the future hold for them. How Gonzalo would be successful and Pedro would be cleaning toilets all his life.
In the scene in which parents are meeting with father McEnroe defines the second part of the movie, exemplifying the growing class conflict and how the socialist regime cannot handle it. Gonzalo’s mother talks about how it is difficult to mix apples and pears, not because either one of them are bad, but because one is different form the other. But the main crux of the matter comes into picture when one of the parents explains how he donated pigs to the school farm, and pigs are becoming ill and dying. He points out that because the funds meant for the pigs are being diverted to accommodate the poor children.
Pedro’s mother has a very strong statement in a reply to these comments.
“When I was a child I lived at a farm near San Nicolas, in the south. My father was one of the workers who took care of the cattle. If something happened to an animal, we got it discounted from the provisions we got at the end of the month. It didn’t matter what the reason for loss, my father was always the guilty one. I came to Santiago when I was 15, because I didn’t want my children to be always guilty of everything. But it seems that in here in the city things are the same. We are always the ones who are guilty.”
She says this because here also they are being blamed for the dying pigs.
Later on we see that the all the pigs die due to illness, which serve as a metaphor for the fact that the social system is not working, there are problems the government was failing. Gonzalo and Pedro’s friendship had come to an end with the act that Pedro and Silvana taking his bicycle without permission and him insulting them.
Paul Virilio states that (as cited by Martin-Cabrera and Voionmaa, 2007, p. 69) Velocity, is linked to wealth and power, and here both sneakers and the bicycle are instruments of velocity.
As long as Pedro, the poor took permission for access to the bike and sneakers, Gonzalo, the rich was ok with it. This parallels the Chilean way of socialism which according to Cabrera and Voionmaa “had to be peaceful and within the parameters of parliamentary democracy” they suggest “Machuca’s temporary ride echoes Allende’s attempt to give hegemonic velocity to working class.”
With the end of their friendship, and military coup d’état of 11th September 1973, we enter into the third phase of the movie.
While Gonzalo is in his mother’s lovers apartment, the right wing supporting old man. He sees that people are catching dogs and taking them away. He gets scared, to hear the dogs bark and whine in pain. It is unclear why the dogs are being taken away, possibly for food as the resources for poor are scarce, but it sure is cruel nonetheless. He goes and knocks hard on the door in which his mother is sleeping with her lover, because he is scared, but the lover and his mother are calm about it and ask him to remain so. This in fact serves as a metaphor for the second last scene, in which the military is mercilessly killing and taking people of the shantytown in trucks. Gonzalo rides his bike up to the shanty- town. Pedro and his family are being taken away just as the people and the streets were taking the dogs away. Silvana dies of a gunshot in while trying to save her father, he is shocked and scared. Gonzalo himself is subject to military personnel cornering him, but he gets away showing his upper-class clothes and sneakers.
This whole scene depicts the military violence and human rights violation under Pinochet.
In the final scene, Gonzalo views Pedro’s slum from the opposite side of a soccer field. This was the soccer field separating them, and is an obvious metaphor for social and class conflict, which was diminishing during Allende’s time but couldn’t totally be extinguished. Martin-Cabrera and Voionmaa point out the 30 years on, these problems of poverty, and social conflict have increased. It is the wealth polarity that causes class conflict. According to Luis Eduardo Herrera, the “Chilean Miracle” of rising G.D.P. due to Chicago boy’s Policy is actually a myth.
Anderson states that (as cited by Larrain) “Poverty today is not because of the lack of jobs, since the unemployment rate is only 5 to 6 percent. The poor have jobs, but they have very low-paying jobs.” I.e. the rich have gotten richer, while the poor have gotten poorer. The attempt to bridge the classes and reduce social conflict was futile as the Allende Government toppled and the gap hasn’t been narrowed ever since. How much of this gap can be narrowed depends on the economic and political Chile employs in the future.
References:
The movie revolves around the friendship of these two boys, how they come together under the socialist regime of Salvador Allende. Their friendship shows as a breaking barrier between classes under socialist times. But their friendship is only temporary and comes to an end with the Allende government collapsing due to a military coup d’état.
With this paper I plan to describe how the class and social conflict present in the Chile is addressed in the movie through their friendship and political events of the time. This paper will also attempt to discover how the use of visual metaphors emphasizes this topic in a subtle manner in the movie.
The movie is broken down to three parts for discussion via a specific scene. The first part show how socialism is budding in the Chilean society under Salvador Allende’s Unidad Popular government. The second part will discuss how these socialist policies are not well received, and there are troubles and friendship between Gonzalo and Pedro begins to break. And the third part will discuss the events of Augusto Pinochet’s military coup d’état.
According to Britannica, “Marxists in particular tend to depict social life in capitalist society as a struggle between a ruling class, which wishes to maintain the system, and a dominated class, which strives for radical change.” This forms a basis for a social conflict theory.
The initial parts of the movie show how the socialist government is bridging this gap between ruling and dominated class. The Unidad Popular government of Allende is trying to transform the society from a capitalist to a socialist one, and somehow trying to overcome the prevailing social and class conflicts present in the society. There are socialist headlines in the papers, and we see words such as ‘Death of Capitalism’, ‘right wing end’, ‘right wings beware’.
Gonzalo Infante is a rich pre-teen boy studying in an upper class school. The priest, Father McEnroe is the principal of his school and is trying to implement socialist policies of Allende’s government.
Class conflict is apparent when Father McEnroe introduces the kids from shantytown to the upper class school. Boundaries are clear, rich v/s poor, uniform v/s ragged torn clothes. On asked whether any student knows any of the new student’s, a boy identifies a shantytown kid as the son of a lady who washes his clothes. This distinction is amplified by this revelation. On being asked his name, one of the poor kids Pedro Machuca answers in a low timid voice. Father McEnroe is angered, and asks him to speak louder until he shouts his name out. Father McEnroe hence tries to thrust power to the repressed class, another socialist act. This new found power is later exercised by Machuca when he is bullied; he says “Take it up to the priest.” Signifying that Father McEnroe is a source of power to him, just as Allende was fighting for the empowerment of the poor. Father McEnroe places the students randomly and Machuca happens to be seated behind Gonzalo. This is the first step towards friendship between them.
These acts of Father McEnroe such as empowering the poor and social mixing in the school can be considered analogous to acts of Allende’s Unidad Popular socialist government; with the friendship serving as a metaphor for breaking the barrier between classes.
While Gonzalo helps Pedro in school, his family problems lead him to come close to Pedro and his cousin Silvana. For a small time, they share growing up experiences together; first experiences of sexuality and alcoholism. Machuca falls in love with the rich lifestyle which includes Adidas shoes, comic books and bicycle.
As the movie progresses class distinction become more prominent with the rising political tensions.
While selling flags at a rally, the three of them are jumping to mock ‘mummies’, chanting ‘jump if you’re not ‘mummie’. Gonzalo asks about what ‘mummies’ mean – to which Silvana replies “someone rich and spoilt like you.” Gonzalo is taken aback by this pointing of distinction by Silvana.
Tensions include Silvana’s fight with Gonzalo’s mother and her derogatory remarks about his mother, and Pedro’s alcoholic father blatantly pointing out what the future hold for them. How Gonzalo would be successful and Pedro would be cleaning toilets all his life.
In the scene in which parents are meeting with father McEnroe defines the second part of the movie, exemplifying the growing class conflict and how the socialist regime cannot handle it. Gonzalo’s mother talks about how it is difficult to mix apples and pears, not because either one of them are bad, but because one is different form the other. But the main crux of the matter comes into picture when one of the parents explains how he donated pigs to the school farm, and pigs are becoming ill and dying. He points out that because the funds meant for the pigs are being diverted to accommodate the poor children.
Pedro’s mother has a very strong statement in a reply to these comments.
“When I was a child I lived at a farm near San Nicolas, in the south. My father was one of the workers who took care of the cattle. If something happened to an animal, we got it discounted from the provisions we got at the end of the month. It didn’t matter what the reason for loss, my father was always the guilty one. I came to Santiago when I was 15, because I didn’t want my children to be always guilty of everything. But it seems that in here in the city things are the same. We are always the ones who are guilty.”
She says this because here also they are being blamed for the dying pigs.
Later on we see that the all the pigs die due to illness, which serve as a metaphor for the fact that the social system is not working, there are problems the government was failing. Gonzalo and Pedro’s friendship had come to an end with the act that Pedro and Silvana taking his bicycle without permission and him insulting them.
Paul Virilio states that (as cited by Martin-Cabrera and Voionmaa, 2007, p. 69) Velocity, is linked to wealth and power, and here both sneakers and the bicycle are instruments of velocity.
As long as Pedro, the poor took permission for access to the bike and sneakers, Gonzalo, the rich was ok with it. This parallels the Chilean way of socialism which according to Cabrera and Voionmaa “had to be peaceful and within the parameters of parliamentary democracy” they suggest “Machuca’s temporary ride echoes Allende’s attempt to give hegemonic velocity to working class.”
With the end of their friendship, and military coup d’état of 11th September 1973, we enter into the third phase of the movie.
While Gonzalo is in his mother’s lovers apartment, the right wing supporting old man. He sees that people are catching dogs and taking them away. He gets scared, to hear the dogs bark and whine in pain. It is unclear why the dogs are being taken away, possibly for food as the resources for poor are scarce, but it sure is cruel nonetheless. He goes and knocks hard on the door in which his mother is sleeping with her lover, because he is scared, but the lover and his mother are calm about it and ask him to remain so. This in fact serves as a metaphor for the second last scene, in which the military is mercilessly killing and taking people of the shantytown in trucks. Gonzalo rides his bike up to the shanty- town. Pedro and his family are being taken away just as the people and the streets were taking the dogs away. Silvana dies of a gunshot in while trying to save her father, he is shocked and scared. Gonzalo himself is subject to military personnel cornering him, but he gets away showing his upper-class clothes and sneakers.
This whole scene depicts the military violence and human rights violation under Pinochet.
In the final scene, Gonzalo views Pedro’s slum from the opposite side of a soccer field. This was the soccer field separating them, and is an obvious metaphor for social and class conflict, which was diminishing during Allende’s time but couldn’t totally be extinguished. Martin-Cabrera and Voionmaa point out the 30 years on, these problems of poverty, and social conflict have increased. It is the wealth polarity that causes class conflict. According to Luis Eduardo Herrera, the “Chilean Miracle” of rising G.D.P. due to Chicago boy’s Policy is actually a myth.
Anderson states that (as cited by Larrain) “Poverty today is not because of the lack of jobs, since the unemployment rate is only 5 to 6 percent. The poor have jobs, but they have very low-paying jobs.” I.e. the rich have gotten richer, while the poor have gotten poorer. The attempt to bridge the classes and reduce social conflict was futile as the Allende Government toppled and the gap hasn’t been narrowed ever since. How much of this gap can be narrowed depends on the economic and political Chile employs in the future.
References:
- Boyle, Danny. 2008. Slumdog Millionaire. United Kingdom: Pathé Pictures International.
- Frank, Anne. (1952). The diary of a young Girl (English Translation). Netherlands: Contact Publishing.
- Herrera, L.E. (2010), Neo-liberalization as a practice: Case Study of Chile. Class Power Point Keynote 18. Slide 34.
- Larrain S. (n.d.). The Case of Chile: Dictatorship and Neoliberalism. Third World Traveller. Retrieved from: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Globalization/Case_Chile_VFTS.html
- Lins, Paulo. (2002). City of God. Brazil/France: O2 Filmes & Globo Filmes
- Martin-Cabrerra L., & Voionmaa, D.N. (2007) Class conflict, State of exception and Radical Justice in Machuca by Andres Wood. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies,pp.63-80.
- Morelli, Paulo. (2007). City of Men. Brazil: Fox Filmes do Brasil & O2 Filmes.
- Social change. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 16, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550924/social-change
- Wood, Andres. 2004. Machuca. Chile: Andres Wood Producciones.
