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During a demonstration in Chile, relatives of disappeared people asked: Where are they? Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mentalnoise/

Chilean women exiled in Vancouver

The of 1973 was marked by .  The so called Dirty War in Latin America lead to the disappearance of…

By Ursula Diaz , in Cultura Vancouver: Latin living , on March 22, 2010 Tags: , , , ,

The of 1973 was marked by .  The so called Dirty War in Latin America lead to the disappearance of thousand of dissidents, many people could escape from their country as political refugees. Chilean women found in Vancouver a good place to start a new life.

wrote . She is a  a lecturer at the University of Washington-Bothell. The book shows how culture, gender and the anger that exiles felt, contributed to create a social movement.

The name of the book was borrowed from , a magazine created in 1989 by a group of exiled Chilean feminists women living in Vancouver. They used to write a poem in every issue of the magazine. One of them dedicated to women that have been politically threatened at various points in story.

They used to call us witches

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The book focuses on the movement organized by exiled women in Vancouver. The author tried to be inclusive of all experiences. It is based on real interviews with Chilean women. She tried to place emotions in a social movement and to express the sorrow of loss of country, family and culture exiles went through.

Shayne shows Chilean exiles as a motor for revolution. Women were trying to create a new social order for their country, to be useful from their exile. Shayne said that the effort of the Chilean women deserves to be in a book.