Hungry for Revolution: Reconsidering Chile’s Democratic Road to Socialism at 50

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the NYU Department of History hosts a presentation titled, Hungry for Revolution: Reconsidering Chile’s Democratic Road to Socialism at 50 by Joshua Frens-String (the University of Texas at Austin), as a part of the New Work in Latin American History Lecture Series.

This event is free and open to the public.

Description:

2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Chile’s Popular Unity revolution (1970-1973), the first attempt anywhere in the hemisphere—and arguably the world—to build socialism at the ballot box and on a national level. This year (2020) is also likely to feature the continuation of mass protests in Chile—what some have the estallido social (social explosion)—after fare increases on the Santiago metro system in late 2019 set off some of the largest public demonstrations against inequality in modern Chilean history. This talk will reconsider the legacies of Chile’s socialist experiment, led by President Salvador Allende, in the context of this most recent wave of social mobilizations. How did issues of everyday social and economic inequality pave the road to democratic socialism in late 1960s and early 1970s Chile? How did such concerns get addressed as the UP sought attempt to build a new social and economic model under Allende? What were the political and economic limitations of that new model? In closing, the talk will consider what the unfinished project of the UP might offer to Chileans who are trying to build a more equitable and inclusive post-neoliberal future in contemporary Chile.

Bio:

Joshua Frens-String is an assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches classes on modern Latin America, US-Latin American relations, and revolution in 20th century Latin America, among other topics. As a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Institute of Latin American Studies this year, he is currently completing a book manuscript entitled “Hungry for Revolution: The Politics of Food and the Making of Modern Chile” (under advance contract with the University of California Press), which considers the role that food played in the rise and fall of Chile’s Popular Unity revolution. From 2015-2017, Frens-String served as managing editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas (based at CLACS-NYU). He received his Ph.D. in Latin American History at NYU in 2015.