Kiltro Resistance in Contemporary Chile

Lucia was guided by a nine-month research and activist stay in Santiago de Chile, where she arrived during the waning euphoria of a series of mass protests known as the Estallido Social (Social Explosion). The latter was ignited in 2019 by the image of a student shot dead by militarized police while protesting against fare hikes, and was fueled by a desire to denounce and (symbolically) break with the enduring aspects of the military dictatorship (1973-1990), which was interpreted, particularly by political elites, as a desire for a new constitution (which was rejected in a referendum).  

Lucia's research focuses on the ruins of this uprising, which were revealed behind the framework of a failed constitution and the unfulfilled promises of a leftist president. The focus of her work has been to trace the resistant nodes that are revived, renewed and re-engaged in the struggle in the context of Estallido. These are places that were stolen, physically destroyed by military dictatorships, or institutionally condemned to oblivion by democratic governments, along with the relationships that shaped them. One such space is the anarchist-popular squat 'Los Pies del Cerro,' located on the outskirts of the city, from which she observed the process of its recovery after being expropriated by the civic-military dictatorship. 

In these spaces, she encountered the dead and disappeared under the dictatorship as active participants in political strategies and discourses. It was also here that one could recognize unexpected coalitions, loose alliances, and strong bonds. Of particular interest to her were the popular and organic coalitions of street dogs (kiltros) in Chile, who fought alongside protesters in the streets. This phenomenon is widespread across various urban resistance landscapes in Latin America, with perhaps the most prolific figure being El Negro Matapaco (Black Cop-Killer). Matapaco, like many other canine street protesters, is a kiltro—a street dog without pedigree. However, participation of kiltro dogs in the protest is not without controversy. Some view them as sources of violence, while others celebrate them as rebels, symbols of decolonial resistance, saints, or even reincarnations of fallen protesters.

Drawing on ethnography from an anarchist squat inhabited by more-than-human activists, Lucia, together with Bob Kuřík, seek to view this coalition not only in terms of direct actions, symbols and headlines, but especially from the perspective of the everyday lives of the kiltros.  

Unlike the kiltros from fast and effervescent riots, in which they were protecting protesters from arrest or attacking police officers, the kiltro resistance of squatting dogs and humans coalesces around fostering intimate and kin-like relationships of long-term alliance, horizontality and mutuality. From Lucia and Bob's perspective, this open whole overcomes the traditional form of domination inscribed in the master/dog relationship, and forms a more-than-human variation of an affinity group and recalibrate the focus of their struggle to a more doglike defence of the territory and home. In kiltro resistance, dogs emerge as compañerxs (comrades) rather than mere companions.