Chilean rape protest song that has spread across the world makes its way to Miami
As she swung her hips from side to side and shot her left hand into the air, pointing her index finger straight in front of her, Marcela Rave stopped feeling guilty for the first time in about 20 years.
Dressed in black from head to toe, the 30-year-old chanted the line, “The rapist is you,” and, shedding tears, said she pictured the face of the older man who moved into her parents’ house in Colombia when she was 10 and, taking advantage of her family’s goodwill, sexually assaulted her multiple times.
“He destroyed my life, and my whole life, I thought I had done something wrong. I thought I was to blame for what he did,” Rave said. “But I’m not. And it’s relieving to say that out loud.”
Rave found an outlet for her childhood pain Sunday afternoon at the Torch of Friendship in downtown Miami, alongside more than 50 other women who all stood in line and performed the choreography to “Un violador en tu camino,” or “A Rapist In Your Path.”
The song, which was created by a Chilean feminist group called “Lastesis” and rallies against rape culture and the victim-shaming women subsequently face from society, has recently become a global phenomenon.
The South Florida gathering was merely one of dozens of others held across Latin America and the world — from Australia to Turkey to Honduras — in the past few weeks.
A group of thousands of women first interpreted the war cry Nov. 20 in the city of Valparaíso, north of the Chilean capital of Santiago, after a month of protests in that country. It has since been translated into English and French, and videos of different performances have been shared by millions of social media users online.
In Miami, often referred to as the northernmost Latin American city, the women danced to their anthem, holding flags from their homelands, including Colombia, Bolivia and Puerto Rico.
Ysa Osses, a Chilean from Santiago who has lived in Miami for 10 years, said she realized nobody had planned a local event in Miami so she decided to step up and do it herself. Her mom helped.
The 27-year-old is a sixth- and eighth-grade teacher, and her professional experience helped her coach the women Sunday for two hours while they learned the choreography.
“I thought a lot of people weren’t going to agree with it especially in Miami because this can be a controversial topic, but seeing everyone here, it’s a mind-blowing feeling, it’s an awesome feeling,” she said.
The chant lyrics clearly hold parties accountable for the widespread violence against women. It reads: “It is the cops, the judges, the state, the president.”
In Miami, the women added a U.S. angle. When they called out “the president,” they added “Trump,” and when they accused “the judges,” the women specifically mentioned “Kavanaugh.”
Daniela Ferreira, a Brazilian who works in the fashion industry, said she has a passion for activism for gender equality and came out Sunday to meet other Latin American women with similar interests.
“This is a start,” the 28-year-old said. “The only way we are going to fight everything that’s happening is educating anyone who is not aware of what’s happening.”
The group is planning to come together officially as a feminist organization in Miami called “South Florida Femmes.”
They will meet next at a feminist assembly from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 19 at the YMCA in Allapattah, at 2370 NW 17th Ave.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 9:16 AM.
