10/30/2022 0 Comments Reggae Drum Kits![]() ![]() Remembering that another protester who sustained an eye injury took his own life last year, Gatica says: "It's really important to have a circle of support."Īndrés López, a filmmaker and one of the band's vocalists, feels the same way. To take out his own frustrations, Gatica took up drumming and then joined Hacía la Victoria. He joined in, but during one of the marches, Gatica was hit in the face with shotgun pellets, leaving him totally blind. He was studying psychology at a Santiago university when the protests broke out. ![]() ![]() The band's rhythmic and emotional foundation is 23-year-old Gustavo Gatica. Several were musicians and once the quarantines ended, they started jamming together. The idea for the band was hatched during Zoom meetings between eye-injury victims during the COVID-19 pandemic. The members of Hacía la Victoria have found a path to recovery through music. Protesting for a better Chile "turned into a really big sacrifice," he says. Leppez says he has been jeered at in the supermarket and on the streets of Santiago and has been treated for depression. Some wear black eye patches or, as in the case of Sen. Survivors of eye injuries are easily identifiable because it's hard to hide their injuries. One of the victims, Fabiola Campillai - who lost sight permanently in both eyes after being hit in the face with a tear gas canister - was elected to the Chilean Senate last year.īut instead of denouncing the police brutality, some Chileans labeled the injured protesters "troublemakers" who got what they deserved, says Diego Leppez, who was hit in the face with a tear gas canister that fractured his nose and left his right eye blind. Meanwhile, the victims of eye injuries became high-profile symbols of the protest movement, which was triggered by an increase in subway fares but expanded to include calls for more affordable housing, health care and education and better access to decent jobs and pensions. "It was kind of shocking to me," Muñoz tells NPR. And instead of firing from a safer distance and pointing toward the lower extremities of protesters, he says, agents often fired their shotguns straight at them from short range. Their shotgun shells usually contained metal rather than less damaging rubber pellets. While playing the song, he says, "It feels like going back to that moment, when all of Santiago was on fire, when there were barricades in the streets, when masked protesters fought the police, and when I was in the hospital with my eye patched."ĭuring five months of demonstrations, about 30 people were killed while more than 450 protesters were left partially blind when they were hit in the face with shotgun pellets or tear gas canisters fired by the police to control the crowds, according to Chile's National Human Rights Institute.Ĭésar Muñoz, a senior researcher in South America for Human Rights Watch, says the police lacked training in crowd control. ![]() In one song, " Así fue," or "That's what happened," guitarist Sergio Concha recalls the day the demonstrations broke out, when he was hit in the left eye with a shotgun pellet while taking part in the protests. The band's lyrics focus on police brutality as well as the musicians' pain, confusion and frustration over what happened to them. SANTIAGO, Chile - At a recording studio in downtown Santiago, musicians are noodling on guitars and adjusting the drum kit as they set up for a jam session that's part rehearsal, part therapy.Īll 10 members of the band, called Hacía la Victoria, Spanish for "Onward to Victory," sustained serious eye injuries during clashes with police who used tear gas and shotguns against anti-government protesters in 2019. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |