Storm in the desert: neoliberalism and socionatural disaster in two testimonies of the 25M in Atacama

Abstract

This article analyses two testimonios of the 25 March 2015 (25M) Atacama floods: Hilda Olivares´s Renacer entre el lodo (2015) and Brisa Mánquez’s LA DEFENSA, mi defensa (2016). The 25M Atacama floods were an extraordinarily unusual hydrometeorological events resulting in catastrophic damages in the area. Olivares’s testimony tells the tragic history of Chañaral, destroyed by the flood of the Salado River. On the other hand, Mánquez’s testimony narrates the tortuous reconstruction of Paipote, a settlement located 8 kilometers from the city of Copiapó. Ultimately, the study of both testimonies confirms their critical potential to reveal how some neoliberal structural conditions are at the base of the precarity of the most vulnerable sectors of the region, intensified and exposed by the 25M Atacama floods.