ouna Farelus, haitiana, 31 años, dos hijos de 3 y 10 años, vecina y dirigente de uno de los 13 sectores de la toma “Un nuevo amanecer” de L L
ouna Farelus, Haitian, 31 years old, two children aged 3 and 10, neighbor and leader of one of the 13 sectors of "A New Dawn" toma in
Cerrillos, nos invita a sentarnos en la entrada de su casa para conversar. Pide disculpas por la falta de una mesa de centro, pues se la aca- ban de robar. No es una de las desdichas más importantes que ha tenido que enfrentar en su vida. Para nada. Es casi un detalle. Más duro fue cuando a ella y a su marido los estafaron en Haití después de haber vendido gran parte de sus pocos bienes para poder iniciar una nueva vida en México (cosa que jamás pudieron realizar y que, por descarte, los trajo a Chile), cuando hace poco a su marido lo acuchillaron en una pelea en la toma de Cerrillos donde viven o cuando los chilenos de la toma y de otras partes de la ciudad le gritan improperios por su color de piel.
Cerrillos, invites us to sit down at the entrance of her house to chat. She apologizes for not having a coffee table, because it had just been stolen. It is not one of the most important mis- fortunes she has had to face in her life. Not at all. It is almost a detail. It was harder when she and her husband were swindled in Haiti after having sold most of their few possessions in order to start a new life in Mexico (which they were never able to do and which, by chance, brought them to Chile), when her husband was recently stabbed in a fight in the Cerrillos toma where they live or when Chileans in the toma and others in the city shout insults at her because of her skin color. Louna has been in Chile for eight years. Before she arrived at the toma , she lived for six years in the community of Lo Espejo. There she rented a room. "I lived on 5 Sur, the devil's part, where no cab will drop you off. There are a lot of people on drugs," she explains. "We paid the rent with what my husband earned, until one day a friend called us to tell us that a toma was happening in Cerrillos. My husband told me to go and see, but when I arrived there was no more space. The only option was to buy from some Chileans who had arrived earlier. Many times, Chileans sell the same land three or even four times, especially to my compatriots who do not speak Spanish. My brother, who lived with us, bought a plot for about 200,000 pesos. They do not give a receipt when someone buys a plot. To have some proof, while my brother was paying I took a picture of the person who sold it to him. Then I bought a plot of land next door. It is smaller than my brother's and I had to pay one million pesos. Today we are building my house. I have already spent more than two million pesos. It has more than a thousand concrete blocks and each block costs $1100 pesos. It is not unusual for Louna to spend that kind of money on strong materials. It is a cultural issue. "In Haiti we are used to building like this, we do not use wood or light construction. Wood does not make me feel safe. In Lo Espejo we lived in a wooden house and they crashed into our house twice. Just like that, just as you hear it”. Two thousand families live in the "A New Dawn" toma , some eight thousand people, half of whom are under 18 years of age. Louna ex- plains that in this toma , the largest in terms of population in the Metropolitan Region, about 50 percent are Haitians, 20 percent are Peruvians and the other 30 percent are divided between Chileans, Bolivians, Dominicans, Colombians, Venezuelans and Ecuadorians. There are not many Chileans, but they make themselves felt. "There are only a few Chileans at the toma , but they think they have the right to electricity and water and we do not. The day my husband was stabbed, the Chileans who live here went to look for their gang from the
VIVIR EN UNA TOMA Living in a toma Por _ By: Rodrigo Guendelman Periodista y fundador de @SantiagoAdicto. Conduce el programa "Santiago Adicto" en la radio Duna. En 2017 recibió el "Premio de honor" del Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile. / Journalist and the founder of @SantiagoAdicto. He hosts the program "Santiago Addict" on Duna radio. In 2017, he received the "Honor Award" from the Chilean College of Architects.
Louna lleva ocho años en Chile. Antes de que llegara a la toma, vivió seis años en la comuna de Lo Espejo. Allá arrendaba una habitación. “Vivía en la 5 Sur, la parte del diablo, donde ningún taxi te va a dejar. Hay mucha gente drogada”, explica. “Pagábamos el arriendo con lo que ganaba mi marido, hasta que un día nos llamó un amigo para contarnos que se estaba levantando una toma en Cerrillos. Mi marido me dijo que fuera a ver, pero cuando llegué ya no quedaba espacio. La opción era comprarles a unos chilenos que habían llegado antes. Mu- chas veces, los chilenos venden tres, y hasta cuatro veces, el mismo terreno, especialmente a mis compatriotas que no hablan español. Mi hermano, que vivía con nosotros, compró un lugar por unos 200 mil pesos. No entregaban ningún comprobante cuando hacías la com- pra. Para tener alguna evidencia, cuando mi hermano estaba pagando yo le saqué una foto a la persona que le vendió. Luego yo compré un terreno al lado. Es más chico que el de mi hermano y tuve que pagar un millón de pesos. Hoy estamos construyendo mi casa. Ya he gastado más de dos millones de pesos. Tiene más de mil bloques de hormigón y cada bloque vale $1100”.
↤ Louna Farelus, dirigenta de uno de los 13 sectores de la toma "Un nuevo amanecer", junto a su hija de 3 años. Louna Farelus, leader of one of the 13 sectors of the "A New Dawn" housing project, with her 3-year-old daughter.
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