| Description: | Here we see many commuters waiting at bus stop across the road from a factory, both workers and school children forming a long line. The two buses are going to Puente Alto and San José de Maipo, two working class neighbourhoods in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. They are already full and don’t stop when hailed. Beside the bus stop, a street hawker selling candy tries to attract customers from the queue. The anonymous arpillerista gave this work its title, affirming her denunciation of the struggles working class people faced in her community. These difficulties impacted most the poor people who lived further from schools, jobs and opportunities.
This arpillera is estimated to have been made between 1976 and 1978, just on the cusp of deregulation of buses by the Pinochet regime. Before deregulation scenes like this were common around Chile’s capital, as there were too few buses to match the demand, and many bus routes were underused. This meant long wait times for passengers relying on public transport.
When deregulation began soon after in 1979, buses began to come much more often as the number of new bus companies and bus routes exploded. However, this did not improve the situation. As the government stopped regulating bus fares to keep them affordable, prices rose, and commuters were forced to walk as they could no longer afford to take the bus. Therefore, demand went down and buses ran at half capacity, and fares became even more expensive. Although the situation this arpillera shows changed not long after its production, problems with public transport persisted. (HM0425) |
