Holding Space with Magical Wheelism Interview Transcript: Barbara of Chile’s Cabras Rollerskate and Metropolitan Roller Derby

(Condensed and edited for clarity.)

BARBARA: Things have been complicated here in Chile. Over the past few days, everything exploded with the proposed transit fare hikes. Public transportation is costly and people earn low wages. It was the last straw because here in Chile we have to deal with a lot of social injustices.

People were fed up and on Friday they began to protest the fare hike. But it was really due to several mounting issues. [For example,] the elderly receive 160,000 Chilean pesos [[approx $219 USD]] per month but they can’t survive on that. In fact, the suicide rate among seniors is super high. The elderly end their lives because they don’t have the means to feed and support themselves.

Education is expensive. In Chile, people are condemned to be poor; meanwhile, there are others that live really well — and that’s why people are fed up. There are people outside right now because of the curfew that’s been enacted. Which means that after a certain hour we can’t go out. But people keep protesting, keep going out because, in reality, we’re all just tired. And that’s the beauty of this movement, it’s the people against the government. It’s not the political parties. It’s the people — across all ages and social classes. We’re all fed up.

MAGICAL WHEELISM: For those of us outside of Chile, could you help us understand the local economic issues in a more global context?
B: A Chilean monthly salary is more or less 220,000 Chileans pesos, which is about $314 dollars. Transportation costs $1 per ride. So you’re spending at least $2 a day just to get to work, which adds up by the end of the month — and that’s only to get to work. People don’t go out because they can’t afford to spend that money. You could buy a kilo of rice or bread with a dollar. You could pay for your child’s school tuition. I’m studying Biology at a state university and my tuition is $428 a month. Imagine what that’s like for someone who earns what I mentioned before. So people live in debt, work two jobs, and there are a lot of single mothers. Because in addition to everything, Chile is a male chauvinist country. We live through a lot of injustices here and throughout Latin America. The state has spent years selling off our natural resources — mountains, rivers, minerals — to foreign corporations in Europe, China, and North America.

MW: I think it was this past weekend that the international news and social media started paying attention to what’s been happening in Chile. Could you give us a sense of when things when conditions began to worsen?
B: In Chile, there was a coup d’etat in 1973. In my opinion, since then, Chileans have been kind of in a traumatized state and have lived in fear, because imagine, our parents lived through a dictatorship. Many people were murdered. Many people disappeared. There are still bodies unrecovered. This generated a social trauma.

There have been revolutions since then. In 2011, there was the Penguin Revolution. Lots of revolutions are started by university students and then adults join in. But things have been quiet [since 2011]. Prices have risen and people accepted it begrudgingly. But there’s been a discontent that’s been growing, kind of like when you don’t realize a pot of water on the stove is boiling until you see bubbles. That’s what happened here in Chile. The people exploded. They couldn’t take it anymore.

MW: How can we help?
B: One way to help is by spreading what’s really going on here in Chile because TV is lying inside and outside of the country. I heard that the media in places like Mexico and elsewhere are reporting that people are dying at the hands of other citizens and that’s not true. People are dying because of state violence. The police and military are killing people. My friend got a pellet shot to the face. There are people who bled out and died from being shot. And that’s happening in plain daylight here in Chile. Families bring children to the protests and police shoot tear gas at them. And I insist that this happens all over Latin America because all of these injustices are lived throughout Latin America and all over the world. Since the Spaniards arrived in Latin America, things have plummeted. That’s when poverty arrived. That’s when injustice arrived.

MW: How and why did you all decide to unify this message of social justice with skating?
B: All the Cabras are very socially conscious.

MW: How many of you are there?
B: On Instagram etc., there are around 3 or 4 of us. But we like to say that we’re all Cabras. Any girl who wants to come and skate with us is a Cabra. For instance, we have a Whatsapp group and we add everyone who wants to come out and skate. We’re a pretty big community.

So I think that we, as the people that we are, at this moment, in this period, in this place, we’re all super socially conscious. Naturally, we consider skating to be an art, a means of expression, and like everything in life, it should be done with awareness — to try to create a better world and help people. Those are some of the reasons why we began our skate classes. Skating for us is the best and has helped in a number of ways. It’s improved our self-esteem, helped release endorphins, to feel like you learn new things, challenge yourself, to learn how to fall — a bunch of things. We decided to start the classes so that others, above all women, experience that as well because it changed our lives. We try to act consciously in everything we do. As such, with what’s going on in our country, you’d have to be blind or fascist not to notice what’s happening in the streets.

MW: How long have you been holding classes?
B: About two or three months.

MW: What type of skating do you teach?
B: Mostly basics. We get skaters at various skill levels. And we — we’re two instructors — have to split up the group because we try to teach them according to their levels. Some skaters arrive and don’t know how to skate at all and then there are others who already can skate. So we give them different exercises to complete in different parts of the skate park so that they can practice, and then we go around and correct them. We teach everything from starting at zero to dropping into the ramp, bombing, jumping — everything.

MW: What ages are your skaters?
B: Girls as young as six all the way to women ages 35, 40 have come. All the ages.

MW: Tell me about derby. How’s derby in Chile these days?
B: In Chile, derby’s been growing a lot. We now have a national tournament in which six or seven women’s teams compete. There are also men’s teams. At Metropolitan, we’re trying to play games so that we can get in the rankings. But it’s really tough here in South America because we don’t have as ample a pool of competitors as in North America. And unfortunately, both continental cups for the Americas were held in the United States [this year]. Seeing as South America is poor, it’s a little difficult for us to travel. I think that happens to a lot of South American teams. It’s like, we’re already poor because we live in South America, and then on top of that to try and travel? It’s very costly. There are some very good South American teams. For instance, the Bone Breakers from Colombia are so good. But they’re also unable to break into the rankings because Colombia doesn’t have a lot of money either, which then makes US travel very expensive. It’d be great if the next continental cup could be held somewhere closer.

We’re also trying to save up for travel, but it’ll take some time because it’s a lot of money. We also don’t have any financial backing. But we’re getting there. What we try to do is travel to Argentina periodically because 2x4’s there. They’re well-positioned and in general, there’s very good derby in Argentina. We say that it’s like our little gringolandia because there we get to play against skaters who play like the gringas.

MW: Ha! That’s good. What kind of support would you like to see from us to help grow your derby?
B: More than anything to become interested in the Latin American leagues. Buy a team’s t-shirt or merch, which helps us as a league. Though more than anything, I’d say it just helps us psychologically; knowing that people are interested in our things, which are underrepresented but actually happening. Because there’s derby in Latin America — there’s very good derby, but it isn’t covered.

MW: Because of there being lower resources and the barriers to accessing it?
B: I don’t know. I feel that Latin America isn’t a lead character in the history of humanity because of what’s happened to us historically. We’ve always just been Third World countries, along with Africa, and other countries suffering a lot of injustices. It’s like life is good for some and not good for others.

In my own case, I was born very privileged in that I have a family. I wasn’t born poor, for example, and I have access to education. My family can afford to give me an education. But I have can’t ignore people here that are impoverished and don’t have our circumstances. It’s enraging to see that there are people here in Chile who have giant homes and that others don’t have homes. And to realize that we’re not all the same. That can’t continue. Because when we die, we only have the clothes on backs and nothing else. There’s a lot of greed in the world and that has to stop.

MW: Well said. I have nothing to add.
B: It’s been spoken
MW: Yeah!
B: Here in Chile we say, “With everything, if not, then why bother?”
MW: And here we say “And that’s that on that.”

MW: Why do you skate?
B: I began skating at six-years-old. I was very shy and so my parents enrolled me in hockey because it was a contact sport and they wanted me to get out of my shell. I played for about 10 years. Then I stopped skating and learned about roller derby. I’ve always loved skating. I love that feeling of the speeding circular cement against the wheels and that you just have to pump a little and then flow with the movement and propulsion of your body. I love that. And that my entire body feels connected when I skate. I love that my body and mind are one when I skate. Because when I connect with my body, I feel as if I’m connecting with my self. I don’t think about the things that I have to do. I don’t have a worry. I’m fully present. That’s what I love about skating: it connects me with the here and now. I’d love to carry that in my life always and live worry-free.

And I decided to start street skating after seeing Estrojen’s classic first video. It was the one where she was in yellow shorts, rolling down the street. I saw it and I was amazed. I was like, “Noooo, I have to do this” and I haven’t stopped ever since.

MW: Who is your MVP (i.e., your skating or non-skating most valued person, place, people, organization, business, etc)?
B: My MVPs are all of my friends who skate. You say “MVP” and so many women come to mind that I’ve met thanks to skating and they’re awesome people. Women who are very motivated in skating, creating community, and sharing. I could name several, in Chile: Javi, Puli, Fran [and] Luna; in Argentina: Cecy [and] Caro; in Colombia: Caro [and] Monsoon. I know other fellow Latin American skaters who also very motivated and they’re all my MVPs.