Coruña: Revisiting Playwriting of Tarapacá from a Worker's Tragedy

Abstract

This text recounts my experience as author and playwright of Coruña, la ira de los vientos (2007) [Coruña, the wrath of the winds]. This play is based upon the events of June 5th, 1925, which culminated in a massacre of workers in the nitrate office of La Coruña, located in the Region of Tarapacá, Chile. Through an analysis of the writing strategies and an examination of the origins of the Chilean Workers’ Theatre movement, we intend to show how the play is linked to our country’s early twentieth-century working-class theatre. In addition, my intention is to illustrate how the examination of our country’s tragic events may contribute to the development of a national political theatre as they are linked to the memories and identities of Tarapacá and Chile.