Spatial Solidarities : Architecture and Resistance in 1970s Chile

Between 1973 and 1990, the authoritarian military dictatorship of Chile maintained its control through a network of detention and torture centers designed to create fear and isolation. These cultural responses, Ana María León argues, are forms of spatial solidarity—acts of connection, care, and imagination.

Between 1973 and 1990, the authoritarian military dictatorship of Chile maintained its control through a network of detention and torture centers designed to create fear and isolation. Spatial Solidarities illuminates how architects, artists, activists, and other political agents resisted the Chilean regime through spatial practices. Within these spaces, prisoners responded creatively: producing drawings, performances, and architectural projects; rearranging their bodies and living areas; and connecting through songs, shadows, and mutual care. They collected resources, created systems of mutual aid, and smuggled out site plans and names to expose the regime’s crimes. Some imagined their detention centers as free towns, reversing the logic of imprisonment through theatrical acts. These cultural responses, Ana María León argues, are forms of spatial solidarity—acts of connection, care, and imagination. By focusing on spatial history, León reclaims the experiences of the disappeared through the spaces they shaped, conveying how architecture can be a tool for resistance, justice, and collective survival.