The "Generational Putsch" and the National youth Office: Purge, disciplining and resocialization of youth identities under Pinochet (1973-1980)

Abstract

This work's research problem proposes the study of the processes of production and reproduction of youth identities in Chile from the installation of the military dictatorship (1973) up to the constitutional self-legitimation of the regime of Augusto Pinochet in 1980. The article argues that this period is not only marked by the withdrawal, persecution and dismantling of the bulk of youth identities and cultures present in the country up until that time but also by the vertical production of disciplined and resocialized youth identities by the first government agency dedicated specifically to the youth in the country's history, the Secretaría Nacional de la Juventud (National Youth Office). Analyzing biographical memory and various written sources, the study reconstructs the expressive milestones of the coverage and the identity impact of this institution on young people, arguing that this (sub)cultural organization would serve as an axial instrument of indoctrination and as an youth identity base.