1) Documentary film-making
I participated in 2008 as a research assistant on a documentary film about children's experiences in a school with a majority of immigrant students. The goal of the film was to increase awareness of the vulnerability of this population in order to improve the lives of immigrant children affected by inequality and discrimination. It focused on the effort that went into this multicultural educational project and its positive results in establishing mutual understanding among children. The documentary, titled Y verás como quieren en Chile [You will see how they love in Chile], has been exhibited in multiple educational spaces and aired on Chilean television.
In 2012, together with the Colectiva Tiesos pero Cumbiancheros, I was hired to conduct research for an 11-episode documentary series that aired on Chilean television, following cumbia music from its African influences throughout Latin America.
In 2020, I produced with two colleagues a documentary film called Una Escuela Llamada América [A school called America], as one of the outlets of a research project funded by the Chilean Cultures, Arts, and Patrimony Ministry. This film centered the experiences of immigrant children in a school in Arica, a Chilean city near the northern border with Peru. The film has won several awards, including the Best Local Film Award at the Native Movies Festival in Arica in 2021. It has also served as a training tool for educators, social workers, and public officials who interact with immigrant communities. It has been broadcasted on public television and used in classrooms from elementary schools to universities in Chile and across the United States.
Reflecting on this experience of producing a documentary film, we published a photo-essay in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology. The essay reflects on the potential of film-making as an ethnographic tool of sociological inquiry that can make research accessible to the public. It shows how creating a film can empower marginalized communities by including them in the co-production of knowledge and at the same time can impact broader audiences and serve public debates.
Today, I find myself working with the Colectiva Tiesos pero Cumbiancheros on a documentary film focused on Santiago's musical scene during the 1950s and 60s. The documentary is based on archival research and the testimonies from older musicians who were part of that scene. We are currently applying for funds to bring this documentary to the big screen.
2) Immigrant advocacy
In 2011, I designed and developed a series of labor-training and technology workshops for female immigrants, with the support of the Jesuit Service to Migrants, Intel Learning Program, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women. I also organized and participated in a number of seminars and forums focused on immigrants' rights, including topics such as immigrant labor and educational integration, racialization and racism, interculturality, and anti-racist journalism.
I am one of the founders of Chile-Migra, a platform that brings together organizations of immigrants in Chile and of Chileans living abroad. Chile-Migra was created in the context of the 2019 Chilean social uprising and the 2021-2022 Chilean constitutional process, to advocate for immigrant voices to be heard by Constituent Convention members and secure the inclusion of immigrant rights in their Constitutional proposal. In this role, I led multiple discussion forums to define and prioritize an agenda, wrote newspaper articles, supported immigrant candidates for election to the Constitutional Convention, and met with Convention members to advocate for immigrant rights. Chile-Migra constructed and proposed a constitutional norm to assembly members, and several of our claims were included in the constitutional proposal presented by the Convention to the country. However, the Chilean people rejected the proposal in a national plebiscite held in September 2022.
I am also a member of the Academic Migratory Forum, one of the Thematic Civil Society committees that function with the support of the Chilean Senate. The Forum's main goals are to construct and share expert knowledge on immigration in Chile and to impact the country's legislative agenda regarding immigration.
I am a member of the Chilean Foreign Policy Council, an advisory body responsible for advising the Minister of Foreign Affairs on matters related to international relations. From this position, I have promoted the development of a state policy on migration that fosters regional coordination, with a human rights perspective, for migration management in South America.
3) Afrodescendant and Indigenous Peoples' advocacy
While living in Berkeley, I joined an interdisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students from the University of California in Berkeley and Davis to create the Wallmapu Support Committee. The Committee's goal was to create global awareness about the human rights violations happening against the Mapuche people living in the south of Argentina and Chile. The group soon expanded to include people outside the University living in the Bay Area and committed to the defense of Indigenous rights. In 2017 and 2018, the Wallmapu Support Committee gained support from UC Berkeley's Center for Latin American Studies through its Working Group Awards. Thanks to this funding, the group was able to bring scholars and Indigenous leaders to talk about Indigenous rights at UC Berkeley, mounted art and photography exhibitions at the Anthropology and Doe Libraries, organized documentary screenings at the Anthropology and Sociology departments, and produced events to inform the public about the situation in Wallmapu at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and at Omni Commons in Oakland. In this way, we were able to create bridges between scholarly knowledge and activist advocacy around Indigenous rights.
I was also an organizer of the graduate student organization, Sociologists of Color and Allies Association (SoCA). In that role, I led events to support students of color and advocated for increasing the diversity of student admissions and faculty hires. I also participated in the Anti-Racism Working Group (ARWG), created by Sociology students to combat anti-Black racism in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. ARWG successfully advocated for prioritizing candidates committed to DEI for several faculty hires, and won a Graduate Diversity Pilot Grant, securing $175,000 to improve DEI in the Sociology Department.
I am a member of the Red Chilena de Estudios Afrodescendientes (ReChEA) [Chilean Network of Afrodescendant Studies], a network created for scholars and Afrodescendant activists to construct and share knowledge about the presence and contributions of Afrodescendants in Chile and the diaspora. ReChEA has played a relevant public role in challenging national myths around the lack of Afrodescendant population in the country, and in advocating for the legal and constitutional recognition of the Afro-Chilean Tribal People. It regularly conducts public forums on various topics related to the Afrodescendant diaspora in Chile and the Americas.
I am also a member of the Global Coalition Against Systemic Racism and for Reparations, an international platform launched in 2021 to promote collaboration between governments, international organizations, and the public and private sectors -including universities- to combat racism and address its historical and ongoing consequences. The coalition aims to end systemic racism through a multi-faceted approach, utilizing art, culture, science, and knowledge to foster an anti-racist culture.
4) Community-oriented presentations:
October 28, 2018. Host of the fundraiser event "Justice and resistance in Mapuche Territory", organized at Omni Commons, Oakland, California, incuding poetry, and music presentatiosn and Mapuche jewerly and art exhibition.
November 16, 2017. Host of the fundraiser event "Peace and Justice in Wallmapu," organized at La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley, California, including book presentation of "Sueños de justicia", by Dr. Ruth Vargas, and the photography exhibit "Life and Resistance in Mapuche Territory," by Camilo Tapia
5) Media appearances:
September 8, 2021. Radio Cappíssima Multimedial - Soy Afrodescendiente (Chile): "Pueblo tribal Afrodescendiente chileno: danza, música y la participación en la Convención Constitucional." Interview with Antonia Mardones, by Marta Salgado.
April 22, 2021. Radio Cappissima Multimedial - Ojo de Halcón (Chile). Presentación del documental "Una escuela Llamada América." Interview with documentary directors, including Antonia Mardones, by Jose Toribio.
November, 2017. KPOO 89.5 - Pájaro Latinoamericano (USA). On situation of human rights violation towards Mapuche people in Chile. Interview with Wallmapu Support Committee members, including Antonia Mardones and Elisa Durán, by Chelis López.
April 12, 2016. Radio Universidad de Chile - Estación Aeropuerto (Chile). Presentation of book "Hagan un Trencito." Interview with members of the Colectiva Tiesos pero Cumbiancheros, including Antonia Mardones, by Pablo Dintrans.
September 21, 2011. Radio Universidad de Chile - Estación Aeropuerto (Chile). Presentation of cumbia research webpage. Interview with members of the Colectiva Tiesos pero Cumbiancheros, including Antonia Mardones, by Pablo Dintrans.
6) International and policy advocacy
December 21, 2021. Chile. Introduction of proposal of Constitutional norm representing Chile-Migra, seeking to persuade Constitutional Convention members to include immigrant rights in the constitutional draft.
September 21, 2021. United States. Talk at the International Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), on the ongoing Constitutional process in Chile and the upcoming Chilean presidential election.
June 15, 2021. Chile. Introduction of Bill in Congress representing organizations of Chileans living abroad, presented with the support of Congressional representatives Diego Ibañez and Gabriel Boric, to create an international electoral district to allow Chileans to vote from abroad in parliamentary elections.
November 6, 2020. Chile. Delivery of letter to President and to the Foreign Affairs Ministry in representation of 89 organizations of Chileans living abroad, to seek for governement support for a Bill presented to create an international electoral district to allow Chileans to vote from abroad for representatives for the Constitutional Convention election.
September 28, 2020. Chile. Introduction of Constitutional Reform Bill in Congress representing organizations of Chileans living abroad, and with the support of Congressional representatives Gabriel Boric and Pablo Vidal, to create an international electoral district to allow Chileans to vote from abroad for representatives for the Constitutional Convention election.
