Chileanz

What makes any Chilean a Chilean, is the lack of interest in anything that is meaningful in Chile, by this i mean that, anything related to the territory and history of the country/nation, is widely underrated at the point where, the knowledge traditional manners is considered a symbol of poorness and/or ignorance. As you said, the context is absolutely relevant, in Chile, the tradition is to hate ourselves, hate our "impure roots", trying to approach an enlightened state, always focusing on the bigger cities, ignoring every little town, giving the illusion of progress by tall buildings and dirty streets.

But not everything is terrible, in the country the traditions of shyness and bitterness are opaqued by other ones that involve the knowledge of the resources, the pride for the land under the feet. And by this i am not necessarily meaning ancient roots of traditions, but the feeling that every person should have for their surroundings, those that are almost vanished here in the bigger cities. If we can not see what is the land under our feet, then we can't know our past, neither our future, leaving us stuck in a present without identity.

We, stranded in the city, have to search everywhere to find anything meaningful to us, so we try, every year to emulate what could it be to have actual traditions, playing with colors, fabrics and foods, like puppeteers trying to give life to a dirty sock.

What we are, is where we live. Today, we live nowhere.