Jeannette Jara’s Cortijo: The Conchalí Neighborhood Where the Chilean Left’s Presidential Candidate Grew Up

The first words heard during Jeannette Jara’s campaign, from the Communist Party, were those of a girl representing her. She shared that she was the daughter of a mechanic and a housewife, who studied at the 402 school in the popular municipality of Conchalí, in northern Santiago: “I don’t come from the elite, but from a Chile that wakes up early to work.” Throughout the campaign that led her to be elected last Sunday with 60% of the votes in the ruling party’s primaries as the left-wing presidential candidate, Jara emphasized her humble origins, admitting it was a plus compared to the other candidates in her sector. On the night of her victory, she revisited her childhood in her political speech and how hard work and opportunities had brought her to that podium. “From Conchalí to La Moneda,” she affirmed. Analysts pointed out that a key factor behind her resounding victory was the fact that her biography mirrored that of millions of Chileans, for whom power often seems unattainable.

When Jeannette Román, 17, and Sergio Jara, 22, had their first daughter in April 1974, they lived in a two-bedroom shanty without sewage. The dwelling was in the backyard of Román’s parents’ house, located in a dirt passage in the El Cortijo neighborhood of Conchalí. Seven months had passed since the coup led by Augusto Pinochet, and the area consisted of social housing built by the Housing Corporation (CORVI) and land takeovers. It was a poor area where, in the plaza that now hosts playgrounds, residents built the panels to construct their homes. For the Román Jara family, Jeannette’s arrival represented a challenge that they shared intensely with the girl’s grandparents.

Sergio Jara had studied at an industrial school, where he later taught in the Recoleta municipality. He was politically inclined to the left, close to the Movement of Popular Action Unit (MAPU), and had built a small library in the shanty. He continued his teaching role at home, teaching his daughter Jeannette to read and write since she was three, according to her mother. Since the teacher’s salary was low, he moved to mechanical industry, where he became a union leader. Román, on her part, was a housewife who sporadically worked as a waitress in restaurants and hotels or managed local shops. She worried about her daughter always being well-dressed, looking “elegant,” so with the money she saved, she sent for long dresses, boots, and coats, types of clothing not commonly seen on girls from the neighborhood. The grandfather, who worked as a porter at the La Vega market, took care of the family’s food.

From a very young age, Jeannette Jara displayed a strong personality, according to those close to her. She wasn’t very social but maintained friendships that she still possesses today. She enjoyed leading games and had a strong character. When she turned four, her twin sisters were born – one passed away after two months – followed by Sergio, and later two more siblings. They managed with bunk beds and bedpans to avoid having to go outside in the middle of the night to her grandparents’ house to use the bathroom. Her mother didn’t like them being outside much; they were limited to specific houses where they could play, and communication with neighbors was constant to know where they were. The passage, made up of about fifteen houses, was a quiet area amidst the neighborhood. During Christmas, they set up a long table and filled it with bags of candy for the thirty kids in the area, and bought drinks for the celebration. In summer, they played with hoses, and in winter they jumped in the puddles that formed. Those careful clothes from her mother often ended up completely muddy.

Jeannette was eight when her father lost his job and went to Brazil for two years. At that time, her mother moved to Iquique for a few months to work in a restaurant to send money home, leaving her eldest daughter in charge of her younger siblings along with their grandparents. When the couple reunited, their fourth child was born, and they moved to a nearby street in a three-bedroom apartment with a patio. They later had to downsize again, moving to a two-bedroom unit in the adjacent block: one room for the couple and another for the four children.

By then, Jeannette was in her early teens, and it was common to see military tanks on the streets at dawn or for police to come at night to detain young people who opposed the dictatorship. In her first year of secondary school, the current candidate transferred from Liceo A-33 to Valentín Letelier, where she met students involved in politics. She attended a meeting for a center-left party, but when her father found out, he insisted that if she wanted to get involved, it had to be with the Communist Youth (JJ CC). So, she did at age 14 in 1988. It was the year of the plebiscite on whether Pinochet should remain in power. To the dismay of the school’s principal, Jeannette went to physical education class wearing a NO shirt [the option on the ballot; the alternative was YES, supporting Pinochet’s continuity]. Along with her best friend from the neighborhood, Angelina Arraño, also a member of the JJ CC, she established the Nueva Esperanza workshop in a community center, where they held classes, games for children, and, by Jeannette’s initiative, a human rights course. It wasn’t unusual to see her carrying books on the philosophy of Marx and Lenin. In fact, the Chilean Communist Party still defines itself as Marxist-Leninist, and its doctrine has not discarded the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

On one occasion, they were instructed to participate in a demonstration wearing half of their face covered by a red scarf, but neither Jeannette nor Angelina had money to buy one. Arraño recalled a large Chilean flag that her grandfather displayed on the front of his house every September, the month of national pride, and they decided to cut two rectangles from the red fabric to make their scarves. The grandfather never knew who ruined his banner.

In the Communist Youth, they were taught to throw pamphlets, quickly graffiti walls, and were educated about current events and concepts they didn’t understand. On the bare walls of El Cortijo, they wrote anti-Pinochet messages with charcoal. Sergio, Jeannette’s brother, was responsible for obtaining it and signaling when the police were approaching so they could run away. They frequently went to paint protest messages with the Ramona Parra Brigade, an organized group of young muralists linked to the left, especially the Communist Party.

Once Jeannette was deeply involved in this world, a friend of her mother’s suggested she take her to the restaurant where she worked because the Special Police Operations Group (GOPE) was “taking away all the kids painting.” Román, frightened by the violence she witnessed in the neighborhood, warned her daughter to stay away from what she was involved in. She trusted her daughter’s judgment but feared she might be detained. Jeannette, who was skilled from a young age at getting her way, continued her political involvement.