Class and Root: Cultural Tensions in Contemporary Chilean Popular and Visual Poetry

This paper explores the intersection of popular oral traditions and visual poetics in shaping a fragmentary yet persistent idea of Chilean national thought. Drawing on examples from Nicanor Parra’s "Discurso Huaso", the contrapunto tradition, the visual poetry of Juan Luis Martínez and Cecilia Vicuña, and references to pre-Columbian petroglyphs, this study argues that Chilean poetry functions as a cultural mirror of class tensions and socio-linguistic duality. Employing a hermeneutic and socio-semiotic approach, the paper analyses selected texts and visual artifacts to reveal how popular and elite discourses collide and hybridize. Results indicate that the resilience of oral structures and visual symbols sustains a narrative of identity that defies homogeneous national myths. The discussion situates these findings within Latin American literary and cultural theory, suggesting that the interplay of voice, image, and social strata in Chilean poetry offers critical insights into the broader question of how language embodies power and resistance. The paper concludes by proposing further comparative research linking contemporary urban music, cinema, and indigenous iconography to this enduring poetic discourse.