6M. Gladys Marín, the mark of an essential

She dedicated her life to the defense of workers, human rights, women and the democratization of the country. In exile she worked tirelessly to denounce the brutality of the civil-military dictatorship and to form a broad anti-fascist front. She returned clandestinely to Chile in 1978, participating in the organization of resistance and combating the dictatorship through the Policy of Popular Mass Rebellion.She was the first woman general secretary and president of the Communist Party of Chile and, along with this, she was also the first woman to be a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic of our country. Likewise, she filed the first criminal complaint against the dictator Augusto Pinochet. After a tough battle against cancer, Gladys Marín passed away on March 6, 2005, receiving one of the greatest tributes in the history of Chile.

Ursula Fuentes Rivera. Journalist. “The century”. 5/3/2024. At 1:00 in the morning on Sunday, March 6, 2005, a few hours after entering a coma, Gladys Marín Millie died in her home in Lo Cañas (commune of La Florida), after being free for almost a year. and a half a tough battle to overcome the cancer that affected her.

His remains were transferred between an impressive human chain that extended from his home to the Hall of Honor of the National Congress in Santiago. A massive wake took place there. Hundreds of thousands of people stood in long lines to pay tribute to him, representing workers, women, residents, professionals, young people, artists and intellectuals from all over the country. Foreign delegations brought the greetings, condolences and solidarity of the brother peoples of Latin America and the world. The Government of Ricardo Lagos decreed two days of national mourning.

A newspaper called her “The red one of all” and for many this final tribute was like going back in history, entering a time tunnel, of amaranth red shirts, chants and slogans. Gladys’s face multiplied on hundreds of badges, flags, posters and headbands.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2005, nearly a million people who felt her to be theirs, both simple people and personalities, accompanied her on her last march, thereby recognizing the fight that Gladys gave for almost half a century for her ideals and principles of freedom. , democracy and social justice.

Among the crowd, popular singers performed songs for Gladys, which the long column that paraded from the center of Santiago to the General Cemetery in Recoleta hummed along with the slogan “A thousand times we will conquer.” From public offices, workers took out their handkerchiefs to say goodbye to Gladys and shredded papers slowly fell from the buildings.

From Curepto to the Great Capital

Gladys del Carmen Marín Millie was born on July 16, 1941 in Curepto, an agrarian town in the Maule Region, near Curicó. She is the daughter of Adriana, a primary school teacher, and Heraclio, a farmer and administrator of a social club. When she was not yet 2 years old, her parents began to have coexistence problems that finally led to their separation. Doña Adriana had to take care of her four daughters and in 1945 she moved with them to the town of Sarmiento and then to Talagante. In order to continue her work as a teacher, she integrated Ofelia Hernández Concha into her family, who helped her raise the girls; She would later raise Gladys’ two children. She called her “my nana.”

The fact that Gladys was born in a home controlled by her mother and populated by other women was not minor, so the issue of women was present in her concerns. In this regard, she pointed out that “being a woman in all spaces and not dying trying is worth it (…) that is why when we manage to combine class consciousness with gender consciousness, our conditions are powerful. My position has nothing to do with those women who argue their gender situation to occupy positions due to positive discrimination. I assume the issue of gender, of discrimination against women, as an essential ideological component that in these new times must enrich Marxist, socialist and revolutionary conceptions.”[1].

At the age of 11, Gladys Marín went with her sisters to Santiago, to live in a boarding house in Recoleta, to study at the Liceo No. 5 for Girls. She later received a scholarship from the “League of Poor Students” to study at Normal School No. 2. There she met her great friend Marta Fritz, an accomplice in adventures, with whom she went out to explore the neighborhood.

From a very young age, Gladys took a stand for the poorest and expressed her innate concern for the social problems they face. She actively participated in Christian youth movements – becoming president of Catholic Action – and in literacy campaigns in population sectors of Greater Santiago.

The red rose of Chile

At the Normal School Gladys begins to attend meetings of the Federation of Normalist Students. There she met Rosendo Rojas, leader of the Communist Youth (JJCC). One day she was offered to join the “Jota”, which she, at 16 years of age, accepted without hesitation. In 1957 she was elected president of the Federation of Normalist Students and she received her basic teaching degree with a mention in Differential Education. She worked as a teacher at School No. 130 for children with mental disabilities, which operated inside the Psychiatric Hospital, on Santos Dumont Avenue.

Later she was a leader of the Chilean Teachers’ Union, a member of the Women’s Commission of the Capital Regional Committee of the Communist Youth and represented the Single Central of Workers (CUT) in a women’s meeting in Buenos Aires.

“As in the case of many Chilean families, my mother was Catholic at heart, although the faith was not taught at home. I think I was Catholic because I was from a small town. What did you do in Talagante?: you went to mass on Sundays and walked around the square to look at the goats, to chat. It was the custom, this is how religious faith has been for a long time in this country, it is part of life (…). When I studied in Santiago, at the Normal School, I went to Cienfuegos Street where the Catholic Youth was. I was going more for a social sense, since the mystical thing did not take me (…) This changed naturally, when they told me about communism and that I could create a different society (…). The young people from the Valentín Letelier high school, which was in front of the Normal School, carried some flyers that talked about a strike and I was interested. And I began to discover working-class people with a conscience. The one who sold me the newspaper on the corner, the lame Díaz, was a great communist. I was dazzled by the enlightened workers who taught me. They were the democratic times of this country, of social sensitivity: the poets, the writers, the intellectuals, all were motivated by strikes, by solidarity. There I was motivated to begin to have knowledge of history (…) I had many concerns that were channeled very well by the ideology of the Communist Party. That’s why my identification with him is very strong. “More than a party, we are a movement of ideas of humanity, that is what we are”[2].

In 1960 she was elected member of the Central Committee of the JJCC. Her activity with the residents of the most dispossessed sectors of Santiago is intense, participating in land occupations that gave rise to towns such as La Victoria, Pablo Neruda and Herminda de la Victoria, among others.

In the midst of these struggles he meets the civil engineer and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Onofre Jorge Muñoz Poutays. “We met walking through the La Victoria town when the capture had just taken place (…) he was an engineering student, I was from the Normal School and I fell in love with Jorge because he was a man with a huge heart and great naivety in life” Gladys would point out.[3].

From that union their two sons were born, Rodrigo and Álvaro. After the coup plot of 1973, Jorge Muñoz was detained by the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) in 1976, his whereabouts being unknown to this day and adding to the list of missing detainees in our country.

Gladys Marín was a member of the Youth Command Directorate of Salvador Allende’s presidential campaign in 1964, which gave rise to the youth muralist movement, the creation of the historic New Chilean Song movement and the volunteer work campaigns throughout Chili,

In 1965, the VI National Conference of Communist Youth took place. The general secretary of the “Jota”, Mario Zamorano, was promoted to the Party and Gladys Marín became the highest authority of the Communist Youth. As general secretary of the Communist Youth, Gladys played a prominent role in the organization of the two great marches from Valparaíso to Santiago in solidarity with Vietnam, in 1967 and 1969, and contributed predominantly to the youth command of the 1970 presidential campaign. of Salvador Allende, which culminated in his election as president.

In 1965 she was elected deputy for the Second District of Santiago, which was then formed by the communes of Renca, Conchalí, Recoleta, Independencia, Colina, Tiltil, Talagante, Curacaví, Quinta Normal and Barrancas (current Pudahuel). In the parliamentary elections In 1969 she was again elected deputy for the Second District, as in the parliamentary elections of March 1973, in which she was elected with a high vote.

During the period in which Gladys heads the communist youth, a strong student movement develops under the slogan of the University Reform. It is during this period that the Central Committee decides to launch the amaranth shirt as a symbol of the Jota.

Exile, clandestinity and resistance

In August 1973, Gladys attended the World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Berlin, German Democratic Republic, in which she denounced the interference of the United States in Chile, which created the conditions for a coup plot.

Gladys returned two days before that tragedy broke out and on September 11, 1973, when the civil-military coup began, faction No. 10 placed Gladys among the 100 people most wanted by the Military Junta and ordered her to surrender. before 4:30 p.m. on the same day the 11th. Gladys went into hiding and in December 1973, by decision of the PC and against her will, she took refuge in the Dutch embassy in Santiago, where she remained for eight months because the Military Junta denied him safe passage.

Once in exile, Gladys takes on tasks of solidarity with the Chilean cause. She tours different places denouncing the crimes of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

In May 1976, her husband, Jorge Muñoz, was arrested in Chile. She learns the news while she is in Costa Rica in solidarity activities with Chile. Until now, Jorge’s whereabouts are not known, nor that of the other members of the clandestine leadership of the Communist Party, detained with him in the operation known as the “Conference Street Case.”

At the beginning of 1978 he returned clandestinely to the country and headed the internal leadership of the PC until the XIX Clandestine Congress, held in San Sebastián, in May 1989. He participated in the organization of the resistance and combat against the dictatorship with the implementation and development of the Policy of Mass Rebellion, strategic line officially assumed by the Communist Party in 1980, which consisted of taking an offensive against the Pinochet regime through various direct demonstrations: protests, power cuts, explosions, street and armed fighting.

“I returned in 1978, when Operation Condor was in full development (…) I was the first person from the party leadership to return clandestinely, no one knew I was coming. And the colleagues who had previously arrived to set up a network for me to pass through Argentina, fell, are missing (…)”, recalled Gladys Marín[4], who, aware of the details and risks of the operation, transformed her figure and way of speaking, posed as Spanish and her face displayed a series of accessories that hid her true identity. In fact, she couldn’t even reunite with her children. For many years they continued to believe that she was outside the country. Marta Fritz knew the truth, but it was very dangerous to share the news. The reunion – which took place in Bariloche, Argentina in December 1986 – was brought about by pressure from the same children.

End of the Clandestinity

In January 1990, Gladys Marín left hiding. During a Communist Party event held at the San Laura Stadium, Gladys Marín reappeared publicly as the only speaker, after years of hiding. Her speech considered several points, among them, her support for the return to democracy and the fight to clarify the crimes of state terrorism in Chile. After pointing out the tasks related to the freedom of political prisoners, the communist leader announced the legality of the party: “The black night of the dictatorship is over for us.”

In 1994 Gladys Marín was elected general secretary of the Communist Party, being the first woman to hold the most important position of that community. From that role, Gladys was the visible face that dared to challenge power. In the context of a commemorative demonstration of September 11, in 1996, which was brutally repressed, Gladys questioned Pinochet, treating him as a coward and murderer and that he should be judged, which generated a great stir.

The reaction of the Army was immediate. She was sued for “insults and slander,” persecuted and harassed through the Intelligence agencies that still operated in the shadows. Finally, after an operation carried out by the Investigative Police, Gladys Marín was taken to the San Miguel Women’s Prison, Santiago. Seven days later she regained her freedom thanks to the solidarity of her colleagues who demonstrated day and night outside the prison. In a certain way, she also had the support of some members of the concertationist politics, for whom it was not seen as correct that “in full democracy” arrests ordered by the Chilean Army continued to occur.

The first complaint against Pinochet

In 1997 she was a candidate for senator for the Poniente senatorial constituency of Santiago, obtaining a vote that placed her in eighth place nationally. However, she was not elected as a result of the undemocratic binominal system prevailing in those years, which aimed to prevent leftist forces from having parliamentary representation.

On January 12, 1998, she presented – together with human rights lawyer Eduardo Contreras – the first criminal complaint against Augusto Pinochet, for the disappearance of her husband Jorge Muñoz. In this framework, the Minister in Visitation, Judge Juan Guzmán, issued nine prosecutions for the Calle Congreso case. That same year, Gladys testified before Judge Baltazar Garzón, who in Spain was handling the trial against Pinochet, for which the dictator was arrested in London.

“Without this complaint Pinochet would have died as a senator for life, without this first complaint we would not know the truth that we know and without this first complaint in Chile, Pinochet would never have been impeached and prosecuted and in the face of the evidence of the whole world that it was what it was. , a thief and murderer (…) and at the center of this entire movement, without a doubt, is the figure of Gladys Marín,” said Eduardo Contreras.[5].

In June 1998 she was proclaimed candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, being the first woman to run for that position and in 2002, during the XXII Congress of the Communist Party, Gladys was elected president of the PC, an investiture that had not been held before by a woman. women.

In September 2003 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. In October she traveled to Sweden to undergo surgery. There she was informed that her tumor corresponded to a gliobastoma multiforme, so it would grow again in the same area. Gladys then went to Havana, Cuba, to begin a rehabilitation process.

Recognition

On March 12, 2004, she was decorated by Fidel Castro with the José Martí Order, the highest distinction granted by the Cuban State to outstanding foreign personalities.

On March 14, 2004, she returned to Chile and on the 27th of the same month she was received in a grand ceremony at the former Mapocho Station in Santiago, where the Nicaraguan commander Daniel Ortega presented her with the Augusto César Sandino Order on behalf of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. .

On September 5, 2004, the Communist Youth of Chile awarded her the “Ricardo Fonseca” Medal of Honor. That month she must return to Cuba to undergo surgery again, returning definitively to Chile in December 2004.

On January 8, 2005, the Central Committee of the PC gave him the “Luis Emilio Recabarren” Medal in the tribute ceremony held at the Hugs Festival.

In addition, a large group of social organizations proposed Gladys Marín as one of the four Chilean members of the Group of One Thousand Women of the World who nominated the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

During her last days, Gladys remains in her residence in La Florida, accompanied by her family, friends and leaders of the Communist Party.

After her departure, Pajaritos Avenue – which connects the communes of Estación Central and Maipú – has been named after Gladys Marín Millie since September 10, 2005.

The memory and figure of this brave and combative woman who fought for the right of all to live in peace and with dignity, transcends the Communist Party and continues to raise awareness among those who endorse the slogan “Fight like Gladys… a thousand times.” overcome”.

[1]Gladys Marín, “The power of challenging power. Women in leadership situations”, 2001. Pp. 7-9

[2]Interview with Gladys Marín in Fibra Magazine, Santiago, July 2003.

[3]Cote Correa, “Requiem for Gladys”, 2014 (web resource: youtube)

[4]Interview with Gladys Marín in Fibra Magazine, Santiago, July 2003

[5] Rodrigo Araya Tacussis, “Gladys”, 2009, (web resource: youtube)