Teaching the ‘‘Nation’’ 205
the people who vindicate nationalism for itself, the glories of the patria, its
heroes, and the Chilean flag.’’
∞≠∫
As Defensa de la Raza centers opened their doors to the working class, the
Education Ministry formulated the most significant measure in the area of
nationalist instruction since Decree 5582 of 1921. In early 1941, the ministry
began composing a plan to stimulate ‘‘Chileanness’’ in the classroom. Rec-
ognizing that ‘‘our pride as Chileans’’ had diminished since the heyday of
nationalism when ‘‘Chile was, perhaps, the premier republic in South Amer-
ica,’’ the government moved to consolidate previous nationalist directives
and establish new guidelines in one swift blow supposedly to cure Chile’s
‘‘anemic illness.’’
∞≠Ω
A major supporter of the idea of teaching chilenidad was
the National Institute, which, since the early part of the century, had in-
creasingly catered to the middle class.
In May, the school’s Boletín del Instituto Nacional, directed by César Bunster,
a PR member, textbook author, and Education Ministry bureaucrat, pub-
lished an editorial that endorsed chilenidad as a pedagogical theme and gave
examples of what it considered to be components of Chileanness. The jour-
nal explained that ‘‘chilenidad should be understood and defined in concrete
terms. Chile, politically, is a territorial domain, a geographical concept. To
Chileanize is to give a Chilean character to something, to impregnate it with
Chilean custom. Chilenidad is the exaltation of the root of those customs, of
those principles, of those foundations.’’ It goes on to state that ‘‘Chile has
symbols, institutions, and human values. Symbols, in a concrete way, repre-
sent even the most abstract of those principles: the hymn, the [national]
shield, the flag.’’
∞∞≠
Later in the same edition, the rural zamacueca folk dance
is offered as an example of chilenidad. The journal hails the zamacueca as ‘‘the
great organ of popular lyricism’’ that ‘‘awakens the fervor of the race’’ and
proclaims it the ‘‘alma mater of our race.’’
∞∞∞
Leaders in higher education echoed the National Institute’s endorsement
of chilenidad’s educational value. The Commission of University Rectors in-
formed the ministry in May 1941 as to its perception of chilenidad: ‘‘It is not
enough [for any Chilean] to love the patria; one must feel the satisfaction,
the pride of being a Chilean. To love the patria, one only needs to know our
history. But if we want children of this land to feel the satisfaction of being
Chilean, not only for what the nation has been but also for what it is, it is not
enough to teach them the doings of our heroes, the glorious deeds of the
past; they need something else: that all of them may live, materially and
morally, in such conditions that life, for them, to a lesser or greater degree, is
a joy. . . . We must, therefore, concern ourselves with improving the material