Santas Putas

The unhappy role of women in the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition is generously expressed in the story of a transvestite from the extreme south of America. The violence of the invisible is hidden behind the glitter of normality.

Due to its isolated position between ocean and desert, the small port of Pisagua, in the north of Chile, is unfortunately known for having been transformed into a concentration camp and port of exile for political dissidents during dictatorial regimes. The 2006 video Pisagua was shot by director Veronica Quense, when the latter went with Lemebel to visit the city and collect the testimonies of the residents. The result of their experience is this action in which the artist walks barefoot, holding his heels in his hand, towards the sea. With every step he takes on the white cloth Lemebel leaves behind faint blood-colored footprints: a tribute to all the homosexuals and dissident feminists who lost their lives in that place.

Provocative, challenging, original, and courageous. The ironic and poetic narrative of writer and visual artist Pedro Lemebel is present in this documentary journey proposed by Verónica Quense. Through some chronicles read from Radio Tierra, it is possible to enter into urban geographies where the so hackneyed “marginality” becomes an urgent and revitalized political manifesto in the presence of three women who unite on the issue of human rights. Thus, gender, writing, sex, music, and politics trace a historical trace from Havana, Santiago, Cartagena, and Pisagua.