Un violador en tu camino is the protest anthem against rape and the impunity of violence against women that has spread from Chile to become a viral flash mob, filling and echoing through public squares around the world.
It all began on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in front of the Supreme Court in Santiago, Chile, when a group of women gathered to stage a feminist flash mob. In the streets of the capital, joining the protest cry of a population that had been demonstrating for weeks against social inequality, came the deep, powerful voice of women.
In unison, in their hundreds, they struck up a moving anthem — a cry against the patriarchy that dominates society and the impunity that follows from it. Because in Chile, where 42 cases of sexual abuse are reported every day (almost 2 per hour), only 8 per cent of all reported rape cases result in a conviction: 92 per cent therefore go unpunished.
El patriarcado es un juez / Il patriarcato è un giudiceUn violador en tu camino
The song, titled "Un violador en tu camino, el violador eres tú" (A rapist in your path, the rapist is you), sets out to indict the failure of the judicial system to protect women and uphold their rights, but also to speak of the culture of violence that is still intrinsic to the fabric of society today — and indeed thrives within it — from the normalisation of the act itself to the humiliation, often victim-blaming, that is inflicted on women after they come forward.
Y la culpa no era mía, ni dónde estaba, ni cómo vestía / La colpa non era mia, né per dove mi trovavo, né per com'ero vestitaUn violador en tu camino
Born on Chile's streets — where, as the crackdown on protests unfolded, acts of violence during arrests began to be reported as having been used as a tool of intimidation by police — it broke through national borders and resonated not only in other South American countries but across the entire world. Because, as United Nations data confirm, violence against women is a global phenomenon: one third of girls and women experience at least one form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
The anthem, born from the Chilean feminist collective Las Tesis, went viral, spreading a phrase that cannot be repeated enough: "the rapist is you" (el violador eres tú). You, the police; you, the judge; you, the state; you, the president; you, the ordinary person. And so, the powerful message of their protest has already echoed — and continues to echo — within just a few weeks in the squares of ever more cities from Latin America to Europe, reaching as far as India: Bogotá, Lima, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Milan.
The choreography — a blend of song and dance — is spine-tingling. Side by side, the women wear a black blindfold over their eyes. Drums beat out the rhythm of their words. The gestures are not left to chance: sometimes the left arm is raised, sometimes the right; hands are placed behind the head and the body crouches down, mimicking the position of arrest. The flash mob can be organised anywhere in the world, also thanks to the sharing of the lyrics and the sequence of movements, which can now sweep — like a global echo — into every corner of cities, homes, barracks, courtrooms and minds.
The patriarchy is a judge,
who judges us for being born
Our punishment
is the violence you cannot see
The patriarchy is a judge,
who judges us for being born
Our punishment
is the violence you cannot see
The patriarchy is a judge,
who judges us for being born
Our punishment
is the violence you cannot see
It is femicide
Impunity for our killers
It is disappearance
It is rape
The fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed
The fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed
The fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed
The fault was not mine, nor where I was, nor how I was dressed
The rapist was you
The rapist is you
It is the carabinieri
The judges
The state
The president
The oppressive state is a male rapist
The oppressive state is a male rapist
The oppressive state is a male rapist
The oppressive state is a male rapist
The rapist was you
The rapist is you
Sleep soundly, innocent child,
without worrying about the criminal,
for over your sweet dreams
your loving carabiniere keeps watch.
The rapist is you
The rapist is you
The rapist is you
The rapist is you.
/
El patriarcado es un juez
que nos juzga por nacer,
y nuestro castigo
es la violencia que no ves.
El patriarcado es un juez
que nos juzga por nacer,
y nuestro castigo
es la violencia que ya ves.
Es feminicidio.
Impunidad para mi asesino.
Es la desaparición.
Es la violación.
Y la culpa no era mía, ni dónde estaba ni cómo vestía.
Y la culpa no era mía, ni dónde estaba ni cómo vestía.
Y la culpa no era mía, ni dónde estaba ni cómo vestía.
Y la culpa no era mía, ni dónde estaba ni cómo vestía.
El violador eras tú.
El violador eres tú.
Son los pacos,
los jueces,
el Estado,
el presidente.
El Estado opresor es un macho violador.
El Estado opresor es un macho violador.
El violador eras tú.
El violador eres tú.
Duerme tranquila, niña inocente,
sin preocuparte del bandolero,
que por tu sueño dulce y sonriente
vela tu amante carabinero.
El violador eres tú.
El violador eres tú.
El violador eres tú.
El violador eres tú.