Ethnophaulisms, derogatory terms, representations, and discriminatory strategies: the case of anti-Peruvian, Chilean discourse

Abstract

In this paper we report on a study of the explicit and implicit manifestations of the Chilean racist discourse against Peruvians. On one hand, we study the ethnophaulisms and derogatory terms used to refer to immigrants as found in newspapers from 1879 and Internet sites. On the other hand, we approach the implicit manifestations of racism through the critical discourse analysis of the representations and strategies used by a sample of women from a high socioeconomic status in Santiago de Chile. We aim at verifying the historical continuity of this racist discourse as it has revived with the massive arrival of Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants to Chile. We found that the anonymity of computer mediated communication and nationalistic upsurges allow for an explicit use of racist language, while the informants interviewed resort to representations and strategies that carry implicitly a racist ideology.