Chile’s bleeding eyes: How the street protest crafted a resonant symbol of political communication

Abstract

This article describes how the “bleeding eyes” symbol was crafted during the social unrest that took place in Chile in October 2019, when hundreds of people suffered from ocular trauma after being shot by the anti-riot police with plastic pellets. This seminal moment of symbolic production has been under-studied in the field of political communication. It draws upon concepts from the so-called “culturalist” approach to social movements studies and conducts an ethnographic account describing the dynamics that gave birth to a symbol.