Wire report
‘My poetry won me asylum’: Cecilia Vicuña on exile life in ‘sad’ Britain after Pinochet’s coup
Five decades after convincing judges she’d be killed if she returned to Chile, the artist is back with a politically charged retrospective in the country she grew to love Cecilia Vicuña was 24 when she first arrived in London. She had come from Santiago on a British Council scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art, and her stay was supposed to be so brief that she didn’t even unpack her suitcase. Then, in September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup overthrew Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. Vicuña was one of a handful of Chilean students in London immediately expelled from their universities and expected to leave Britain. At a Home Office hearing, her pro-bono lawyers argued that she would be killed if she returned to Chile, and showed the judges her recently published art and poetry book, Saborami, which documented the aftermath of the coup
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Five decades after convincing judges she’d be killed if she returned to Chile, the artist is back with a politically charged retrospective in the country she grew to love Cecilia Vicuña was 24 when she first arrived in London. She had come from Santiago on a British Council scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art, and her stay was supposed to be so brief that she didn’t even unpack her suitcase. Then, in September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup overthrew Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. Vicuña was one of a handful of Chilean students in London immediately expelled from their universities and expected to leave Britain. At a Home Office hearing, her pro-bono lawyers argued that she would be killed if she returned to Chile, and showed the judges her recently published art and poetry book, Saborami, which documented the aftermath of the coup
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According to The Guardian’s source item, ‘My poetry won me asylum’: Cecilia Vicuña on exile life in ‘sad’ Britain after Pinochet’s coup, Five decades after convincing judges she’d be killed if she returned to Chile, the artist is back with a politically charged retrospective in the country she grew to love Cecilia Vicuña was 24 when she first arrived in London. She had come from Santiago on a British Council scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art, and her stay was supposed to be so brief that she didn’t even unpack her suitcase. Then, in September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s military coup overthrew Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. Vicuña was one of a handful of Chilean students in London immediately expelled from their universities and expected to leave Britain. At a Home Office hearing, her pro-bono lawyers argued that she would be killed if she returned to Chile, and showed the judges her recently published art and poetry book, Saborami, which documented the aftermath of the coup
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Primary source: ‘My poetry won me asylum’: Cecilia Vicuña on exile life in ‘sad’ Britain after Pinochet’s coup via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- ‘My poetry won me asylum’: Cecilia Vicuña on exile life in ‘sad’ Britain after Pinochet’s coupThe Guardian - 2026-10-06T14:28:38+00:00
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