This post discusses the iconic photo and the manipulations I made to the featured image above.
To see the original sources of each photo in this post, click on the photo.
When Luis Orlando Lagos took this 1973 photo of Salvador Allende leaving his presidential palace, he never thought his photo would cement Allende’s tragic image in Latin American history.
Allende, Chile’s first elected left-wing leader, was ousted by his general, Augusto Pinochet, and he later committed suicide. Lagos’s photo immortalized him as a martyr who chose to die rather than to surrender to Pinochet’s tyranny.
My photo manipulation emphasizes another context of the photo: the U.S. supported Pinochet’s coup against Allende. And that wasn’t the first (or the last) time they’d support coups in Latin America.
When creating this new image, I wanted to contextualize Allende’s photo in the U.S.’s trend of ousting Latin American leaders. I knew that the U.S. attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. But I found out the Trump administration also supported ousting left-wing leaders in Bolivia and Venezuela last year.
To criticize this, I edited Allende and his guard into a government building. They’re walking down this seemingly endless hallway lined with the flags of the countries I mentioned. I placed Allende across from the Chilean flag so he looks shocked to see it there. Finally, I edited a gloating Trump behind to emphasize the role of the Trump administration in Bolivia and Venezuela.
This photo manipulation amplifies the tragedy behind Lagos’s original photo. In this photo, Allende seems shocked to find he’s not the only one ousted; the hallway displays other Latin American countries where the U.S. has tried ousting their leaders. By having Trump usher Allende down this “hall of fame”, my photo implies that his administration continues an ongoing trend since Allende’s departure.
In this way, it retells Allende’s story so that Allende is seen as only one of the too many incidents where the U.S. has meddled with Latin America.
Check out the other elements of my DIY below!
Girl Meets The World of Media 