The Burned Ones
Black burlap background made with scraps of fabric and coloured wool illustrating moments from the national strike of 2 July 1986 in Chile, when two young people, Carmen Gloria Quintana (20 yo) and Rodrigo Rojas de Negri (19 yo), are on fire after being set alight by uniformed officers and Pinochetist civilians. The scene takes place in the middle of the street in the context of protests against Pinochet's civil-military dictatorship installed by the United States. Several people representing the protesters in the street and some armed soldiers can be seen. In the lower right-hand corner of the burlap, we see the following scene in a forest, where Carmen and Rodrigo were thrown and abandoned by the military in a wasteland in the commune of Quilicura, on the outskirts of the city.
Rodrigo Rojas De Negri (R.R.D.) and Carmen Gloria Quintana (C.G.Q.) brutally burned
A greyish-white burlap background made from scraps of coloured fabric and wool illustrates the moments when activist and psychologist Carmen Gloria Quintana and photographer Rodrigo Rojas De Negri are on fire after being doused with petrol and set alight by Pinochetist military personnel and civilians. They are standing next to a wall, behind which we can see a church. In the lower right corner, we see these two people being abandoned in a ditch by the military to die.
The crime sparked protests, mostly by the proletariat. Since photographer Rojas de Negri was a US citizen, the son of Chilean exiles in the US, and had been sent to Chile to report on the protests, the crime became known outside Chile and protests were held in the US and other parts of the world.
At the bottom of the burlap, embroidered in white thread, reads ‘“The burned ones. 2- VII-1984. Chile”. The ‘i’ in Chile is a star. Below this text is ‘R.I.D.E.E’ and the name of the commune or province of Linares.
Rojas de Negri died four days later after both were rescued by agricultural workers. Quintana was taken to the Workers' Hospital on 6 July with second- and third-degree burns covering 62% of his body and many broken teeth as a result of the beatings by the military, and was in critical condition.
Only in 2015 did a conscript who participated in the operation and disclosure of cables from the US Embassy in Washington detailing the chain of command and the impunity sought by La Moneda for the authorities involved allow the case to be reopened and put an end to that infamous and recurring dismissal for lack of evidence, even though the military justice system had ruled arbitrarily.
#PopularMemory: 39 years since the Quemados Case and our Right to Memory. Frente Magazine
Justice came late and the sentences left many of the criminals free, acquitting some and allowing others to remain in their homes, and the present dictator, a pinochetist nazi installed by USA/The West is free all the tortures, agents, and other criminals of the Dictatorship.
In April 2026, the bourgeoisie ordered the theft of 30 burlap pieces that were on display at the Villa Grimaldi Memorial Site for the exhibition “Memorias (A)puntadas, nuestro lugar en la historia”. These works, created by women who survived the dictatorship and their female descendants, denounce the crimes of the dictatorship and subsequent crimes, as well as their lives during that period.
The collection was developed in 2023 as part of a “Bearers of Tradition” workshop organized by the National Subdirectorate of Intangible Cultural Heritage (SNPCI), with support from the National Historical Museum and the Handicrafts Foundation of Chile. The process was mentored by Patricia Hidalgo and María Teresa Madariaga, recognized as Living Human Treasures, alongside the practitioners Gladys Hernández and Hilda Mardones.
The National Cultural Heritage Service reports the loss of 30 heritage arpillera pieces and is coordinating efforts to recover them
As of today, they have not been recovered. They were likely burned, as this is one of the typical modus operandi of the dictatorship and its current agents (police, soldiers, intelligence agents, and civilians). Just as they did with Julia del Carmen Chuñil Catricura (72 yo), a Mapuche woman and defender of the territory.
All memory and defender is being murdered, all institutions, programs, memorial sites, museums, art, and books are being murdered, eliminated, erased. Speak about Chile.
