Abstract

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, pobladora women in Valparaiso were crucial in the organisation of their communities and the ollas comunes (common pots). Many observers linked these new ollas comunes to the ones that existed during the Pinochet dictatorship, in this manner citing a politics of gendered memory and local feminist history that allowed them to re-organise in record time. The article explores this comparison, using women's narratives on ollas comunes in the past and the present in order to critically assess their similarities and differences. Additionally, it analyses how, and why, pobladora popular feminist memory regarding food insecurity resistance strategies and ollas comunes is transferred between generations. This article uses interviews done with popular-sector and feminist women in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso during 2020 and 2021, as part of the project, 'Women's Solidarity Networks Take on COVID-19: the case of Valparaiso, Chile'.