Plaza Baquedano

This guide to Plaza Baquedano in Santiago centers on the bronze equestrian statue of General Manuel Baquedano, cast by sculptor Virginio Arias and raised onto its plinth in 1928, and on what happened to it after October 2019, when the square became the heart of Chile's mass protests against inequality. It follows the graffiti, the stencils and wheat-pasted portraits that spread across the surrounding construction fencing, and the stray dog Matapaco whose painted image became an unofficial mascot of the uprising. Look for the handwriting still on the walls around the plinth.