| Camila Vallejo Dowling | |
|---|---|
| Camila Vallejo at the 'March of the Umbrellas' in August 18, 2011 in Santiago de Chile.[1] | |
| President of the | |
| In office 24 November 2010 – 16 November 2011 |
|
| Preceded by | Julio Sarmiento |
| Succeeded by | Scarlett Mac-Ginty (s)[2] |
| Member of the | |
| In office October 2011 – Present |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 April 1988 Santiago, Chile |
| Nationality | Chilean |
| Political party | Communist Youth of Chile |
| Alma mater | University of Chile |
| Occupation | Student |
| Website | camilapresidenta.blogspot.com |
Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling (vah-yay-ho) (born 28 April 1988 in Santiago) is a Chilean geography undergraduate student and member of the Chilean Communist Youth. As president of the University of Chile Student Federation (Fech) and main spokesperson of the Confederation of Chilean Students (Confech), she led a movement for better access to quality education at the end of April 2011 — which continues as of December 2011[update].
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Vallejo is the daughter of Reinaldo Vallejo and Mariela Dowling, both historic members of Chilean Communist Party and activists in the Chilean resistance during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Vallejo lived her childhood between the communes of Macul and La Florida, and she studied in Colegio Raimapu, a Co-Ed private school in La Florida.
In 2006, Vallejo entered the University of Chile to study geography. There, she started forming ties with leftist students and getting involved in politics, which led her to join the Chilean Communist Youth the next year.[3] She was counselor of Fech in 2008, and was chosen as its president in November 2010, becoming only the second woman to hold this post in the 105-year history of the student union.[4]
“We believe that the key to a successful student movement is to reposition the Federation to that of Vanguard at the national level; to return to interweave social networks with the people, the workers, with social organizations, the trade unions, and with the youth who did not make it into the University - who were left kicking stones. In other words, we speak of returning our vision to the array of social problems that surround the University, with which we are intimately tied to and compromised." —Camila Vallejo, Fech President speech (November 2010)[5]
On 7 December 2011, Vallejo was defeated in her bid for re-election by Gabriel Boric, a Law School graduate.[6] In October 2011 she was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth of Chile at its XIII National Congress.
Vallejo has acquired public attention as a leading spokesperson and leader of the 2011 student protests in Chile, alongside other student leaders: Giorgio Jackson from the Catholic University of Chile Student Federation and Camilo Ballesteros from the University of Santiago, Chile Student Federation.
In August 2011, the Supreme Court of Chile ordered police protection for Vallejo after she received death threats.[4][7]
Vallejo has been labeled by the media as the most important and influential Communist personality of the 21th century in Chile, and also as the symbolic successor of Gladys Marín.[8][9]
Vallejo has been praised publicly by several entertainers. In September 2011, Calle 13 traveled to Chile to support the student movement, and in a concert they invited some students and members of the Confech, including Vallejo.[10][11]
In August 2011 Vallejo was displayed on the front page of the German weekly Die Zeit[12] and in December she was chosen as one of 100 "People Who Mattered" by Time Magazine on its "Time Person of the Year" annual issue.[13] That same month she was overwhelmingly chosen "Person of the Year" in an online poll by readers of The Guardian,[14] which four months earlier had published a piece on her.[4]