UDP President Carlos Peña Unpacks Chile’s Contemporary Challenges on Campus
A group of 45 people gathered for his talk on the political and social issues that Chile has yet to resolve.
On Friday, April 18, Chilean scholar, lawyer, and president of Universidad Diego Portales (UDP) Carlos Peña, visited Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus to meet with Chilean students and reflect on the current state of Chile.
Forty-five attendees gathered for the event, which was organized by The Chileans at Columbia Association (CHIAC) in collaboration with the Columbia Law School Chilean Association. Peña delivered a talk titled “Rethinking Chile’s Path Forward”, moderated by Victoria Paz, founder of Poder Económico and a current student in the MPA in Global Leadership program at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
Widely regarded as one of Chile’s most influential public intellectuals, Peña delivered what felt like a masterclass on the cultural, political, and social transformations that have shaped Chile since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship and the country’s transition to democracy in the early 1990s. These processes continue to underlie many of the tensions that define Chile today.
Peña also addressed the rise of identity politics and the country’s evolving political divides—key themes in his latest book, Hijos sin Padre: Ensayos sobre el Espíritu de una Generación (Fatherless Children: Essays on the Spirit of a Generation), published in late 2023, which offers a powerful critique of the political and social issues Chile has yet to resolve.
According to Peña, Chile’s post-dictatorship embrace of capitalist modernization has undeniably improved material living standards—but it has also eroded traditional, community-rooted ways of life. He pinpoints social cohesion, security, equity, a new work culture, robust democracy, trust, and anomie as the core concepts needed to understand the unrest—from the 2019 social crisis to the failed 2022 constitutional plebiscite. For Peña, making real improvements to people’s lives will require Chile’s political and business elite to pursue more thoughtful, deliberate action.
