Hunger for Justice, Knowledge: Professor Baron Explores The Power of Two Strikes

EL TECOLOTE (SAN FRANCISCO) -- When I first spoke to the hunger strikers at SF State, I identified myself as a Chilean professor in the department of theatre arts, and that I had also taught many years in the Ethnic Studies Department. One of the students told me to speak with Sofía Cantú Cárdenas, a Chilean-American SF State student and main spokesperson for the group. Cárdenas has experience as an organizer, something she inherited from her parents and from other Chilean relatives. “I was born here,” she said. “But I am also very aware that the reason that I was born here was because of the 1973 military coup in Chile. My parents were exiled, as my grandfather was.” She sounded proud of her heritage, both as a Chilean and as a politically active young woman. “My father always told me that I should become politically active and be aware of my history, so that I would not again become a victim of the empire,” she said.