This thesis is an ethnographic and historical examination of the role of embodied memories and intergenerational trauma on student demonstrations and education-based political activism in Chile. Based on participant-observation and conversations with teachers and other observers of the 2019 protests in Valparaiso, this thesis seeks to connect Chileans’ complex historical memory and the country’s public reckoning with Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) while assessing the role both play in current educational and political matters. The 2019-2020 protests in Chile are connected to a legacy of continued political violence, citizen protests and controversial educational legislations. This thesis examines an ethnographic “moment” of education-centered protests in connection to Chile’s wider historical past and present.