Viva La Concha en La Capital

Yesterday we brought the Viva La Concha movement over 800 kilometers to the streets of Santiago, chanting at passing buses filled with Saturday shoppers and smiling abuelitas, waving our sign, flashing our t-shirts among our rainbow-clad Sureño contingent from Plaza Italia to La Moneda all as part of the 10,000 or more active participants in the Marcha del Orgullo Gay 2006. The dykes on bikes honked their horns, the ladies of the Otra Marcha paused in their seriousness to smile and laugh, while still many others celebrated with photographs and the waving of their own banners in support. All in all, a successful day for the budding message that the Concha, the most sacred part of the female anatomy, which is constantly the object of derogatory comments in Chilean slang, deserves a renewed place in the language that embodies nothing less than Love, Respect, and Celebration. Viva La Concha!