Calugas: A Feminist Perspective on Incarceration and the Memories of Women Behind Bars

Original article: Calugas: Una mirada feminista al encierro y la memoria de las mujeres privadas de libertad

On September 2, the Conejo de Fuego company will premiere the play «Calugas» at the Teatro Sidarte. This documentary theater production is based on the writings of sisters Gabriela and Paulina Richards, detailing their experiences during political imprisonment.

During the dictatorship, the term ‘calugas’ referred to clandestine messages that managed to escape from prisons on extremely thin sheets of paper folded to the size of a candy.

These messages facilitated contact between political prisoners and their families, friends, and comrades, circumventing the surveillance and restrictions inherent in confinement.

In this staging, these letters serve as a starting point to reconstruct the relationship between two sisters separated by prison while simultaneously exploring the forms of communication, affection, and organization that emerge in an environment of incarceration.

The play is based on the book of the same name by Gabriela and Paulina Richards, which compiles written pieces by Gabriela Richards during her time at the San Miguel and Santo Domingo prisons between 1987 and 1990.

From this archive, Conejo de Fuego’s creation reimagines the voices of political prisoners from a feminist perspective: highlighting their thoughts, friendships, humor, connections, collective organization, care, and the strategies developed by women to survive confinement.

A Story That Looks to the Present

While the play is set against the backdrop of the dictatorship, «Calugas» encourages audiences to look beyond this period and inquire into how punitive logic continues to operate against women in confinement.

«Calugas is not a work about the dictatorship in a historical or commemorative sense, even though that context is very much present. It is a work that takes that moment as a starting point to address something broader and more persistent: the experience of confinement, the bonds, caregiving, and the political role of women in prison,» states Aranzazu Ispizua, the director of the play.

From this perspective, the production interacts with the present: the forms of violence, vulnerability, and exclusion that currently affect incarcerated women are not dissimilar from the punitive logics that have historically impacted their bodies.

Thus, «Calugas» invites reflection on how incarceration manifests today and the roles of bonds, care, and collective organization in an institution designed for isolation.

Event Details

Teatro Sidarte, Ernesto Pinto Lagarrigue 131, Recoleta
Maria Elena Duvauchelle Room
From September 2 to 12, 2026
Wednesday to Saturday: 7:30 PM
Duration: 80 minutes
Ticket Pricing Pay What You Can: $8,000, $6,000, and $4,000
Tickets available at ticketplus.cl