A Rapist in Your Path: How the LasTesis Protest Spread Worldwide

First published July 15, 2021.

"A Rapist in Your Path" (Un violador en tu camino) is a protest performance against sexual violence created by LasTesis, a feminist collective from Valparaíso, Chile. First performed in November 2019, it combines a chanted text with simple, repeated choreography. Within weeks, videos of it had travelled around the world, and by 2021 GeoChicas, a group mapping the performances, had documented it in more than 400 places across over 50 countries.

This is the story of where the piece came from, what its words and movements mean, how it spread, and why it struck such a nerve.

Who LasTesis are

LasTesis was founded in 2018 by Sibila Sotomayor, Daffne Valdés and Paula Cometa; early reports also named Lea Cáceres among the original creators. The name refers to theses: the group turns academic feminist ideas into short public performances that anyone can join.

"A Rapist in Your Path" draws on the work of the Argentine anthropologist Rita Segato, who argues that sexual violence is not a private matter of individual desire but an expression of power that societies and institutions allow to continue. In 2020 TIME named LasTesis among its 100 most influential people of the year.

Born in Chile's 2019 protests

The performance was planned for a festival, but its debut was delayed by the mass protests that erupted in Chile in October 2019 over inequality and the cost of living. It was first performed in public in Valparaíso on 20 November 2019. Five days later, on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, groups performed it across Santiago.

During the protests, human rights organisations collected many complaints of sexual abuse by security forces against detained demonstrators. Chile's National Human Rights Institute later reported legal action on behalf of 282 victims of torture involving sexual violence between October 2019 and March 2020. LasTesis adapted the piece to address the state and the police directly, which helps explain its force.

What the words and movements mean

The text describes patriarchy as a judge that punishes women simply for being born, then names the forms that punishment takes: femicide, impunity for killers, disappearances and rape. Its central refrain rejects victim blaming, insisting that the fault was not hers, not where I was, not how I dressed. It then points outward, naming the police, the judges, the state and the president as part of a system that allows violence to go unpunished.

The title parodies "a friend in your path", a slogan used by Chile's national police, the Carabineros, in the 1990s. The Spanish version also borrows lines from a Carabineros hymn that speaks of a police officer watching over a sleeping girl, turned into bitter irony. The movements carry meaning too:

• Blindfolds recall the many protesters who suffered eye injuries from police projectiles in 2019, and La Venda Sexy, a torture centre under the Pinochet dictatorship.
• A squatting motion refers to the reported treatment of women detained by police, who said they were made to squat during searches.
• Party clothes, worn by many performers, challenge the idea that what a woman wears invites violence.
• Pointing at the end makes the accusation physical and collective.

Because the steps and text are short and easy to learn, any group can stage it in a square with little preparation. That design is a big reason it travelled so fast.

How it spread around the world

On 29 November 2019 thousands of women performed it in Mexico City's Zócalo. Versions followed in Argentina, Colombia, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and many other countries, often translated and adapted to local issues. Mapuche women in Temuco performed it in Mapudungun, and in Bogotá journalists rewrote lines to address sexism in the press.

In Istanbul in December 2019, police detained women performing it, and days later women MPs from the opposition performed it inside the Turkish parliament in solidarity. In Brazil and elsewhere it became part of protests against domestic violence.

In the United States it became linked to the #MeToo movement. In January 2020, activists performed it in English and Spanish outside the Manhattan courthouse where Harvey Weinstein was on trial; he was convicted the following month.

Happening right now in front of the Weinstein trial court house: Over a hundred activists are performing “Un Violator En Tu Camino” - A Rapist In Your Path - the Chilean anti-rape anthem in English and Spanish. pic.twitter.com/sdCelWVoDB

— Lauren Aratani (@LaurenAratani) January 10, 2020

Activists who joined the performances spoke of how its power grew with repetition. Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein's accusers, predicted it would keep spreading, and Paola Mendoza, a co-founder of the Women's March, described the words as full of anger but also of empowerment and a sense of reclaiming space.

Backlash and legal pressure

The piece also drew criticism. Some politicians and commentators objected to the accusation aimed at the police and the state, and in 2020 the Carabineros filed complaints against the collective, partly over a video LasTesis made with the Russian group Pussy Riot. On 4 January 2021 a Chilean judge dismissed the case, recognising the artistic nature of the work and finding no evidence that it incited violence against police.

LasTesis went on to publish books, including Quemar el miedo (Set Fear on Fire, 2021), and to create new performances that toured Latin America and Europe. Britain's Design Museum gave "A Rapist in Your Path" its 2020 Design of the Year award in the digital category.

Why it still resonates

Many campaigns against sexual violence rely on statistics and reports. This one relies on bodies, voices and public space. It shifts responsibility away from victims and toward those who commit violence and the institutions that fail to act. It also lets women in very different countries share one ritual while adding their own experiences.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, local support services and helplines can offer confidential help, and in an emergency you should contact the police or emergency services.

Sources: Wikipedia: A Rapist in Your Path; Wikipedia: LasTesis; Elle, original report with McGowan and Mendoza interviews. Embedded tweet: Lauren Aratani; video via YouTube. Performance created by LasTesis.