“Now he will fall!”

“Now he will fall!” is a protest chant that links neighborhood rumor, radio reports, demonstrations, and the Queen of the Corner’s actions during 1986. Its repetition makes it both a public expression of opposition to Augusto Pinochet and a refrain that follows the Queen from the relative shelter of her home into the dangers of the street.

A refrain heard across the city

The chant first appears as part of the atmosphere of Santiago: streets are cordoned off, blackouts and protests unsettle daily life, and people repeat the prediction that Pinochet will not last beyond 1986. The fuller cry, “Now he will fall! Now he will fall!”, is set among shouts and late-breaking reports on Radio Cooperativa. In this setting, the phrase does more than announce a political hope. Its repetition gives the hope a collective rhythm, carrying it through a city marked by fear and unrest.

The Queen initially keeps her distance from this political language. She is frightened by Radio Cooperativa’s reports and prefers old songs to urgent news bulletins. At the neighborhood grocery store, however, talk of demonstrations, the opposition, and the prediction that 1986 will be the year circulates alongside ordinary local gossip. The chant therefore belongs to the sounds of everyday life even for someone who does not consider herself part of the political struggle.

From broadcast to street confrontation

As the story develops, the refrain moves from general political talk into the Queen’s experience of repression. Radio Cooperativa reports that university students have been injured and arrested, and she worries that Carlos may be among them. Later, while carrying a package for him through the city, she encounters a protest crowd shouting the chant alongside denunciations of Pinochet and the police. The slogans descend on the street in leaflets as police advance against demonstrators.

The Queen does not respond by joining the crowd. She remains still, convinced that her age and respectable appearance should protect her, but then walks directly toward the police line and insists on being allowed through. She escapes with the package and delivers it to the recipient Carlos has named. In this sequence, the chant marks the political crisis surrounding her errand, while her own passage through the confrontation turns indirect proximity to resistance into a risky, practical act.

Meaning and recurrence

The phrase returns as an expression of popular expectation, not as proof that Pinochet is about to fall. Its confident repetition contrasts with the uncertainty of the events around it: the Queen fears for Carlos, demonstrators face police violence, and official broadcasts issue warnings about unrest. The refrain’s force lies in that tension between a future imagined aloud and a present still controlled by state power.

By carrying the chant across radio, street talk, and protest, the novel connects private life to public conflict without making the Queen a conventional political activist. She can be frightened by the news and still take action for Carlos; she can stand apart from the demonstrators and yet find herself in the path of their confrontation with the police. “Now he will fall!” thus becomes a recurring public sound against which her personal loyalties and the city’s political danger are heard.