Rich feelings: affective histories, class debt and care as ethics in <i>Chile ’76, Los Perros, Azor</i>

This article explores the affective and political textures of three recent Latin American films—Chile ‘76, Los Perros, and Azor – which center on affluent female protagonists to interrogate the legacies of Southern Cone dictatorships. Drawing on Raymond Williams’s ‘structure of feeling’, feminist theories of care, and hauntology, the analysis explores how these films articulate a collective mood haunted by lost futures and historical trauma. Through close attention to aesthetics, genre, and affect, the films interrogate class complicity, ethical responsibility, and gendered political agency. The article argues that the films not only confront the affective residues of dictatorships but also reframe care as politically charged practice that gestures toward unrealized futures. By situating these narratives in a transnational framework, the essay critiques neoliberal amnesia and highlights a class debt that extends beyond national borders, raising questions about historical accountability and the possibility of imagining alternative futures.