It is difficult to take the challenge I have set myself and not to feel discourage. Yes, we have often fallen short of the ethical and political challenges posed by the republican promise outlined by Basadre, but this is not a time to give up. Our civil society can still become the locus of an active citizenry that is awake and willing to fight for democracy as a form of existence and worthy of election. In following pages, the reader will find stories and reasons to engage in this project of public life based on the cultivation of political agency. This book examines the times in recent years when we have failed to confront the authoritarian culture that continues to pervade our society, but also discusses the times when our youth organized to fight it in the streets and succeeded in defeating it. Such successes and failures constitute our present time and perhaps lay the foundations for a future –still uncertain– that is gradually being drawn before our eyes.