This article focuses on the role of collective memory in the activism of pobladoras (shantytown women) in Santiago in the 21st century. Based on in-depth interviews with pobladoras who play an undisputed leadership role in the current social movement for the right to housing, I show that memory plays a fundamental role in understanding their actions and the meanings they give to their struggle. Memory provides models of leadership, repertoires of action, and projects of social transformation that contribute to rooting their movement and affirming them as historical and political subjects.