Following the Labovian variationist approach, this research study analyzes the use of the historical present in a sample of 192 oral personal experience narratives in the Spanish spoken in Santiago, Chile. We aim at establishing the frequency of use of this variable element and testing whether there exists variation among the sociodemographic factors -sex, age, and socioeconomic group-of the speakers and the use of the said resource. We also describe its place in the narrative structure (Labov & Waletzky, 1967;Labov, 1983) and the function it performs in the narratives (Silva-Corvalán, 1983, 2001). Our data analysis shows that, firstly, there is sociolinguistic variation in the use of the historical present in personal experience narratives, specifically, among women of 20 to 34 years and over 55 in the four socioeconomic groups studied, presenting statistical significance. Secondly, our analysis indicates that it is possible to consider the historical present as a variable phenomenon with a specific function, namely, that of being an evaluative resource Silva-Corvalán, 1983, 2001). Finally, we could establish that this phenomenon is located in the narrative complication (Silva-Corvalán, 1983, 2001).