https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5684-0787
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ABSTRACT
This article analyzes the cross-border religious practices of the Aymara and Quechua people, Peruvian and Bolivian evangelicals who inhabit the Tarapacá region in Chile. For this purpose, the cross-border nature of evangelical communities is illustrated, evangelicals are defined as communities of communities, and three aspects are analyzed that allow evangelical churches to be understood as networks of mobility on the Chilean-Bolivian frontier: 1. The role of the family as a mediator of affiliations; 2. The importance of unattached identifications and 3. The heterogeneity of forms of participation in evangelical churches. For indigenous communities, geographical mobility is a community need and an ancestral heritage. Religious mobility implies interconnections between different religious groups, such as border and cross-border network strategies.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 According to the 2017 Census, in the Arica-Parinacota region those who identify as Aymara stand at 59,432 people, representing 26.29% of the total regional population. With respect to the Quechua in the same region, 2,659 people identified as members of this indigenous peoples (1.18% of the regional population). In the case of the Tarapacá region, the Aymara population stands at 48,964 people (14.81% of the regional population), and the Quechua at 7,580 people, representing 2.29% of the regional population. According to Peru's Office of Statistics (INEI) regarding the country’s 2017 Census,(INEI, Censos Nacionales Citation2017) out of a total population of 32.97 million people, 392,228 self-identified as Aymara (6.8% of the country's total indigenous population), and 2,893,670 people self-identified as Quechuas (50.1% of the country's total indigenous population). The Bolivian Population and Housing Census (2012) indicated that of a total population of 11.67 million people, 1,598,807 (14.45%) identified as belonging to the Aymara people and 1,837,105 (16.6%) to the Quechuas. With respect to the migrant population in the Tarapacá region, and according to Chile's Office of Statistics (INE) in 2013, of the total number of foreigners who took part in the census, 17,322 people (77.7%) came from the border region, with 48% corresponding to Peruvians, and 36% to Bolivians (Tapia Citation2012, Citation2015). However, said data is not specific to the ethnic origin of migrants. According to Chile’s 2017 census, and of the total regional population of 226,068 inhabitants, the Bolivian migrant population in the Arica and Parinacota region stood at 17,565 people (7.77%), while the Peruvian migrant population was 16,774 people (7.42%). Once again, this data refers to the national origin, but did not include the ethnic group of migrants. Finally, permanent cross-border mobility for religious reasons into and out of Chile from Bolivia and Peru is neither monitored nor recorded.
2 There are, of course, exceptions such as that of Rivière (Citation2004), who reported both the presence in Chile of Aymara evangelicals in the Bolivian border zone, and the cross-border nature of this phenomenon.
3 With respect to the similarities between cross-border areas and the evangelical communities in the border regions of Chile-Bolivia and Mexico-Guatemala (Rivera-Farfan Citation2014), in both cases, geographical areas historically and contemporarily represent a space-time with shared cultural, social and economic activities, and in spite of the imposition of national borders by, in the case of Chile and Bolivia, the Ancón Treaty (1883) in the Tarapacá region, and the Treaty of Lima (1929) in the Arica and Parinacota region, while in the case of Mexico-Guatemala, the Treaty of Limits (1882). In the decades that followed, both indigenous border populations were subjected to a process of transculturation, which in the Chilean case occurred in the regions of Arica-Parinacota and Tarapacá, where said population suffered the effects of Chileanization policies; and in the case of the Chiapas region (originally part of Guatemala) the Choles, Mam and Chuj were subjected to Mexicanization policies. We have also indicated differences in the historical processes of evangelization, undertaken in the Guatemala-Chiapas cross-border region towards the end of the 19th century by the Presbyterian churches and the Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) Church in Guatemala, which was supported by the State in the region neighboring Chiapas. This evangelization process was initiated from a country that was in an economically a-symmetrical power relationship with the country to be evangelized, as indicated by the migration of a Guatemalan agricultural labor force to the coffee plantations in Chiapas (Soconusco) (see also Robledo Herández Citation2010, 185). In the Chile-Bolivia cross-border region, this phenomenon occurred in reverse, with Bolivian evangelization campaigns beginning in Chile six decades later. Although in recent years in the case of Mexico-Chiapas, churches in Chiapas have been undertaking evangelization activities in Guatemala. This is not the case, however, of Bolivian evangelical Aymara or Quechua communities, which have not undertaken missionary activities in Chile (Rivera-Farfan Citation2014, 97–101).
4 Our investigation has coincided with the study undertaken by Robledo Herández (Citation2010, 187), who indicates that in the processes of international and rural-urban migration of Guatemalan indigenous peoples, it is the Maya and Tzotziles and Mexican Tzeltal that represent the religious groups (the Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S., and Baptist churches, among others) which have become a new community space where cultural manifestations are renewed, and a social capital of significant relevance has been constructed to offset the material and social precariousness involved in transferring from a rural setting to the city. It is in the urban context where religion has become a focal point from which symbolic elements are built that are integrated into their own cultural matrix, in order to strengthen such people's cultural and ethnic identity on the basis of broader horizons. The local culture influences the set of beliefs, standards and values of the community of believers, creating a system of meanings that fosters mutual recognition. The use of the native language in worship, prayer and fasting as a way of approaching the divinity, and the use of traditional clothing when assisting acts of worship are examples of the style of sociality that characterizes these congregations. These two focal points explain the success of the new religious options: the expression of local cultures and the emotional dimension that underlines the affective experience of collective communion.
5 Regarding this Evangelical-Aymara church, it is recommended to read the article by Concha and Mansillal (Citation2020).
6 Dorcas is the name given to the gatherings of Pentecostal women, and in many cases they are not all the women of the congregation but rather just the married and adult women. Young women meet in the group of young ladies or young people or other names they receive, according to the different Pentecostal churches (Andrade Citation2008, 16)
7 The cyclists group is a Pentecostal practice that emulates Catholic Quasimodo practices. In the Pentecostal case, it does not refer only to visiting the sick, but to preaching the gospel to remote places, especially villages and other rural locations. In this case it is a group of men and young people who disseminate the gospel and consider themselves evangelists and missionaries responsible for taking the message to all parts of the country.
8 Regarding the issue of the participation or non-participation of rural Aymara evangelical Chileans in traditional Aymara funeral rites, see also Slootweg (Citation2018, 77–123).
9 When we refer to neo-Pentecostalism and neo-charismatics, we mean that the former refer to those who come from the Pentecostal world and the latter from the Protestant world. In the case of the Power of God Church, this comes from the Ekklesia Church, which is a domination similar to the Assemblies of God, while Light of God is of Protestant missionary origin, specifically the Nazarene Church.
12 This concept dates back to the 19th century, when it was coined by the anarchist journalist Juan Vera, who used it to refer to the followers of the Spanish tailor Juan Bautista Canut de Bon Gil (1846 – 1896), a former Jesuit who became a famed Methodist preacher, and who founded various evangelical churches in Chile. However, the expression "canuto" refers to the intolerance expressed towards evangelicals during the 20th century in Chile, and was found in inscriptions and on headstones bearing abusive expressions, underlining a society that does not support the existence of those who are different. The expression "canuto" also reveals that not only subjects are discriminated against, but also their objects and symbols. Heroes, beliefs, festivals and myths are all despised, while exploits and achievements are obscured and ignored, although any mistakes are highlighted, and considered to be repulsive (Mansilla Citation2007, Citation2014).
13 The word "offering" is a euphemism, but in reality what they mean is a "backhander " or rather bribe.
14 A broader critique can be found in Blanco, Juan. 2013. REMESAS DE CONOCIMIENTO Del Brain Drain al Brain Gain. Miami Dade College Center for Latin American and Caribbean Initiatives. Miami.