From Araucanian warriors to Mapuche terrorists: contesting discourses of gender, race, and nation in modern Chile (1810–2010)

Abstract

This article explores the complex, shifting intersections between gender, racial, and national identities in modern Chile. Focusing on the figure of the Araucanian warrior who famously defeated the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century, it draws readers' attention to four transformative periods between the first declaration of Chilean independence and the bicentennial celebrations of that independence, and examines the contesting notions of masculinity that emerged in such contexts. Firstly, it analyses the late nineteenth-century liberal State's “civilising” discourse, which was imbued with imperial racist concepts of masculinity; secondly, a protest mestizo masculinity that emerged through the writings of Nicolás Palacios in the early twentieth century; thirdly, a revolutionary masculinity that was exalted by various actors during the Popular Unity government (1970–3); and finally, multicultural, neo-liberal configurations of masculinity in post-dictatorship Chile. It shows how the masculine ideals of physique (strength, impressive build, virility) and behaviour (independence, intelligence, bravery, spirit of adventure) projected onto the noble warrior of old have existed in tension with disparaging attitudes towards contemporary Mapuche demanding respect for their rights. It also underscores the multiple, creative ways in which Mapuche intellectuals and political leaders have engaged with dominant discourses of gender, race and nation in republican Chile.

Keywords::

• Chile
• Mapuche
• gender
• race
• nation
• violence
• power

Notes

^1. See, for example, Earle (2001, 2008), Casanova (2000), and Collier (2003).

^2. Full speech is available on the official government website. See http://www.gob.cl/discursos/2010/03/11/palacio-de-la-moneda-11-de-marzo-de-2010.htm.

^3. Available at: http://www.gob.cl/discursos/2010/09/17/izamiento-de-la-gran-bandera-nacional.htm.

^4. Joane Nagel has stated that “[h]egemonic masculinity often stands in contrast to other class-, race- and sexuality-based masculinities” (1998, 247). In the case of the mythical aura surrounding the Araucanian warrior in Chile, the “stand in contrast to” does not quite work, as this figure can be seen both as part of a hegemonic masculinity and as a counter-masculinity, hence my referring to there being a tension (as opposed to direct opposition) between them.

^5. This was translated by Freda Wolf de Romero and included in The Life and Writings of Julio C. Tello, edited by Richard Burger (2009, 103–9).

^6.Ibid.

^7. The citation is in English because it is taken from Beckman (2009, 79), and I do not have access to the original piece in Spanish.

^8. Reproduced in Pascual Ahumada (1982, 208).

^9. For a more detailed account of Mapuche participation in the War of the Pacific, see Carvajal (2006)

^10. Reproduced in Pávez (2008, 819).

^11. See, for example, Gazmuri (1981, 225–47).

^12. Clavel's article, cited above, engages with the commentaries of at least ten individuals.

^13. The ruka was the traditional rural dwelling of the Mapuche.

^14. In his public discourse, Allende promoted a revolutionary socialist project that benefitted both men and women. Despite such proclamations, however, and his emphasis on gender cooperation and certain practical improvements for women (particularly regarding contraception), the key protagonists of the political transformations led by his Popular Unity government were men. See, for example, Heidi Tinsman's work on agrarian reform (2002).

^15. The speech is available at http://www.salvador-allende.cl/Discursos/1970/Estadio_Nacional.pdf.

^16. See speech of 21 December 1970 at http://www.salvador-allende.cl/Discursos/1970. See also Allende (1971a, 1971b).

^17. As noted by Florencia Mallon (2003, 182), the ideal of masculinity deployed by the traditional organised Left in Chile “emphasised disciplined work and responsible family behaviour.”

^18. Railaf's testimony on the Allende years is reproduced in Carvajal (2006, 52–67). The quote is taken from p. 65.

^19. The poem, entitled “The Resurrection of Moisés Huentelaf,” is reproduced in full in English by Mallon (2003, 205–6). Unfortunately, I do not have the Spanish original.

^20. This kind of disease rhetoric was important across Latin America during the right-wing military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Writing on the “dirty war” in Argentina, Tal Tzvi notes: “La nación sufría un cáncer creando legitimidad ideológica para extirpar los miembros enfermos del organismo social” (see http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero15/tsvi_tal.html). Significantly, such rhetoric undermined the masculinity of those considered to be a “cancer”: they were the disease destroying the body, the site of physical masculinity.

^21. For more details, see Crow (2013, 178).

^22. At the time of writing, Michelle Bachelet had not yet been elected for a second term.

^23. See, for example, www.coha.org at the time of the miners' rescue in October 2010.

^24. That was 5 years as opposed to the 10-year sentences (or even more) that a number of Mapuche lonkos were given.

^25. A large and rich body of scholarship exists on the contradictions of neo-liberal multiculturalism and on its transformation of political activists into terrorists. See especially Charles Hale (2004), Charles Hale and Rosamel Millamán (2006), and Patricia Richards (2007, 2010).

^26. See Diane Haughney (2006, 2007).

^27. Alfredo Seguel talks of the neo-liberal State's “recurso a la violencia para controlar cualquier forma de disidencia o revindicación política” in “Mujer mapuche en la lucha territorial: violencia y discriminación en Chile” (2004). Available at http://www.mapuche.info/mapuint/seguel040900.html.

^28. For example, “650 mil hectáreas entregadas sin resultados” (El Mercurio, Revista de Campo, November 2009, 6).

^29. For example: “Fiscal asegura que un grupo armado planeaba quemar camiones que trasladan combustible” (El Mercurio, October 20, 2009, C1).

^30. Reported in El País, 30 May 2003, cited in Bacigalupo (2004, 509).

^31.Mapurbe: venganza a raíz was published as a complete book by Editores Pehuén (Santiago) in 2009, but poems from it had been published in pamphlet form long before this and were also made available on a number of websites. The poem “Lautaro” can be found at http://meli.mapuches.org/spip.php?article30.