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Of Indians and Terrorists: How the State and Local Elites Construct the Mapuche in Neoliberal Multicultural Chile*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2010

PATRICIA RICHARDS
PATRICIA RICHARDS
Affiliation:
Patricia Richards is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at theUniversity of Georgia. Email: plr333@uga.edu.
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Abstract

This paper examines the production of neoliberal multiculturalism in Chile as well as ideas about race, ethnicity and nation mobilised among local elites in the Chilean South. It argues that the process of creating neoliberal multicultural citizens is not only imposed from above, but also informed by local histories, attitudes and social relationships. Official neoliberal multiculturalism is shaped by transnational and national priorities, and involves constructing some Mapuche as terrorists while simultaneously promoting multicultural policies. Local elites contribute to the shape that neoliberal multiculturalism takes on the ground by actively feeding into the terrorist construction but refusing to consent to multicultural values. Altogether, understanding neoliberal multiculturalism depends on examining the transnational, the national and the local, and discerning the ways in which social forces at each level reinforce, interact with and depart from one another.

Abstract

Este artículo examina el desarrollo del multiculturalismo neoliberal en Chile así como las ideas sobre raza, etnicidad y nación manejadas por las élites locales en el sur chileno. Se argumenta que el proceso neoliberal de creación de ciudadanos multiculturales no sólo es impuesto desde arriba, sino también estructurado por historias, actitudes y relaciones sociales locales. El multiculturalismo neoliberal oficial toma forma alrededor de prioridades transnacionales y nacionales, en donde se ha imaginado a algunos mapuches como terroristas mientras que al mismo tiempo promueve políticas multiculturales. Las élites locales contribuyen en la forma que el multiculturalismo neoliberal adquiere en la práctica al alentar activamente la construcción de la idea del terrorismo mientras rechazan consentir sobre los valores multiculturales. En resumen, entender el multiculturalismo neoliberal depende de examinar lo transnacional, nacional y local, al tiempo que se disciernen las formas en que las fuerzas sociales en cada nivel interactúan, se refuerzan y toman distancias entre sí.

Abstract

O artigo examina a produção de um multiculturalismo neoliberal no Chile juntamente com a mobilização de idéias acerca de raça, etnicidade e nação entre as elites locais no sul do Chile. Argumenta-se que o processo de criar cidadãos neoliberais e multiculturais não é somente imposto de cima para baixo, mas também ensinado pelas histórias, atitudes, e relações sociais locais. O multiculturalismo neoliberal oficial, definido por prioridades transnacionais e nacionais, envolve a construção da imagem de certos mapuche como terroristas enquanto políticas multiculturais são promovidas. As elites locais contribuem, na vida cotidiana, com o estabelecimento de um multiculturalismo neoliberal que alimenta a idéia de terrorismo recusando reconhecer valores multiculturais. Ao todo, a compreensão acerca do multiculturalismo neoliberal depende de um exame dos níveis transnacional, nacional, e local, e do discernimento das maneiras nas quais as forças sociais interagem, reforçam, e partem umas das outras.

Keywords

neoliberalismmulticulturalismindigenousChileMapuchelocal elitesdiscourses of terrorismracismneoliberalismomulticulturalismoindígenaChilemapucheélites localesdiscursos sobre terrorismoracismoneoliberalismomulticulturalismoindígenaChilemapucheelites locaisdiscursos acerca do terrorismoracismo
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 59 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 Foucault's concept of governmentality refers to a ‘system of thinking’ regarding the practice of government, including ‘who can govern, what governing is, [and] what or who is governed’. See Colin Gordon, ‘Governmental Rationality: An Introduction’, in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (Chicago, 1991), p. 3. On neoliberal multiculturalism, see especially Charles R. Hale, ‘Does Multiculturalism Menace? Governance, Cultural Rights and the Politics of Identity in Guatemala’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 34, no. 3 (2002), pp. 485–524.

2 That this article addresses elite views should not be taken to mean that elites are the only actors shaping what happens to neoliberal multicultural discourses and policies at the local level. Others, including Mapuche activists and community members, and local-level bureaucrats, proffer their own framings, which will be addressed in future work.

3 Serrano maintains that the pueblos de indios in Chile's Central Valley were early on ‘dissolved into the hacienda’. In her studies of nineteenth-century social institutions, she has found no references to the indigenous among the peasants of the Central Valley, nor evidence of languages other than Spanish. Serrano, Sol, ‘Foro: Identidad y Mestizaje’, Revista Cultura, no. 29 (2002), p. 47Google Scholar.

4 Fernando Casanueva, ‘Indios malos en tierras buenas’, in Jorge Pinto (ed.), Modernización, inmigración, y mundo indígena: Chile y la Araucanía en el siglo XIX (Temuco, 1998), pp. 55–131.

5 José Bengoa, La historia del pueblo mapuche (Santiago, 1985).

6 Jorge Pinto, La formación del estado y la nación, y el pueblo mapuche: de la inclusión a la exclusión (Santiago, 2003).

7 Ibid., pp. 154–5.

8 José Aylwin, ‘Indigenous People's Rights in Chile’ (Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies XXVIII Congress, 19–21 March 1998). The deeds establishing the reducciones were called títulos de merced.

9 José Bengoa (ed.), La memoria olvidada: historia de los pueblos indígenas en Chile (Santiago, 2004). From early on, Mapuche individuals and communities waged efforts to reclaim their ancestral lands (often called tierras antiguas) as well as their ‘reduced’ land claims.

10 Pinto, La formación del estado y la nación.

11 Jeffrey L. Gould, To Die in This Way: Nicaraguan Indians and the Myth of Mestizaje, 1880–1965 (Durham NC, 1998); Hale, ‘Does Multiculturalism Menace?’

12 Palacios argued that the ‘Chilean race’ was a mixture of indigenous and Visigoth roots, which he considered superior to the Spanish. Patrick Barr-Melej, Reforming Chile: Cultural Politics, Nationalism, and the Rise of the Middle Class (Chapel Hill NC, 2001).

13 Ibid.

14 Illanes argues that while the ‘raza chilena’ is not considered purely ‘white’, mestizo identity is, to this day, taboo, and the mestizo is denied just as the Indian is. Maria Angelica Illanes, ‘Los mitos de la diferencia y la narrativa historiografica chilena’, in Sonia Montecino (ed.), Revisitando Chile: identidades, mitos e historias (Santiago, 2003), pp. 588–92.

15 Foerster, Rolf, ‘Sociedad mapuche y sociedad chilena: la deuda histórica’, POLIS, vol. 1, no. 2 (2001)Google Scholar.

16 Martín Correa, Raúl Molina and Nancy Yáñez, La Reforma Agraria y las tierras mapuches: Chile 1962–1975 (Santiago, 2005).

17 Comisión Asesora en Temas de Desarrollo Indígena, Informe (Santiago, 1999); Coordinación de Organizaciones Mapuche (COM), Propuesta de organizaciones territoriales mapuche al estado de Chile (Gulu Mapu, 2006).

18 José Aylwin, ‘El acceso de los indígenas a la tierra en los ordenamientos jurídicos de América Latina: un estudio de casos’, CEPAL document (Santiago, 2001); COM, Propuesta de organizaciones territoriales.

19 Foerster, ‘Sociedad mapuche y sociedad chilena’.

20 Correa, Molina and Yáñez, La Reforma Agraria y las tierras mapuches. Florencia Mallon suggests that by simply not returning all fundos to their pre-Agrarian Reform owners, emphasising economic ‘efficiency’ and actually allowing some beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform to keep their plots, the dictatorship's agrarian officials were able to retain an image of objectivity, even as they laid the groundwork for the intensification of export-based industrial farming and forestry. Florencia Mallon, Courage Tastes of Blood: The Mapuche Community of Nicolás Ailío and the Chilean State, 1906–2001 (Durham NC, 2005).

21 Aylwin, , ‘Indigenous People's Rights in Chile’; Diane Haughney, ‘Neoliberal Policies, Logging Companies, and Mapuche Struggle for Autonomy in Chile’, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, vol. 2, no. 2 (2007), pp. 141–60Google Scholar.

22 Charles R. Hale, Más que un Indio – More than an Indian: Racial Ambivalence and Neoliberal Multiculturalism in Guatemala (Santa Fe, 2006); Nancy Grey Postero, ‘Articulations and Fragmentations: Indigenous Politics in Bolivia’, in Nancy Grey Postero and Leon Zamosc (eds.), The Struggle for Indigenous Rights in Latin America (Brighton, 2004), pp. 189–216; Rachel Sieder (ed.), Multiculturalism in Latin America: Indigenous Rights, Diversity and Democracy (New York, 2002).

23 Nancy Grey Postero, Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Postmulticultural Bolivia (Stanford, 2007), p. 13.

24 Hale, Más que un Indio.

25 Hale, ‘Does Multiculturalism Menace?’; Patricia Richards, Pobladoras, Indígenas, and the State (New Brunswick NJ, 2004).

26 Hale, Más que un Indio.

27 Postero, Now We Are Citizens, p. 4.

28 Alison Brysk, ‘Acting Globally: Indian Rights and International Politics in Latin America’, in Donna Lee Van Cott (ed.), Indigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America (New York, 1994), pp. 29–54; Shelton H. Davis, ‘Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Participatory Development: The Experience of the World Bank in Latin America’, in Sieder (ed.), Multiculturalism in Latin America, pp. 227–51. See also the IDB's ‘Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples and Strategy for Indigenous Development’, ‘Best Practices in Intercultural Health’, ‘Operational Guidelines for the Indigenous Peoples Policy’ and ‘2008 Report: Outsiders? The Changing Patterns of Exclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean’, at www.iadb.org, as well as the World Bank's ‘Revised Operational Policy and Bank Procedure on Indigenous Peoples’ and ‘Global Fund for Indigenous Peoples’, at www.worldbank.org.

29 Richards, Pobladoras, Indígenas, and the State.

30 In Chile, the word ‘multicultural’ only entered state parlance under Bachelet. ‘Interculturality’ gained prominence earlier, particularly in reference to education and healthcare. When I talk about Chile's version of neoliberal multiculturalism, I am referring to the indigenous policies and accompanying discourses that have been expanding since the return to democracy. In addition, while Postero differentiates between interculturality as an ‘interactive process of mutual influence among bearers of cultural and especially linguistic difference’, and multiculturalism as implying ‘recognition and respect of numerous cultures’, in Chile, both terms carry multiple meanings and are frequently used interchangeably without a great deal of clarification. Thus, like Hale, I use them interchangeably. Hale, Más que un indio; Postero, Now We Are Citizens, p. 13.

31 Peter Winn (ed.), Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002 (Durham NC, 2004), p. 25.

32 Although a detailed analysis of the contributions of Mapuche supporters is beyond the scope of this paper, it is worth noting that Mapuche organisations and communities have at various points in time counted on the solidarity of Chilean academics, NGOs, the Catholic Church, Mapuche in exile, international human rights organisations and the Mapuche media.

33 Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos, ‘La otra transición chilena: derechos del pueblo mapuche, política penal y protesta social en un estado democrático’, International Mission (April 2006).

34 Aylwin, ‘El acceso de los indígenas a la tierra’.

35 Human Rights Watch and Observatorio de Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (HRW and ODPI), ‘Undue Process: Terrorism Trials, Military Courts, and the Mapuche in Southern Chile’ (2004), available at www.hrw.org/en/reports/2004/10/26/undue-process.

36 Richards, Pobladoras, Indígenas, and the State.

37 These policies reflect the thrust of Chilean social policy more generally, which aims to ‘help individuals and communities access the market’. Schild, Verónica, ‘Neo-liberalism's New Gendered Market Citizens: The “Civilizing” Dimension of Social Programmes in Chile’, Citizenship Studies, vol. 4, no. 3 (2000), p. 286CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Interviewed 25 July 2005.

39 José Aylwin, ‘La política del “nuevo trato”: antecedentes, alcances y limitaciones’, in José Aylwin and Nancy Yáñez (eds.), El gobierno de Lagos, los pueblos indígenas y el ‘nuevo trato’: las paradojas de la democracia chilena (Santiago, 2007), pp. 9–58.

40 Ibid.

41 Hale, Más que un Indio; Postero, Now We Are Citizens.

42 Richards, Pobladoras, Indígenas and the State.

43 The ratification process was not without controversy, however. In early 2008, the Senate approved ILO Convention 169, with the addition of an ‘interpretive declaration’ limiting its scope. Indigenous organisations protested, and Bachelet waited several months to ratify the convention. When the official decree of promulgation was made in October 2008, there was no mention of the interpretive clause.

44 Azkintuwe, ‘Reconocimiento constitucional de pueblos indígenas es engañoso’, 10 March 2009. Alberto Espina, discussed below, is one of the senators promoting this bill.

45 Hale, Charles R., ‘Rethinking Indigenous Politics in the Era of the “Indio Permitido”’, NACLA Report on the Americas, vol. 38, no. 2 (2004), p. 17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 The term ‘indio permitido’ was coined by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, as explained by Charles R. Hale and Rosamel Millaman, ‘Cultural Agency and Political Struggle in the Era of the Indio Permitido’, in Doris Sommer (ed.), Cultural Agency in the Americas (Durham NC, 2006).

47 Hale, ‘Rethinking Indigenous Politics’, p. 19.

48 Hale, Más que un Indio.

49 Park, Yun-Joo and Patricia, Richards, ‘Negotiating Neoliberal Multiculturalism: Mapuche Workers in the Chilean State’, Social Forces, vol. 85, no. 3 (2007), pp. 1319–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Richards, Patricia, ‘Bravas, Permitidas, Obsoletas: Mapuche Women in the Chilean Print Media’, Gender & Society, vol. 21 (2007), pp. 553–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 William I. Robinson, ‘Social Theory and Globalization: The Rise of a Transnational State’, Theory and Society, vol. 30 (2001), pp. 157–200.

52 HRW & ODPI, ‘Undue Process’, p. 18.

53 There were more than four trials, however, because all the accused were not tried at the same time.

54 The legal system was reformed in 2000 and the new system allows for mistrial petitions. However, plaintiffs' use of this option has been widely criticised, as it was intended as a resource for defendants.

55 HRW & ODPI, ‘Undue Process’, p. 37.

56 Several of the accused in this case went into hiding rather than allow themselves to be tried under the anti-terrorism law.

57 HRW & ODPI, ‘Undue Process’.

58 The Araucanía's Ministerio Público instigated terrorism charges against three individuals in November 2008 and February 2009. The Ministry of the Interior instigated charges against a fourth in February 2009.

59 HRW & ODPI, ‘Undue Process’.

60 It is notable that two of these assassinations have taken place during Bachelet's government, just as multiculturalism is gaining prominence in state discourse. The military justice system closed the investigation of the officer who killed Lemun without charging him with any offence. However, in a surprise to many Mapuche supporters, in June 2009 a military tribunal found the officer in Catrileo's case guilty of using unnecessary force resulting in death; his penalty has yet to be established. It remains to be seen what consequences will be faced by the officer who killed Mendoza Collio. Observatorio Ciudadano, ‘Por unanimidad confirman procesamiento de carabinero que asesinó a Matías Catrileo’ (25 June 2009), www.observatorio.cl.

61 Libertad y Desarrollo, ‘Facing the Terrorism of the 21st Century’, 14 Sep. 2001.

62 National Commission on the Disappeared, Nunca más (Buenos Aires, 1984); National Security Archive, ‘On 30th Anniversary of Argentine Coup: New Declassified Details on Repression and US Support for Military Dictatorship’ and ‘The Case Against Pinochet: Ex-Dictator Indicted For Condor Crimes’, both available at www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/index.html#Latin%20America; Amy Ross, The Body of the Truth: Truth Commissions in Guatemala and South Africa, PhD thesis, University of California, 1999, p. 176; Diana Taylor, ‘Making a Spectacle: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’, in Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck and Diana Taylor (eds.), The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right (Hanover, 1997).

63 The report was written by lawyers, headed by Espina, for the Oficina de Fiscalización contra el Delito (a group founded by several municipalities), and publicised by El Mercurio on 22 Dec. 2002.

64 ‘Alerta en Arauco’, El Sur, 1 Oct. 2000; ‘La Intifada Mapuche’, El Mercurio, 4 Feb. 2001; ‘Mapuches Amenazan’, El Austral, 6 Feb. 2001; ‘Comunidades indígenas en pie de guerra’, El Austral, 9 Nov. 2001. Chiapas quotation from ‘La Intifada Mapuche’.

65 Interviewed 4 July 2005. Names of all interviewees are pseudonyms. However, the quotations from Augustín Figueroa and Jorge Luchsinger that appear in this article are excerpted from media sources; therefore, Figueroa and Luchsinger appear by their real names.

66 Azkintuwe, ‘Reconocimiento constitucional de pueblos indígenas es engañoso’. Also see transcript of 16 June 1999 special session of Chilean Senate, available at www.senado.cl.

67 Human Rights Watch, ‘Chile: Mapuches Convicted of “Terrorism”’ (2004), available at hrw.org/English/docs/2004/08/23/chile9257_txt.htm.

68 Begoña Aretxaga, ‘Playing Terrorist: Ghastly Plots and the Ghostly State’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 1, no. 1 (2000), pp. 43–58.

69 For an example of the former, see Instituto de Estudios Políticos, ‘Encuesta IDEP’ (June 2003), available at www.unab.cl/idep; for the latter, see Libertad y Desarrollo in La Tercera, ‘Conflicto mapuche: 69% cree que el gobierno debe endurecer medidas contra activistas’ (6 March 2002).

70 Merino, María Eugenia, Rosamel, Millaman, Daniel, Quilaqueo and Mauricio, Pilleux, ‘Perspectiva interpretativa del conflicto entre mapuches y no mapuches sobre la base del prejuicio y discriminación étnica’, Persona y Sociedad, vol. 18, no. 1 (2004), pp. 111–27Google Scholar.

71 I am confident that the views expressed by my respondents are representative of those of local elites in the region, regardless of age or sex. (As shall be seen, there seems to be some variation on the basis of proximity to the conflicts.) The wives and children who participated in the interviews concurred with the men's views. Likewise, interviews conducted with only women yielded similar results, as did those with younger respondents. While no social attitudes are totally universal, the quantitative findings of Merino et al. (ibid.) suggest that these views are dominant throughout the Araucanía, which, incidentally, is known as a very conservative region. It is the very existence of these views (among elites in particular), however, that facilitates the construction of the Mapuche as terrorists and contests the legitimacy of multiculturalism.

72 In his discussion of contentious memory, Stern observes that ‘selective remembrances’ are ‘ways of giving meaning to and drawing legitimacy from human experience’. Steve J. Stern, Remembering Pinochet's Chile (Durham NC, 2004), p. xxvii.

73 My thanks to a JLAS reviewer for this wording.

74 Interviewed 6 July 2005.

75 Interviewed 29 June 2005.

76 Interviewed 10 May 2006.

77 Interviewed 10 July 2005.

78 Field notes, 10 July 2005.

79 Field notes, 25 July 2006.

80 Interviewed 20 June 2006.

81 Interviewed 29 July 2005.

82 While this is a typical settler account, some early records indicate a measure of collaboration between Mapuche and European settlers. Sergio Caniuqueo, ‘Siglo XX en Gulumapu: de la fragmentación del Wallmapu a la Unidad Nacional Mapuche, 1880–1978’, in Pablo Marimán, Sergio Caniuqueo, José Millalén and Rodrigo Levil (eds.), ¡Escucha, Winka! (Santiago, 2006), pp. 129–217.

83 Cash, John, ‘The Political/Cultural Unconscious and the Process of Reconciliation’, Postcolonial Studies, vol. 7, no. 2 (2004), pp. 165–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 Interviewed 29 June 2005.

85 Interviewed 27 April 2006. It should be noted that the discourse of the other elites discussed in this chapter was also market-inflected; however, they viewed the Mapuche, their land ownership, and the conflicts as an impediment to growth in the region.

86 Eduardo Moraga Vásquez, ‘Figueroa a contraluz’, Revista el Campo (Mercurio suppl., 2003).

87 Patricio Corvalán, ‘Los días de furia de Jorge Luchsinger’, Qué Pasa (18 June 2005), p. 17.

88 Nagengast, Carol, ‘Violence, Terror, and the Crisis of the State’, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 23 (1994), p. 123CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 Interviewed 10 July 2005.

90 Field notes, 25 July 2006.

91 Interviewed 6 July 2005.

92 Interviewed 29 June 2005.

93 Lynn Horton makes a similar point when she argues that multiculturalism is both a top-down process that advances neoliberalism, and a bottom-up one that challenges it, and that these processes ‘interact in complex ways as mediated by national and local experiences’. ‘Contesting State Multiculturalisms: Indigenous Land Struggles in Eastern Panama’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 38, no. 4 (2006), p. 847.

94 Cash, ‘The Political/Cultural Unconscious’, p. 167.

95 The concept of ‘cultural agreements’ is from Calhoun, Craig, ‘Imagining Solidarity: Cosmopolitanism, Constitutional Patriotism, and the Public Sphere’, Public Culture, vol. 14, no. 1 (2002), pp. 147–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.