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Partisan Participation and Ethnic Autonomy: The Case of the Mapuche Organisation Admapu, in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2015

CHRISTIAN MARTÍNEZ NEIRA  and
PATRICIA RODRÍGUEZ
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Abstract

This article examines the formation of Admapu – an organisation representing a broad sector of Mapuche society that resisted the actions of the Chilean dictatorship during the 1980s. In political memory, the period of agrarian reform marks a time of hope and strong participation, but here we show how an autonomy project developed within Admapu conflicted with those making political alliances with the Chilean Left. We examine the internal dynamics within Admapu, and argue that at the end of the decade the organisation divided into factions that cemented a rupture with the political system and brought about the formation of contemporary resistance movements.

Spanish abstract

Este artículo examina la formación de Admapu, una organización que representaba a un amplio sector de la sociedad mapuche que resistió las acciones de la dictadura chilena durante los años 1980. En la memoria política, el periodo de la reforma agraria marca un tiempo de esperanza y fuerte participación, pero aquí se muestra que un proyecto de autonomía desarrollado al interior de Admapu entró en contradicción con quienes hacían alianzas políticas con la izquierda chilena. Se examinan las dinámicas internas dentro de Admapu, y se argumenta que para fines de la década la organización se dividió en facciones lo que llevó a una ruptura con el sistema político y a la formación de movimientos de resistencia contemporáneos.

Portuguese abstract

Este artigo examina a formação da Admapu, organização que representa um amplo setor da sociedade Mapuche, a qual resistiu a ações da ditadura chilena durante a década de 1980. Na memória política, o período da reforma agrária marca um momento de esperança e forte participação. No entanto, mostramos nesse trabalho que um projeto de autonomia desenvolvido na esfera da Admapu entrou em contradição com aqueles construindo alianças políticas com a esquerda chilena. Examinamos ainda as dinâmicas internas da Admapu e argumentamos que no final da década a organização dividiu-se em facções que cimentaram uma ruptura com o sistema político, engendrando a formação de movimentos contemporâneos de resistência.

Keywords

MapucheChileAdmapupolitical participationautonomypartisan militanciesmapucheChileAdmapuparticipación políticaautonomíamilitancias de grupomapucheChileAdmapuparticipação políticaautonomiamilitâncias partidárias
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 591 - 618
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

1 Martín Correa and Eduardo Mella, Las razones del ilkun/enojo (Santiago: Lom, 2010); Tito Tricot, Autonomía, el movimiento mapuche de resistencia (Santiago: CEIBO, 2013); Patricia Richards, Race and the Chilean Miracle: Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Indigenous Rights (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013); Fernando Pairican, Malon, la rebelión del movimiento mapuche, 1990–2013 (Santiago: Pehuen, 2014).

2 Florencia Mallon, La sangre del Copihue (Santiago: Lom, 2004); Martín Correa, Raúl Molina and Nancy Yañez, La reforma agraria en tierras mapuche (Santiago: Lom, 2005). Augusto Samaniego and Carlos Ruiz, Mentalidades y política wingka: pueblo mapuche entre golpe y golpe (Madrid: CSIC, 2007).

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6 Donna Van Cott, From Movements to Parties in Latin America; Miguel Gonzalez, Araceli Burguete and Pablo Ortiz, La autonomía a debate (Quito: Flacso, 2010).

7 Deborah Yashar, Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Post-Liberal Challenge (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005); Rice, The New Politics of Protest.

8 Rice, The New Politics of Protest, p. 32.

9 Joanna Crow, Mapuche in Modern Chile, A Cultural History (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2013), p. 122.

10 Ibid ., 146.

11 Florencia Mallon, ‘El siglo XX mapuche: esferas públicas, sueños de autodeterminación y articulaciones internacionales’, in Christian Martínez Neira and Marco Estrada (eds.), Las disputas por la ethnicidad en América Latina (Santiago: Catalonia, 2009), p. 180.

12 Christian Martínez Neira, ‘Autonomía, esfera pública y alianza en la sociedad mapuche, siglos XIX y XX’, in Gonzalez et al., La autonomía a debate, pp. 571–4.

13 Rolf Foerster and Sonia Montecino, Líderes y contiendas mapuche (Santiago: CEM, 1988), pp. 286–7.

14 Crow, Mapuche in Modern Chile, p. 166.

15 Charles Hale and Rosamel Millamán, ‘Cultural Agency and Political Struggle in the Era of the Indio Permitido’, in Doris Sommer (ed.), Cultural Agency in the Americas (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), pp. 281–304.

16 Marc Becker, Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador's Modern Indigenous Movements (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2008); Lucero, José Antonio, ‘Representing “Real Indians”: The Challenges of Indigenous Authenticity and Strategic Constructivism in Ecuador and Bolivia’, Latin American Research Review, 41: 2 (2006), pp. 31–56 Google Scholar.

17 Richards, Race and the Chilean Miracle, pp. 58–9.

18 Foerster and Montecino, Lideres y contiendas mapuche, p. 287.

19 Mallon, La sangre del Copihue, 108; Correa et al., La reforma agraria en tierras mapuche, p. 140; Andrés Carvajal and José Peralta (eds.), A desalambrar (Santiago: Ayun, 2006), pp. 42–51.

20 Julián Bastías, Memorias de la lucha campesina (Santiago: Lom, 2009), pp. 57–9.

21 Florencia Mallon, ‘La piedra en el zapato: el pueblo mapuche y el estado chileno, los pueblos indígenas y los estados de América Latina’, in Claudio Barrientos (ed.), Aproximaciones a la cuestión mapuche en Chile (Santiago: RIL, 2014), pp. 35–7.

22 Rodríguez, Jorge Pinto, ‘El conflicto estado-pueblo mapuche, 1900–1960’, Universum, 27: 1 (2012), pp. 186–8Google Scholar.

23 Mallon, La sangre del Copihue, pp. 134–54.

24 Correa et al., La reforma agraria, pp. 248 and 263.

25 El Diario Austral, 23 March 1979, p. 3.

26 Hale and Millaman, ‘Cultural Agency and Political Struggle’, p. 287.

27 Sergio Contreras, Exposición, in Seminario la cultura mapuche y la democracia en Chile (Brussels: Comité Exterior Mapuche, 1984), p. 21.

28 José Bengoa, Historia de un conflicto (Santiago: Planeta, 2002), p. 162.

29 Cited in Javier Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche. Notas e hipótesis preliminares sobre la organización centros culturales mapuches de Chile/Asociación Gremial de Pequeños Agricultores y Artesanos Ad-Mapu. Paper written for ethnohistory program, University of Chile (2003), p. 4.

30 Christian Martínez Neira and Sergio Caniuqueo Huircapan, ‘Las políticas hacia las comunidades mapuche del gobierno militar y la fundación del Consejo Regional Mapuche, 1973–1983’, Veriversitas, 1 (Universidad Pedro de Valdivia, 2011), pp. 170–9.

31 Florencia Mallon, ‘El siglo XX mapuche: esferas públicas, sueños de autodeterminación y articulaciones internacionales’, in Christian Martínez Neira and Marco Estrada (eds.), Las disputas por la etnicidad en América Latina: movilizaciones indígenas en Chiapas y Araucanía (Santiago: Catalonia, 2009), pp. 167–79.

32 Cited in Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche, p. 5.

33 El Diario Austral, 30 Jan. 1979, p. 16.

34 Cited in Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche, p. 6.

35 Centros Culturales Mapuches de Chile, Declaración de Principios (Temuco, 1978), p. 2.

36 Cited in Gacitúa, Estanislao, ‘Hacia un marco interpretativo de las movilizaciones mapuches en los últimos 17 años’, Ñütram, VIII: 28 (1992), p. 30Google Scholar.

37 Interview with Eugenio Alcaman, Santiago, 27 Oct. 2008.

38 Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche, p. 18.

39 Cited in Sonia Sotomayor, Comprensión del proceso de formación y gestión de un líder mapuche evolué. Análisis del relato de vida de José Santos Millao Palacios, unpubl., MA diss., Temuco, Universidad de La Frontera (1995), p. 98.

40 Rice, The New Politics of Protest, p. 104; Haughney, Neoliberal Economics, p. 60.

41 Isolde Reuque and Florencia Mallon, Una flor que renace, autobiografía de una dirigente mapuche (Santiago: Dibam, 2002), p. 129.

42 Interview with Guido Huaiquil, Santiago, Dec. 2006.

43 Reuque and Mallon, Una flor que renace, p. 149.

44 Ibid ., p. 149.

45 Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche, p. 29.

46 Ibid .

47 In early 1980, the Socialist Party was divided in at least two broad and completely independent factions. The Almeyda faction was loyal to Clodomiro Almeyda, who called for a socialist revolution and alliances with the Communists and MIR militants. On the other hand, the renewal Socialists were formed by those who questioned real socialism and promoted the value of democracy and individual rights. Headed by Ricardo Nuñez, they made political alliances with the Christian Democrats and the Radical Party (a lay centre-left party). In the first democratic elections in 1989, these factions ran in different electoral lists, and only became reunited in 1991. The Socialist Party – Collective Direction (PSDC) was a small radical faction that split from the Almeyda socialists.

48 El Diario Austral, 29 June 1984, p. 7.

49 El Diario Austral, 31 July 1984, p. 25.

50 El Diario Austral, 29 Aug. 1984, p. 8.

51 Snow, David et al. , ‘Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation’, American Sociological Review, 51 (1986), pp. 464–5Google Scholar.

52 Haughney, Neoliberal Economics, pp. 62–3.

53 Bengoa, Historia de un conflicto, p. 161.

54 Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche, p. 24.

55 El Diario Austral, 30 Jan. 1979, p. 16.

56 El Diario Austral, 24 Feb. 1981.

57 SIUSA News, 1: 1 (1981), p. 4.

58 Alejandro Clavería, La lucha por el alfabeto mapuche, unpubl., MA diss., Universidad Católica del Norte, 2012, p. 27.

59 Ernesto Huenchulaf et al., ‘La educación como elemento central para un proyecto de desarrollo mapuche’, in T. Carrasco, D. Iturralde and J. Uquillas, Doce experiencias de desarrollo indígena en América Latina (Quito: Abya Yala, 2003), pp. 129–42.

60 Interview with Paula Pilquinao, Santiago, 11 Jan. 2011; and Diva Millapan, Santiago, 18 Jan. 2011.

61 Cauce, 102 (1987), p. 31.

62 Admapu was formed as an association of (rural) communities. The individual or urban militants did not exist, so Admapu created an ad hoc component of ‘urban residents’ to represent those that lived in cities. This group was formed primarily by university students such as José Mariman and César Loncon, who was one of the creators of the Pelquitun bulletin.

63 Interview with Elisa Loncon, 2004.

64 Interview with Domingo Colicoy, 2 Aug. 2007.

65 Chihuailaf, Arauco, ‘Mapuche: gente de la tierra. Más allá del Ñuke Mapu, el exilio’, Contribuciones desde Coatepec, 8: enero–junio (2005), pp. 157–71Google Scholar.

66 Fernando Montupil, Exposición, in Seminario la cultura mapuche y la sociedad chilena (Brussels: Comité Exterior Mapuche, 1984), pp. 15–19.

67 See the excellent work of Magnus Course, who shows how the past is represented as an accumulation of narratives about unique and singular individuals, and that Mapuche identity cannot be automatically linked to an ethnic identity. Course, Magnus, ‘Los géneros sobre el pasado en la vida mapuche rural’, Revista Chilena de Antropología (Universidad de Chile), 21 (2010), pp. 49–54 Google Scholar.

68 El Diario Austral, 15 March 1985, p. 8.

69 Análisis, 102, 6 Aug. 1985, p. 25.

70 Hale and Millaman, ‘Cultural agency and political struggle’, p. 289.

71 Lavanchy, Etnogremialismo mapuche, p. 44.

72 El Diario Austral, 20 Feb. 1986, p. 7.

73 El Diario Austral, 11 April 1986, p. 8.

74 El Diario Austral, 17 April 1987, p. 7.

75 El Diario Austral, 14 April 1987; El Diario Austral, 18 March 1987, p. 7.

76 El Diario Austral, 22 April 1987, p. 7.

77 El Diario Austral, 23 April 1987, p. 8.

78 Interview with Juan Huenupi, Cañete, 23 May 2005.

79 Interview with Juan Huenupi, Cañete, 23 May 2005.

80 El Diario Austral, 15 May 1987, p. 10.

81 Interview with Juan Huenupi, Cañete, 23 May 2005.

82 El Diario Austral, 12 April 1987, p. 8.

83 El Diario Austral, 16 May 1987, p. 7.

84 El Diario Austral, 15 Oct. 1988, p. 7.

85 Reuque and Mallon, Una flor que renace, p. 174; ‘Declaración pública Futa Trawun’, Ñütram, 2: 4 (1988), pp. 3–4 Google Scholar.

86 Interview with José Santos Millao, Admapu, Temuco, 1 April 2003.

87 Interview with Ernesto Huenchulaf, Temuco, 29 March 2007; and Domingo Raín, Malalhue, 30 March 2007.

88 Neira, Christian Martínez, ‘Transición a la democracia, militancia y proyecto étnico. La fundación de la organización mapuche Consejo de Todas las Tierras (1978–1990)’, Estudios Sociológicos, 80 (2009), pp. 605ssGoogle Scholar.

89 Interview with Melillan Painemal by Rolf Foerster, published in Ñütram, 3: 4 (1988), p. 8Google Scholar; cf. Haughney, Neoliberal Economics, p. 62.

90 Interview with Eugenio Alcaman, 27 October 2008. It is possible that Rosamel Millaman was an exception.

91 El Diario Austral, 12 Oct. 1989, p. 9.

92 El Diario Austral, 20 Jan. 1990.

93 José Mariman was an official member of the Socialist Party, and for this reason he has analysed the Admapu split as having a strictly partisan basis. José Mariman, ‘La organización mapuche Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam’, (1995), pp. 2–3, available at http://mapuche.info.scorpionshops.com/. ‘Jose Mariman left the group on a strictly political issue […] He said the PSDC had been taken over by the commanders and he wasn't one’. Interview with Domingo Colicoy, 18 Feb. 2007.