Etnicidad, Clase y Nacion en Allende

Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp.
319338, 2007
2007 The Author
Journal compilation 2007 Society for Latin American Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 319
Debates about Ethnicity, Class
and Nation in Allende s Chile
(1970 1973)
JOANNA CROW
University of Bristol, UK
In 1964, Salvador Allende signed the Cautn Pact with leftist
Mapuche organisations in Temuco in which they pledged to support
Allende s presidential campaign and he vowed to introduce impor-
tant socio-economic reforms to benet Mapuche communities and to
respect their culture and religion. As has been argued in previous
studies, there were limitations to the implementation of these
reforms in practice. This article suggests, however, that even so, an
important space was opened up for and by Mapuche people
within the government s left-wing nationalist project. This shift was
also reected in the works of intellectuals closely linked to the
Unidad Popular.
Keywords : Chile , Mapuche , Unidad Popular , intellectuals , agrarian re-
form , Ley indgena .
Very few studies on indigenismo in Latin America have incorporated the Chilean ex-
perience, and scholarly works on the Chilean Left have seldom examined its responses
to the country s so-called Indian problem . This is largely because Chile has been seen
as an exception to the histories of ethnic conict in other countries of the region. Chal-
lenging this consensus, I outline one key example Mapuche political mobilisation in
the 1960s and 1970s of the way in which class and ethnic conict became entangled
in twentieth-century Chile. I situate this case study within a discussion of the ways in
which intellectuals and state institutions in Chile have attempted to redene the place
of indigenous cultures (specically the Mapuche) in Chilean nationhood.
1
I argue that
1 The Ley indgena of 1993 recognised the existence of eight different indigenous groups
in Chile. This paper focuses on the Mapuche the largest group because Allende s
speeches, his government s legislation and the pro-UP intellectuals discussed here pri-
oritised them. According to ofcial statistics from the mid-1960s, there were approxi-
mately 320,000 Mapuche people in Chile (four per cent of the total population). The
majority lived in rural areas in the southern provinces (their historic homeland),
although increasing numbers were migrating to urban centres in search of work; by
1970, approximately 25 per cent of Mapuche people lived in cities such as Temuco,
Concepcin and Santiago ( Bengoa and Valenzuela, 1983: 48 49 ).
Joanna Crow
2007 The Author. Journal compilation 2007 Society for Latin American Studies
320 Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 26, No. 3
Salvador Allende s revolutionary nationalist project (which, in reality, encompassed
several competing projects)
2
was a particularly important landmark in this regard. Re-
sponding to the demands of Mapuche political organisations, Allende made radical
changes both to ofcial identity discourses and to government (social, educational and
cultural) policy on national inclusion, yet these aspects of his presidency remain un-
der-explored.
3
This article brings together fragmentary evidence from various primary
sources (mainly the works of Pablo Neruda and Alejandro Lipschutz, and congressional
debates about policy reform) and several secondary sources on Unidad Popular (UP)
legislation to explore the different ways in which Allende s government sought to in-
clude the Mapuche in the nation . It also examines claims made by indigenous peoples
themselves to be part of this identity, and the tensions that resulted from such a conver-
gence, thus providing a useful case study of the problematic relationship between the
left, ethnicity and nationalism in Latin America.
Despite Paul Drake s claim that countries like Chile were unsuited to put such an
emphasis on the Indian ( Drake, 1978: 140 ), evidence shows that the Chilean Left
sought to incorporate the Mapuche into its public discourse many years before Unidad
Popular came to power. By the mid-1920s, the Federation of Chilean Workers (FOCH)
had developed close ties with the Araucanian Foundation, a Mapuche organisation led
by Aburto Panguilef ( Bengoa, 1999: 132 ). In 1927, the Communist Party proclaimed
its commitment to defend the Indian way of life because we respect this national
minority, just as we respect their language and idiosyncracy ( Bengoa, 1999: 134 ).
4

Communist Party members and FOCH representatives attacked the government for its
repression of Mapuche peasants in Ranquil in 1934, publicising events in Congress
and the national press ( Painemal Huenchual, 1983: 52 54 ). However, leftist parties
alleged concerns for Mapuche people and culture were rarely transformed into
concrete policy, even when they were included in governing coalitions, and their ef-
forts tended to focus on drawing the stereotyped backward, primitive Mapuche
into the revolution. (Signicantly, the Communist Party s declaration in defence of
the Indian way of life , cited above, continued: naturally we aspire to perfect
[the indigenous race] and we will help them to overcome their own deciencies .)
Indeed, between the 1910s, when the rst Mapuche political organisations were
created, and the 1950s, Mapuche leaders were just as likely to afliate with the Right
as the Left ( Alb, 1999 ). By the 1960s, though, the situation had changed and
2 As noted by Chilean historian Julio Pinto, there were many different people, with
diverging even contradictory politics, involved in the Unidad Popular project. The
different groups tended to agree on the ends of the revolution, but they did not agree
on the means ( Pinto, 2005: 15 ).
3 Some studies of agrarian reform under Allende specically analyse its impact on and
the involvement of Mapuche communities (e.g. Steenland, 1977 ), and several overviews
of Chilean state policy toward indigenous peoples note the key changes implemented
by Allende s regime ( Berglund, 1977; Alb, 1999; Rupailaf, 2002; Sznajder, 2003 ;
Richards, 2004 ). However, they offer little detailed analysis of the implications of such
policy changes within the broader context of debates about nationalism and national
identity.
4 Unless otherwise stated, all translations are my own.
Ethnicity, Class and Nation in Chile
Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 26, No. 3 321
Mapuche organisations became more consistently linked to leftist parties ( Foerster
and Montecino, 1988 ).
Scholars have frequently highlighted the Left s efforts to develop the class-con-
sciousness of Mapuche peasants; Loveman, for example, noted how the number of
unionised rural workers soared during the Unidad Popular government ( Loveman,
1976: 289 ). However, it is also important to bear in mind the cultural resurgence
that was taking place among Mapuche people during the same period. Newspapers
from the early 1960s documented many instances of political mobilisation around a
specically Mapuche identity.
5
In 1966, Mapuche poet Sebastin Queupul Quintremil
published Poemas mapuches en castellano , the rst book of bilingual (Mapuzungun-
Spanish) poetry to be authored by a Mapuche writer (Queupul, 1966 ). In 1970,
local Mapuche leaders organised the defence of the Araucanian Museum of Temuco
when it was threatened with closure: they organised street protests in Temuco; they
also sent delegations to Santiago to plead their case to the government.
6
It was not
simply a case of the Mapuche being mobilised by the Unidad Popular or leftist or-
ganisations. To argue thus diminishes the agency of Mapuche people themselves,
undermining the fact that many Mapuche intellectuals and community leaders were
developing their own ethnic-based demands independently of mainstream political
parties. It is perhaps more accurate to say that the Left was able to draw on this
growing ethnic consciousness because many Mapuche leaders decided that their
people s demands (particularly with regard to the land problem) were more likely to
be achieved through a broader class-based alliance.
It is clear that the Left (and even some governments on the centre Right, such as
that of Carlos Ibaez (1952 1958)) had sought to incorporate the Mapuche into
discourses of Chilean nationhood long before 1970. Nonetheless, many contempo-
rary Mapuche intellectuals have identied the Unidad Popular government as an
important turning point in the historic relationship between the Mapuche and the
Chilean state ( Cayul, 1989 : 26; Antillanca, Cuminao and Loncn, 2000: 35 ).
Mapuche academic Ral Rupailaf recently went so far as to claim that the Ley ind-
gena of 1972 was an inspiration to other Latin American countries; it was, he said,
at the forefront of important changes regarding indigenous rights in the region ( Ru-
pailaf, 2002: 70 ). Even the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco, a Mapuche organisation
labelled extremist by the Chilean press (several leaders are currently in prison on
charges of terrorism), has praised the accomplishments of Allende s government. The
organisation s Annual Report (2002) described it as the rst real opportunity that
the Mapuche had to solve a difcult situation of political, social and territorial mar-
ginalisation ( Corvaln, 2003: 28 ). This contemporary revisionism coincides with
recent efforts in Chile to recall positive and perhaps less controversial aspects of
5 E .g. Nguillatn habr hoy y maana en el lugar indgena Collimalin , El Diario Aus-
tral (18 March 1960); Estudiantes mapuches se han unido bajo una nueva entidad: la
Ademay , El diario Austral (10 May 1960); Eclosin mapuche en Arauco y Malleco ,
Ercilla (16 May 1962).
6 See Formado Comit Defensor del Museo Araucano , El Diario Austral , 12 February
1970; Campaa pro-defensa del Museo Araucano , Gong , 13 February 1970.
Joanna Crow
Allende s regime.
7
(It is worth noting that it was an opposition-controlled Congress
that approved Allende s Ley indgena in 1972.) Such a re-evaluation is also indicative
of political developments in Latin America more generally the rethinking of revo-
lutionary politics, and the convergence of an indigenous rights-based discourse with
other popular sectors struggles against neo-liberalism triggered by the collapse of
the traditional Left. Allende was manifestly keen to promote himself as pro-Mapu-
che and he was well aware of the importance and utility of symbolic gesture. Film
footage of his electoral campaigns (in 1964 and 1970) in the southern provinces, for
instance, shows him in a poncho, travelling by cart and accompanied by many
Mapuche compaeros .
8
Photographs exhibited in the National History Museum in
Santiago also testify to such electoral strategies.
9
Having signed the Cautn Pact
with Mapuche organisations in 1964, one of the rst things Allende did as president
was to travel to Temuco to preside over the closing session of the Second National
Mapuche Congress (December 1970). In a speech to Congress in 1971, he speci-
cally sought to distinguish the Unidad Popular from previous governments, claiming
that the indigenous problem [was] a fundamental concern of the Popular Govern-
ment, as it should be for all Chileans ( Allende Gossens, 1971: 2783 ). It was also
during his government that the music group Quilapayn, which drew heavily on
indigenous musical styles, instruments and imagery (indeed, its very name was Ma-
puche), became an ofcial representative of Chilean culture ( Pinto, 2005: 149 ).
10

Moreover, when the publishing house Zig-Zag was bought by the state in 1972 and
given the task of democratising the literary experience (i.e., producing thousands of
cheap copies of key texts), it was renamed Quimant, a Mapuche word meaning the
light of knowledge .
Pablo Neruda: Seeking Inspiration in Chile s Indigenous Past
Studies of indigenismo may have excluded the Chilean experience, but few stud-
ies of Pablo Neruda have failed to mention his defence or indeed glorication of na-
tive America. Neruda was a close friend of Allende and a key spokesman for the
7 A recent truth commission on indigenous rights in Chile conrmed the Unidad Pop-
ular s positive legacy among the Mapuche: according to one of its reports, Allende s
government struck a deep chord with the Mapuche people: [seeking to restore]
what had been destroyed by colonialism ( Vera, Aylwin, Couecar and Chihuailaf,
2004: 83 ).
8 Some of this footage was shown at El sueo existe [ The Dream Exists ], a memorial
concert held in Chile s National Stadium in September 2003 to commemorate the
30-year anniversary of Allende s death.
9 In 2003, these images could be found in the last room on the top oor of the museum,
in a photo collage documenting the social and political changes of the 1960s.
10 Throughout the UP era, Quilapayn ran mobile workshops in Chile s most deprived
neighbourhoods. The group also toured Europe as representatives of Chile.
UP: he was appointed ambassador for Chile in France, and through speeches and
public appearances he tirelessly laboured to gain international support for Allende s
government as it came under increasing attack at home. He also played a central role
in imagining a new revolutionary Chilean nation, drawing heavily on the heroic im-
agery surrounding the indomitable Araucanian warrior of the sixteenth century. Per-
petuating a discourse invented by political leaders of the independence era, Neruda
attempted to link the Mapuche s victorious struggle against the Spanish conquistado-
res to a national identity based on resistance ( Lewis, 1994 ). However, his narrative
diverged from these earlier (ofcial) uses of Chile s indigenous past by connecting
such resistance to the class conict of contemporary Chile.
The plight of Chile s indigenous peoples did not become a major concern
for Neruda until he went to Mexico in 1940 (at least, there is no reference to
indigenous peoples in either his writings or his speeches before this). As consul
there, Neruda sought to increase Mexicans awareness of Chilean culture and, to
this end, published a magazine called Araucana , which displayed the smiling face
of a Mapuche woman on the front cover. Neruda sent copies to state ofcials in
Chile, purportedly expecting praise and gratitude for his endeavour. Instead, he
was severely reprimanded and instructed to suspend the publication: We are not
a country of Indians! , they told him ( Neruda, 1968 ). From this point on, Neruda
seemed determined to incorporate Mapuche people as central protagonists in his
version of the national narrative. The poems of Canto general (1950) continually
exalted the bravery and military prowess of the Araucanian warriors and
proclaimed them the liberators of the Chilean nation. In Educacin del cacique
[ Training of a Chief ], Neruda praised the cunning and intelligence of one of these
liberators, Lautaro: His youth a driving wind. / He prepared himself like a long
spear. / He accustomed his feet to the cascades. / He trained his head in the thorns
(Neruda, 1991).
By romanticising the heroic Mapuche past but ignoring their suffering in the pre-
sent, Canto general largely subscribed to the dominant discourses of Chilean national
identity. However, Neruda rejected the stereotypical imagery of barbarism surround-
ing the Mapuche warriors, focusing instead on the well-developed strategies behind
their battleeld tactics (as shown above in Educacin del cacique ), and, overall, his
poetic representations of indigenous peoples seem to have been well received by
Mapuche readers and listeners. A Mapuche poet, Elicura Chihuailaf, for example, has
recently translated some of Neruda s verses, including Educacin del cacique , into
Mapuzungun and praised the Nobel Laureate s understanding of the Mapuche way
of life ( Chihuailaf, 1996 ). More important than Neruda s indigenismo itself, though,
was his attempt to use the glorious Mapuche rebellions of the past to justify the so-
cialist revolution of the present. In Neruda s narrative, Arauco s celebrated tradition
of resistance was reincarnated in key political gures such as Luis Emilio Recabarren
and it was the workers who ultimately emerged as the hroes de la patria . Signi-
cantly, this link between the noble Mapuche warriors of old and the contemporary
working classes was appropriated and perpetuated by Neruda s left-wing allies in the
Chilean Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Congratulating Neruda on his Nobel Prize
in 1971, Communist secretary-general Luis Corvaln said he has sung of everything,
Joanna Crow
of the sea, of the stones [ ] and at the same time of man, of the heroes of the home-
land, of our Araucanian ancestors, of the miner, the railroad worker ( Teitelboim,
1996: 462 ).
In Neruda s Incitacin al nixoncidio y alabanza de la revolucin chilena (Neruda,
1973), the connection between the historic Mapuche struggle against Spanish colonial-
ism and the Chilean workers contemporary struggle against savage capitalism and US
imperialism was made even more explicit. Willing Chile s socialist revolution to suc-
ceed, Neruda invoked the verses of Alonso de Ercilla s sixteenth-century epic poem La
Araucana (in capital letters) to glorify the Unidad Popular and demonise US interfer-
ence in Chilean affairs:
The world made out the sudden blaze
and in your honour repeated the glorious voice:
ITS PEOPLE ARE SO
[DISTINGUISHED,
so united, so resolute and brave,
the Unidad Popular in its prime,
SO MAGNIFICENT, NOBLE AND
[WARLIKE,
that it will risk its life in the struggle
against the seditious, suspect groups.
The people s illustrious lineage,
is, as yesterday, rich and proud
AND HAS NEVER BEEN RULED BY A KING.
And even if attacked and assaulted
my homeland, Chile will never be defeated
NOR SUBJUGATED TO ANY FOREIGN
[AUTHORITY.
Anti-imperialism has been a common theme of left-wing nationalist rhetoric
throughout Latin America. Neruda most certainly drew on this tradition in the
poem Juntos hablamos (in Incitacin al nixoncidio ) above. In earlier works, such
as Canto general , however, the poet s glorication of the indigenous past and
attacks on US imperialist strategies were as much americanista as they were nation-
alist: it was their indigenous past and resistance against US domination that united
the countries of Latin America. In this sense, Neruda often sought to transcend
rather than reinforce national boundaries. The coming together of nationalism and
americanismo can also be found in Allende s ofcial rhetoric, a point developed
below.
The Mapuche were also present in Neruda s prose. Moreover, they were Mapuche of
the twentieth century, not of Chile s colonial past. In Nosotros los indios (1968), Ner-
uda protested against the lack of ofcial will to protect Mapuche culture and language,
and campaigned for the establishment of an Araucanian University, where the teaching
would be done in Mapuzungun. Volodia Teitelboim recently afrmed this element
of Neruda s political agenda, detailing his numerous conversations about education
with Mapuche politician Rosendo Huenumn ( Teitelboim, 1996: 432 ).
11
That Neruda
was also in contact with Mapuche leader and fellow Communist Martin Painemal,
who invited him to speak at a meeting organised by the National Indigenous Associa-
tion, is further proof that the poet engaged with the contemporary Mapuche struggle
against discrimination and exploitation ( Painemal Huenchual, 1983: 83 ). Neruda was
thus presented and presented himself as a man who talked with and not just about
Mapuche people; he also supported them in many of their demands, particularly with
regard to education. As I explore below, Allende s government did implement, or at
least planned to implement, some important changes in this area.
Alejandro Lipschutz: Anthropology and Revolutionary Discourses
of Nationhood
Of Lithuanian descent, Lipschutz rst went to Chile in 1926 and became a Chilean na-
tional in 1930. He worked in the Physiology Department at the University of Concep-
cin until 1937, at which point he was invited by the government of Arturo Alessandri
to become director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Santiago. By the 1960s,
he was working at the prestigious University of Chile, and in 1970, he was awarded the
National Science Prize by Allende s government.
Despite drawing his income from experimental science, Lipschutz was also widely
acclaimed for his anthropological endeavours, particularly his studies of indigenous
peoples. The National Science Prize was, after all, bestowed upon him not only for his
work in endocrinology but also for his cultural indigenismo ( www.gobiernodechile.
cl ). Moreover, Lipschutz was a member of the Chilean Communist Party; he was
actively involved in Salvador Allende s administration and was persecuted for it when
Pinochet came to power in 1973.
12
For the purposes of this paper, the signicance of
his work lies in its attempts to bring anthropology and history together to rewrite
Chile s national narrative, as well as its efforts to surpass traditional Marxist interpre-
tations of ethnic and racial issues.
In early works, such as Indoamrica y raza india (1937), Lipschutz refuted the
biological theory of race, asserting instead the dynamic and changing nature of human
societies. He denounced the idea that some peoples were biologically superior to others
as completely absurd and ridiculed the notion that racial mixing produced a degen-
erative people ( Lipschutz, 1937: 49 ). More specically, he criticised the way in which
such ideas had been used by Latin American ruling elites for the purposes of political
propaganda (15). The fact that indigenous peoples were decreasing in numbers in
Latin America was not explained by biological factors, Lipschutz argued, but instead
by the destruction of their traditional social organisation. Furthermore, this decrease
11 Rosendo Huenumn, a member of the Communist Party, was elected as deputy for the
province of Cautn in the congressional elections of March 1973.
12 Lipschutz s house was ransacked by state agents on several occasions and his collection
of books, which he had donated to the Universidad de Chile, was destroyed.
Joanna Crow
did not necessarily imply indigenous communities impending extinction, as so many
academics presumed. On the contrary, Lipschutz cited many examples of their cultural
resistance and survival (52).
Lipschutz concluded Indoamrica y raza india by promoting the cultural values of
Latin America s indigenous peoples and asserting their active role in national societies,
an argument that remained prominent in his work for the next 35 years. In Indo-
americanismo y el problema racial en las Amricas (1944), the author turned to the
specic case of Chile, claiming that the Araucanians in later books he referred
to them as Mapuche had participated fully in the formation of our Chilean race
( Lipschutz, 1944: 159 ). In contrast to many scholars at the time who presented
Mapuche society as one homogenous whole, Lipschutz stressed its internal diversity.
He also claimed that there was nothing to distinguish between Mapuche and white
Chileans in physical or intellectual terms. Instead, he said, it was their culture and
language (as well as social discrimination) which set Mapuche people apart (159).
Lipschutz s indoamericanismo promoted the economic and cultural vindication of
the indigenous masses in Latin America and urged the need for agrarian reform, which
he saw as crucial to the continent s future resurreccin indoamericana . By the 1970s,
he claimed that this resurrection had already become a reality for Chile s Mapuche
population: it is more than evident that there is a fervent desire for cultural resurgence
among the Mapuche of Chile ( Lipschutz, 1974: 128 ). One only had to look at the
poetry of Sebastian Queupul, Lipschutz asserted, to appreciate the Mapuche people s
growing condence in their cultural and spiritual values.
Despite his fervent Communist beliefs, Lipschutz appeared to transcend the conven-
tional Marxist approach to modernisation. He did not, for example, subscribe to the
view that class would eventually erase ethnicity: he conceived of race and ethnicity as
strongly connected to class but not reducible to it. Lipschutz argued that the category
of Indian could not be understood outside its social context: in colonial times, Indians
were allocated a specic economic role (slavery, forced labour), which continued, he
said, albeit in a different guise, after independence. Even in the twentieth century,
indigenous peoples often suffered the highest rates of social exclusion. However, he
did not ignore the important cultural elements of Indian identity and he repeatedly
stressed that indigenous cultures were not about to disappear in Latin America. Chile,
he proclaimed, was home to at least 400,000 Mapuche ( Lipschutz, 1974: 132 ). He
promoted the integration of this people, but he argued for an integration that allowed
the Mapuche to continue to be culturally different. More signicant, however, was
Lipschutz s emphasis on the ability of Mapuche culture to change, adapt and moder-
nise without necessarily becoming less Mapuche. Speaking Spanish, wearing a
mini-skirt and living in a modern house, he professed, did not inevitably mean that
someone had lost their Mapuche identity; it implied instead a renegotiated version of
Mapuche-ness (129). Identities, for Lipschutz, then, were exible and constantly
shifting, rather than innate and static.
Scholars such as Jorge Larran have commented on Lipschutz s work, but have
failed to acknowledge his impact in Chilean intellectual and political circles ( Larran,
2001 ). It would be overstating the case to say that Lipschutz managed to form an
indigenista movement in Chile, but evidence shows that his work was widely dissemi-
nated both nationally and internationally. By the early 1970s, he had given numerous
conference papers at the University of Chile, written articles for the Revista chilena de
historia y geografa , Aurora and the Boletn de la Universidad de Chile , and published
six books with mainstream publishing houses. He had also been invited to several
symposia abroad and was actively involved in the Instituto Indigenista Interamericano.
Lipschutz discussed his work with many other Chilean intellectuals and political g-
ures, such as Toms Lago, Olga Poblete, Alvaro Jara, Luis Sandoval and Luis Corva-
ln ( Lipschutz, 1968 ). Indeed, in 1963, Neruda described him as the most important
man in Chile (prologue to Lipschutz, 1963 : xi). All of this suggests that Lipschutz s
work did not emerge from a vacuum in Chile, but was instead part of a larger intel-
lectual debate.
This debate had a signicant impact on the Unidad Popular government of Salvador
Allende. Lipschutz argued against the liquidation of indigenous communal lands. He
also opposed the cultural assimilation of indigenous peoples into the Chilean nation,
and instead supported such measures as bilingual teaching in schools. Both issues were
incorporated into the government s revolutionary project. Indeed, Allende specically
requested that Lipschutz be brought in to advise the authorities on how to include
Mapuche communities in the agrarian reform process. Consequently, Lipschutz be-
came involved in drawing up the new Ley indgena passed by Congress in 1972, and
must have had a key role to play, as Allende made direct reference to his work when
he presented the new legislation to Congress in 1971 ( Allende Gossens, 1971: 2783 ).
Against the backdrop of this discussion of attempts by Chilean intellectuals to re-
dene the relationship between the Mapuche, the state and Chilean national identity,
I will now explore the Unidad Popular reforms in further detail.
Revolution in the Countryside
Peaceful revolution, as Brian Loveman has commented, requires a formidable level of
consensus on values and objectives (Loveman, 1993: 24), which did not exist in Chile in
the early 1970s. Indeed, it did not even exist within the Chilean Left. This was nowhere
more apparent than in debates about agrarian reform how quickly it should be imple-
mented, how much land should be expropriated, what to do with the expropriated land
and so forth. Notably, Mapuche organisations and political leaders were an important
element of the diversity on the Left, particularly in the southern provinces, where the
majority of peasants were Mapuche and where there was a history of severe land scarcity
( Steenland, 1977 : 85 86; Mallon, 2005: 106 ). It was also in the southern provinces,
namely Cautn (historic Mapuche territory), where most of the illegal land-occupations
and, hence, violent conict occurred ( Loveman, 1976 : 281; Steenland, 1977: 207 ).
From the outset, the Unidad Popular pledged to deal with the specic needs of
Chile s indigenous population in its agrarian reform programme. A leaet entitled
Programa del gobierno popular , produced by Allende s election team in 1970, told
Chileans that the revolutionary state would protect the rights of indigenous people,
whose lands have been usurped, and [ ] provide assistance to assure that they [could]
work these lands efciently (Comando Nacional, 1970: 19). Once president, Allende
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appointed Jacques Chonchol as Minister of Agriculture. Chonchol was renowned for
his mapuchista [Mapuche-friendly] agrarian policy; indeed, so preoccupied was he
with the land conicts in the south that he temporarily moved his ministry to Temuco
in January 1971 ( Mallon, 2005: 106 ). As noted above, anthropologist Alejandro
Lipschutz was drafted in to advise the government about the incorporation of Mapu-
che communities into the agrarian reform. Perhaps drawing on Lipschutz s work,
Allende highlighted the specicity of the Mapuche land problem in a speech to Con-
gress in May 1971. Mapuche peasants, he said, fought to reclaim land that had
belonged to their ancestors, land that had been usurped by local hacendados since the
nineteenth century. In contrast, non-Mapuche peasants fought for land to which they
had never had access, land which they had worked but which had not been theirs
( Allende Gossens, 1971: 2783 ). And it was no coincidence that in 1973 the govern-
ment agency ICIRA published a revised edition of Pascual Coa s Memoirs of a
Mapuche Leader (Coa, 1973).
13
Evidently, a history of Mapuche communities loss
of ancestral lands, their exploitation by local hacendados and their increasing poverty
helped to justify the Unidad Popular s expropriation of the large estates.
Allende pledged to eliminate the hacienda system in Chile. By 1973, he had largely
achieved his goal; almost all farms over 80 BIH (basic irrigated hectares) had been
expropriated by the state ( Loveman, 1976: 280 ). His government had not been able
to pass its own agrarian reform law through Congress, but it had employed the legis-
lation enacted by the Christian Democrats in 1967, sought out loopholes and pushed
it to its limits. In six years, the Christian Democrats had expropriated approximately
1,300 properties; in two years, the Unidad Popular had expropriated over 3,000
( Loveman, 1976: 280 ). In six years, the Christian Democrats had managed to return
only 1,443 hectares to Mapuche communities; by the end of 1971, the UP had already
returned 68,381 hectares ( Alb, 1999: 822 ). This process of return, restitution and
expropriation (of lands stolen from Mapuche communities since the late nineteenth
century) was to be accelerated by the Institute of Indigenous Development, created by
the new Ley indgena of 1972, which will be discussed later. For the moment, I will
focus on the way in which the Mapuche were incorporated into and took active and
diverse roles in the more general agrarian reform process.
Kyle Steenland has described how the grievances of Mapuche communities in the
province of Cautn led to a great wave of illegal occupations of farms during the time
of the UP government ( Steenland, 1977 ). These started under Frei in the late 1960s,
but escalated in the early 1970s, partly because peasants were aware that the govern-
ment was reluctant to use the police against them. With nancial and technical assis-
tance from the state, the occupied lands were turned into farming co-operatives, and
many were named after legendary Mapuche heroes such as Lautaro, Caupolicn or
Galvarino (Steenland, 108). Steenland summarised the achievements of the reform by
saying we must remember that because of it tens of thousands of Chilean peasants
took control of their lives for the rst time (22).
Mallon s in-depth historical study of Nicols Ailo, a community involved in the
illegal occupation of the Ruculan farm (mentioned by Steenland), also shows some of
13 Imprenta Cervantes published the original edition in 1930.
the positive consequences of agrarian reform for Mapuche people in Cautn. She
describes through interviews with the landowners and peasants involved the
take-over itself (in December 1970), its violent but brief re-occupation and the govern-
ment s eventual expropriation of the farm in February 1971. For those Mapuche that
participated, she said, the occupation of Ruculan was the centre piece of a story about
overcoming exploitation through direct action ( Mallon, 2005: 17 ). The government
supported this action, and the farm was turned into an agrarian co-operative. Accord-
ing to Mallon, the Unidad Popular years were remembered as a time of tremendous
productivity; the Corporation of Agrarian Reform (CORA) assisted with technical aid,
machinery, fertiliser and herbicides, and participants recalled the commitment, strength
and sense of celebration that they shared (113).
In these accounts, the main protagonists of land reform were Mapuche peasants.
They acquired land not through state initiative, but rather because they organised and
took it over themselves. Both Chonchol and Allende publicly condemned such land
invasions, on the grounds that they hindered the reform by creating a climate of
instability in the region, thereby making the government vulnerable to attacks from
the Right. However, Chonchol went on to expropriate many of the occupied farms,
thereby lending legality to the illegal actions of the peasants. In a sense, then, Mapuche
peasants were not so much part of the revolutionary state s project, as working outside
it. Collaborating with groups such as the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR),
which was not part of the governing coalition, they forced Allende to speed up the
agrarian reform and to consider farms (smaller than 80 BIH) that had not been on
his original agenda.
Two further points emerge from the narratives of land invasions in southern Chile:
the diversity of the Chilean Left and the internal diversity of Mapuche communities,
both of which help to explain the problematic relationship that existed between ethnic
and class mobilisation. The MIR encouraged peasants to take over land themselves
rather than wait for it to be expropriated legally ( Steenland, 1977: 82 ). There were
also elements within the governing coalition, such as left-Socialists and the United
Popular Action Movement (MAPU), who rejected the UP s commitment to working
within the framework of existing legal norms ( Loveman, 1976: 280 ). In contrast, the
Communist Party vociferously denounced the land seizures. Mapuche communities
were also divided on the issue. As documented by Mallon, several members of Nicols
Ailo considered the strategy foreign to local practice; they did not want to collaborate
with the MIR, preferring to continue their struggle for the restitution of community
lands through the courts ( Mallon, 2005: 6 ). The rupture caused by the occupation of
Ruculan was exacerbated in the years of repression following the coup and in 2005
had still not been healed.
Mapuche peasants collaboration with the MIR is a subject of great debate.
Those who criticised the radicalisation of agrarian reform claimed the Mapuche
were manipulated by the MIR, used as pawns in a struggle in which they had very
little say. Steenland noted the peasants initial suspicion of the MIR activists when
the latter arrived in the region in the late 1960s, but then described how, after
months of living in the communities and sharing the same food and work, they
began to be trusted ( Steenland, 1977: 74 75 ). According to the author, the inuence
Joanna Crow
of the MIR was clear in written declarations made by peasant groups, but this did
not mean the MIR misrepresented them (Steenland, 80). In brief, Mapuche com-
munities, well aware of their situation of economic, social and political marginalisa-
tion, asked for advice and help from the MIR, and received it. Mallon, likewise,
criticised the way in which landowners transformed Mapuche peasants into little
more than puppets for a group of armed miristas ( Mallon, 2005: 91 ). She argued
that the take-over of the Ruculan farm was supported but not led by the MIR;
members of Nicols Ailo made use of the advice of MIR activists through the
MCR (the Revolutionary Peasant Movement) but only one mirista participated in
the take-over.
It is important to distinguish between the MIR and the MCR. Members of the
MCR were often sympathisers of the MIR, and the latter initially helped to organise
the MCR, but they were not the same organisations. Moreover, in provinces such as
Cautn, the MCR was comprised mainly of Mapuche peasants. Hence, it was not an
outside imposition, but an organisation in which many Mapuche people were
actively involved; they were part of it and they set its agenda. Indeed, two key
leaders of the MCR, Moiss and Felix Huentelaf, were Mapuche. The former was
killed by landowners in an attempted take-over ( Mallon, 2005: 111 ); the latter,
vice-president of the movement, was imprisoned shortly after Pinochet s coup
( Steenland, 1977: 204 ).
It is also important to analyse the limits of the agrarian reform, notwithstanding
the positive achievements discussed above. There were many such limits, and Mapu-
che peasants were as much involved in these failings as they were in the successes.
First and foremost were the effects of the political and social upheavals that domi-
nated the UP era. Whether caused by the government policies, or triggered by
opposition parties aiming to bring down the government, it is clear that they pre-
vented many new co-operatives from working productively. Another problematic
feature of the reform process was the National Peasant Council, created by state
decree in December 1970. It was supposed to provide a participatory role for peasant
organisations, both locally and nationally ( Loveman, 1976: 285 ). However, the func-
tion of the Peasant Councils, particularly with regard to their relationship with
peasant unions, the Centres of Agrarian Reform (CERAs) and the agrarian agencies,
was never made clear ( Steenland, 1977: 116 ). Moreover, indigenous communities
one of the groups to which the Unidad Popular had promised the most were not
represented in the government s peasant council scheme ( Winn and Kay, 1974: 150 ).
Mapuche peasants in Cautn, in protest against such a top-down initiative, formed
directly elected local councils and demanded that these be recognised by the govern-
ment. Eventually Chonchol acquiesced, permitting the creation of a larger council
which represented unorganised as well as organised peasants. Again, Mapuche
peasants had forced the government to revise its policy. As noted by Steenland,
Mapuche rural workers were able to dominate the agenda of Lautaro s Peasant
Council simply because they made up almost 90 per cent of the delegates attending
its conferences ( Steenland, 1977: 149 ).
One of the most contentious aspects of agrarian reform under Allende was the
organisation of the expropriated land what production unit would provide the
basis of socialist agriculture in Chile? Although government policy on this was not
entirely clear, the basic aim was to transform the expropriated farms into farming
co-operatives. Congress strongly opposed such state-led collectivisation of land
( Gobierno de Chile, 1972: 336 341 ). There were also Mapuche farmers who dis-
agreed with it. Even members of the Nicols Ailo community, whose memories of
the period are largely positive, have complained that their co-operative was managed
inefciently. Some remembered that people fought and drank too much; they also
recalled a lack of discipline ( Mallon, 2005: 119 120 ). More importantly, there is
much evidence to suggest that Mapuche peasants contrary to popular assumption
found it difcult to work collectively on the expropriated land. As documented by
Steenland, they tended to spend more time on their individual plots than on the
co-operative, and they refused to give up their lands on the reservations ( Steenland,
1977: 210 ). In his speech to Congress in May 1971, Allende repeatedly asserted that
even though the formal ownership of indigenous lands was collective, Mapuche
people had a tradition of farming and managing their land individually ( Allende
Gossens, 1971: 2786 2788 ). Rather than accept this, however, he wanted to trans-
form their agricultural system into one of collective production, on the grounds that
land shortages made individual farming unsustainable (2789). He knew the reality
of the situation, but he wanted to change it.
Thus emerge the competing discourses of class and ethnicity in the Unidad Pop-
ular s revolutionary nationalism. Mallon claimed that indigenous cultural practices
were relegated to a secondary, almost clandestine, plane during this period. She
quoted Mario Castro recalling how in those days people didn t understand the
cultural issues, the ethnic question [ ] they didn t differentiate between the Mapu-
che peasant and the wigka [non-Mapuche or Chilean] peasant [ ] This was one of
the biggest problems back then ( Mallon, 2005: 121 122 ). Such statements intimate
that Allende s willingness to acknowledge the distinct culture and history of Mapu-
che peasants had not been transferred into practice. Emphasis, Mallon argued, was
almost exclusively placed on the class element of mobilisation and, as a result, pow-
erful sources of inspiration and political strength that formed part of Mapuche
peasant identity were closed off (123).
Overall, Mallon s assessment of the amount of space that existed for indigenous
cultural practices during the early 1970s is a very negative one. Yet evidence suggests
that many Mapuche people continued to value their distinctive ethnic identity, and
that they often organised around it. Mallon herself mentioned traditional Mapuche
ceremonies being held at this time (even if some people refused to participate); she
also noted the continuing importance of Mapuche networks of kinship and exchange.
However, what she and other scholars have demonstrated is that Mapuche people also
developed important connections with wider society as a result of the agrarian reform.
Members of Nicols Ailo sought out broader participation, including landless people
of both Mapuche and non-Mapuche origin in order to occupy the Ruculan farm
( Mallon, 2005: 109 ). Without this co-operation, the take-over may not have been
possible. Mapuche peasants named their new farming co-operatives after legendary
Mapuche heroes such as Lautaro and Colo-Colo, but they also named them after
Luis Recabarren and Ernesto Che Guevara. They painted walls with slogans relat-
Joanna Crow
ing specically to the Mapuche struggle ( Mapuche people, the land is yours, defend
it! ), but they also used more universal catchphrases in their grafti ( Land or death,
we will be victorious! and We want bread ).
14
Ethnic and class identities were not
mutually exclusive; they could and often did co-exist, although as shown above
not without tensions.
New Denitions of Chilean and Mapuche Identities
The failure to differentiate between indigenous and non-indigenous peasants (or urban
workers) the tendency to interpret indigenous peoples problems in purely economic
terms has been a common criticism of the Left in Latin America. Such criticisms were
most certainly applicable to the process of agrarian reform in Chile. However, it is
worth reiterating that, on a discursive level at least, Allende attempted to eschew such
reductionist approaches. In his speech presenting the Ley indgena 17.729 to Congress
in 1971, he stressed that the problems faced by Chile s indigenous community were
quite distinct to those faced by the rest of the peasantry. For this reason, he said, Chile
needed separate laws and institutions to address their specic needs ( Allende Gossens,
1971: 2783 ). He also made a point of denouncing the racial stereotypes that had legiti-
mised the structures of domination over the Mapuche and other indigenous peoples in
Chile. Indeed, he went as far as to say that no one should be surprised by their almost
necessarily violent actions (he was doubtless referring to the illegal land seizures in the
south), considering the discrimination they had suffered (2788).
The new Ley indgena of 1972 ofcially acknowledged Chile s cultural and ethnic
diversity, and for the rst time in Chilean history, indigenous identity was no longer
conned to those who lived in an indigenous community or those who had access to
communal lands. People could also be indigenous by language and culture.
15
Unidad
Popular representatives staked some prestige on this unprecedented move (and the Ley
indgena more generally), proclaiming that theirs was the rst government to truly
consider the needs of Chile s indigenous population. Even opposition deputies, such as
Seor Alvarado of the Christian Democrat Party, congratulated the government on its
efforts. Prior to 1970, he said, there had been very little government debate about how
to resolve the indigenous problem, a problem that affected ten per cent of Chileans
and, indirectly, our [whole] nationality ( Gobierno de Chile, 1972: 322 ).
When presenting the Ley indgena 17.729 to Congress, Allende placed Chile rmly
within the Latin American collective, assuming the continent s shared pre-Columbian
past. Quoting Mexican archaeologist Alfonso Caso, he claimed that Chile s similarity
to other Latin American republics lay not only in their common colonial past, but also
14 Captain Sergio Acevedo reported this grafti to the Prefectura de Carabineros de
Cautn in a letter dated 11 March 1971. (Regional Archive of Araucana, Intendencia
de Cautn, Ocios recibidos , Vol. 332).
15 There were lengthy debates in Congress about the denition of indgena after senators
demanded that it be modied to include only those who were somehow related to
indigenous communal property. Congress eventually rejected the modication, agree-
ing to keep the denition as open as possible.
in the ideas and institutions that existed among American populations [long] before
the Conquest ( Allende Gossens, 1971: 2783 ). In this sense, an acceptance of Chile s
indigenous cultures was not exclusively linked to nationalism, for it implied the need
to think beyond national boundaries and seek out a cultural heritage that united Latin
American countries. However, judging from the same speech, it would seem that the
Unidad Popular s decision to introduce new indigenous legislation was not inuenced
by the indigenista policies of other Latin American states. Allende made no specic
reference to contemporary developments in neighbouring countries, which is rather
surprising given that the Chilean state had developed only minimal public discourse
on indigenous peoples before then. Allende did, however, draw on the work of
Alejandro Lipschutz, who was completely au fait with the cultural and scientic issues
being debated by Latin America s indigenistas at the time.
Parliamentary records show that the opinions of Mapuche communities and
political organisations were widely incorporated into the debates following Allen-
de s opening speech. Thus, Allende s government was not simply acting on behalf
of Chile s Mapuche population, but instead responding to and engaging with its
demands. In one session in June 1972, for example, congressman Tejeda (UP) made
several references to the National Mapuche Confederation and the requests it had
made regarding the communal ownership of indigenous lands ( Gobierno de Chile,
1972: 322 ). In the same session, when deputies were discussing the denition of
indigenous (i.e. whether to include people who had left their rural communities),
it was pointed out that the opinion of the campesinos indgenas was very divided
on the matter. It was also suggested that it should be the indigenous peasants
themselves, not the state, who decided on the future of their communal lands
(331 334).
The new Ley indgena also created the Institute of Indigenous Development (IDI),
the main objective of which was to promote the social, educational and cultural
development of indigenous peoples , taking into account their idiosyncrasy and
respecting their customs ( Allende Gossens, 1971: 2798 ). Essential to this institution s
viability and success, as Allende himself stressed, was its inclusion of indigenous
political leaders. The management of the IDI was to be comprised of three representa-
tives of Mapuche peasants, two representatives of northern indigenous peoples and
one representative of the National Peasant Council. There would therefore be ve (or
potentially six) indigenous representatives out of a total of thirteen an undoubtedly
important presence in the reform process, and an unprecedented voice in the policy
decisions that directly affected indigenous communities.
It was not only a case of their opinions being brought into parliamentary debates
during the passage of the law and their participating in the new state institutions
created by the Ley indgena ; Mapuche organisations were directly involved in the
drafting of the law in the rst place. According to Ana Mara Flores, the Confederation
of Regional Mapuche Associations used the First National Mapuche Congress, held
in Ercilla in 1969, as an opportunity to compile a series of demands that would sub-
sequently be presented to the government. By the time the Second National Mapu-
che Congress took place in Temuco in December 1970, Mapuche organisations
had prepared their own draft of a new indigenous law, and, in doing so, they reportedly
Joanna Crow
had the full backing of the recently installed Unidad Popular government ( Flores,
1999 ).
Evidence found in the Regional Archive of Araucana supports such claims: corre-
spondence between regional and national governments includes numerous references
to proposals made by Mapuche organisations to reform the existing Indigenous Law
14.111. As early as the mid-1960s, the Indigenous Movement of Chile, the Galvarino
Indigenous Society and a support group for indigenous university students in Temuco
wrote to Bernardo Leighton (vice-president to Frei Montalva) with a list of claims
relating to communal lands, agricultural credits, housing and education.
16
These
included the creation of agricultural and technical schools in areas with large indige-
nous populations, more schools on the rural communities, free uniforms and meals for
indigenous children, and student residencies in cities such as Temuco. As will be shown
below, the Ley indgena of 1972 did indeed provide for such changes.
From the early twentieth century onwards, particularly with the Law for Compul-
sory Education, passed in 1920, and the process of mass urbanisation which started
in the 1930s, increasing numbers of Mapuche and other indigenous children were
incorporated into Chile s public education system. Enacting similar assimilationist pol-
icies to other countries in the Americas, Chilean authorities were convinced that state
schooling provided the ultimate solution to the Indian problem . In short,
indigenous peoples escolarizacin was supposed to represent their chilenizacin
( Gonzlez Miranda, 1994: 29 ). Such an assimilationist ideology meant that bilingual
education having been practised for centuries by missionary schools was prohib-
ited. Despite this, one of the major demands of Mapuche political organisations
established in the 1910s and 1920s was increased access to education. They also,
however, campaigned for changes to be made to this education in order for it to better
serve Mapuche needs ( Mariman, 1997: 162 ). The Institute of Indigenous Development
responded to such petitions.
The IDI immediately assumed the task of making education more accessible to
Mapuche people. As emphasised by Robert Austin, it greatly increased the number of
educational scholarships for Mapuche children ( Austin, 2003: 170 ). The government
also made important investments in higher education. According to Staffan Berglund,
university grants for Mapuche students increased from 602 in 1969 to 1,093 in 1970,
2,782 in 1971 and 9,297 in 1972 ( Berglund, 1977: 84 ). In 1973, 17,000 grants were
awarded to Mapuche students, from fourth-year primary through to university level
( Corvaln, 2003: 28 ). In addition, the IDI pledged funding for new residences
(specically for indigenous students) to be built in the major urban centres.
The IDI also sought to make schooling more relevant to Mapuche needs, and
school texts and teaching methodologies more respectful of Mapuche culture and his-
tory. Berglund highlighted the government s efforts to include Mapuche language and
Mapuche art and music in the curriculum. By this measure , he stated, it hoped to
put an end to Mapuche people s reluctant rejection of their own culture , brought
about initially by other Chileans condescending attitude towards it. He continued, it
16 Regional Archive of Araucana, Intendencia de Cautn, Ocios recibidos ,
Vol. 218.
was regarded as the only road to emancipation of the Mapuche in the Chilean com-
munity. In particular, the project aimed at spreading bilingualism, which was just
about to be started at the time of the coup ( Berglund, 1977: 84 ).
The Unidad Popular government was also keen to promote adult education
programmes among Chile s Mapuche population. Literacy and popular education
were key themes of Latin American reformist politics throughout the twentieth cen-
tury. Hence, in some ways, the UP s initiative was nothing new; indeed, as with agrar-
ian reform, it developed policies rst implemented by Frei Montalva s Christian
Democrat government (1964 1970). Austin makes one major distinction, however,
between the popular education programme of Allende and that of his predecessor (as
well as between his government s programme and that of other Latin American
governments). It was unique, he said, in that it promptly developed a program for
bilingual literacy in the densely indigenous south, which would become paradigmatic
for later links between popular educators and rst peoples literacies throughout Latin
America ( Austin, 2003: 134 ).
In 1971, the executive of the National Workers Education Programme, aware that
Mapuche people suffered the highest rates of formal illiteracy in Chile, set up a special
project entitled Cultural Mobilisation of Mapuche People . This comprised several
different components such as technical training, organisational development and bilin-
gual literacy. Adult education would be mainly organised around work centres, which
would act as sites of permanent collective cultural debate, decision and action
( Austin, 2003: 171 ). Such centres encouraged the development of Mapuche commu-
nities arts and crafts; they also ran agricultural workshops, which sought to combine
Mapuche knowledge of farming with recent technical innovations. The objective of the
literacy programme was to make 10,000 Mapuche bilingually literate;
more generally, it aimed to stimulate the increased use and study of Mapuzungun. The
programme prioritised Mapuche participation: it brought together the National Workers
Education Programme, the Institute of Indigenous Development and Mapuche organisa-
tions such as the Federation of Indigenous Students and the Confederation of Regional
Mapuche Associations. Focusing on consultation, educational self-management
and ethnic self-afrmation, the bilingual literacy project selected twenty Mapuche
monitors and 1,000 bilingual Mapuche teachers from local community and labour
organisations (Austin, 171). It also nanced the production of new, locally designed
reading material for the classroom.
Austin stressed how different the Unidad Popular s educational policy was from the
homogenising, civilising education programmes of previous governments and gave the
impression that the bilingual literacy project was in full swing by September 1973. Yet
this was surely unlikely: the IDI, a crucial partner in the scheme, was not ofcially es-
tablished until June 1972. Due to its short lifespan and the fact that most of the reforms
were never fully implemented, it is difcult to ascertain how intercultural or pro-
Mapuche the Unidad Popular s education programme really was. Despite asserting
the need for the Mapuche to maintain their traditions (their language, art, religious
beliefs and so forth), emphasis was noticeably placed on the integration of Mapuche
culture into national society. The new projects were designed for Mapuche people,
rather than Chilean society as a whole, offering specialised education for the Mapuche
Joanna Crow
(in Mapuzungun), so they could function better in the local and national community,
rather than aiming for an increased awareness of Mapuche culture, history and
language among Chileans more generally. The main objective of the teaching reforms
was to make efcient farmers or urban workers out of a previously marginalised
people. One congressman made this quite clear when he stressed the need for indige-
nous peoples to be educated, trained and transformed into useful citizens, so that they
are no longer the worst paid workers in Chile when they arrive in the urban centres
( Gobierno de Chile, 1972: 326 ).
Even in its integrationist aims, however, the IDI was not necessarily imposing a
project on Mapuche communities that the latter did not want; there were of course
drawbacks to the reforms, but they nonetheless opened up an important space, and
Mapuche people were able to take advantage of them. Moreover, many Mapuche or-
ganisations themselves often appropriated the dominant discourses of integration, using
them to secure much-needed benets from the state. The aforementioned letter to Ber-
nardo Leighton, for example, afrmed Mapuche people s inability to integrate of their
own accord into a civilisation that every day [was] more difcult to reach . It demanded
the government provide the economic, educational and material means to [ ] truly
integrate [themselves] into the great Chilean family .
Conclusion
There were many limits to the Unidad Popular indigenista reforms, not least because
of the turbulent political climate of the early 1970s and the violent curtailment of the
government s mandate. After 1,000 days, a military coup, led by General Augusto
Pinochet, brought an end to the Chilean Road to Socialism ; Allende s project had
failed. The Mapuche were as much a part of this failure as the other diverse interests
and communities that had supported the Unidad Popular administration. The Mapuche
were part of the collective uncertainty about what Chilean socialism should be, and
indeed in many ways they epitomised the conict over what the Chilean nation should
be. Mapuche intellectuals and political activists raised the problematic question of eth-
nicity and its place in such political agendas and imagined constructions. They asked
who would be included in the nation and how. A large number of Mapuche campesinos
in the south joined local efforts to push the agrarian reform to its limits and, in turn,
contributed to the instability and chaos of the region; yet they also rejected some of the
basic elements of this reform. Some Mapuche supported the rightist opposition to the
socialist revolution. There were also many, though, who at least briey beneted
from the Allende reforms, and who consequently defend his legacy to this day.
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Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp.

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