'A Poetic Concept of Identity': An Interview with Mapuche Poet David Aniñir Guilitraro

This interview was first published in Upside Down World here.
The culture of Mapuche poetry has evolved into three distinctive forms: traditional, intellectual and urban. David Aniñir Guilitraro, an urban Mapuche poet from Santiago, has created a literary realm which connects the history of the Mapuche struggle to the social problems which the people face today.

Guilitraro describes his book, Mapurbe, as ‘a poetic concept of identity’ which harbors ‘revenge against everything’. It is a response towards the culture of denial which has assailed the Mapuche people’s history. Each ‘democratic’ government since the fall of Pinochet’s dictatorship has contributed towards the oppression of the Mapuche, resulting in the people being marginalized and discriminated against. From the anti-terror law – a vestige of Pinochet’s dictatorship, to inadequate education in rural areas, to a repression of Mapuche culture, governments seem to be relying on distortion and manipulation to obliterate a history which has been mired in ethnocide and displacement of people for the sake of land acquisition. Mapurbe is a revolt against the treason of discrimination committed by governments and a reaffirmation of pride in Mapuche culture.

Ramona Wadi: What are the dynamics of your poetry and which language dominates your poems?
David Aniñir Guilitraro: In developing my poetic language, I have made use of literary expressions which include colloquial language in order to give more significance to everyday speech. The influence of anti-poetry, as in the poems of Nicanor Parra, supports and installs communication between the poet and the audience. My poetry utilizes a hybrid language – it includes a babble of both Mapudungun and popular English words seeking to impart the aesthetics of language. But this aim is not always achieved - writing may corrupt the image, since it takes place at an independent pace within its own rhythm.

RW: What is Mapurbe about?
DAG: It is a half-open view to a world of identity reconstruction in urban Mapuche. The political and social context which has occurred in Latin American, indigenous people go hand in hand with artistic expression. Mapurbe poetics is an aesthetic concept in tune with the artistic movement in Chile. The revival of a culture that modifies to survive, adapting new forms of expression which are proposing a cultural and political reflection. A vanguard expression of art which has questioned its origin and now identifies itself as Mapuche. This state of culture should not propose a contemporary form of identification before a culture of domination. Therefore, it is a culture which is in constant motion. That’s Mapurbe – a poetic concept of identity and part of the people’s contemporary heritage.

RW: How is the Mapuche identity constructed in your poetry?
DAG: I have not constructed anything, except for my poetry. My poetry exists within a combination of influences affecting the indigenous youth. It is attuned to the complexity of cultural fusion. I have had people telling me that my poetry encompasses many experiences of the new generations: the disappointment, the search for identity, a sense of belonging to the people...the community. Everything was included, only Mapurbe visualizes these experiences with a poetic language, giving a new but equivalent meaning.

RW: What is your role as a Mapuche poet in the current political context?
DAG: As a poet I am a good worker! My work is a creative subject which contributes to the cultural development of our people, both in discussion and action. Being a cultural manager of several actions we can be attuned within our culture and society at large – our expressions are rendered valid across.

RW: In what context does the ‘revenge’ in your poetry take place?
DAG: It is a revenge on the historical and systematic way in which the rights of the Mapuche people have been violated. My construction of the subject should be read within the context of discrimination and deprivation. We are the children of dispossession, of the exile suffered by our parents. This is Mapurbe – the response to such racism and denial today. Mapuche people have suffered as political prisoners, been subjected to murder, flawed trials and judicial assembly, militarization of communities – all these things are undeniable in our history. That’s my poetic art - corrosive, foul, crude. It is a poetic revenge on everything.

RW: Is there a repression of Mapuche culture and language, and does your poetry strive to promote unity between the Mapuche people and their heritage?
DAG: I told you – my poetry is attuned to the whole Mapuche movement. Even though in the city our native language Mapudungun is not promoted, it has changed the significance of culture. This is a phenomenon which has been going on for approximately twenty years.

RW: Explain the motivation in your poetry and how your perception regenerated a new form of poetry.
DAG: Being able to promote my work is not vanity, to invent genres or something like that. It’s just poetry and, if it is clear, this is a success. What motivate me are aspects of life – the personal tendency towards the edge, the limit. Love, disillusion and essential feelings. My childhood experiences were replete with a burden of social discrimination; I lived through poverty, hunger and violence. This is why I have an affinity for rock, or the punk counterculture attitude.

RW: Would you describe your poetry as an anthropological discourse? And which is the deeper involvement in your poetry – the poet or the Mapuche as a collective memory and experience?
It is an ethnographic poetic testimony, based on experience transmitted through stories, music and visuals - many young Mapuche are indentifying with this. To quote one of my own poems, “I am not the writer / it is poetry that writes for me / it comes to shake me with dreams / in the night I wake up / with Mapuche voices / they want to cry and laugh at me through verse. I have never pretended to understand a poet. The bond with my Mapuche ancestors is something which until now I cannot understand, but through the ancestral legacy I sense the manifestation of strength and endurance.

RW: Is Mapuche history manipulated by politics?
DAG: Official policy recounts its own version of the story – it happens with all oppressed people and with our history it is no exception. The victors tell their story with an ideological difference. In the academic arena there is a story based on fabrication, but many are concerned with investigating the circumstances that led the nascent state to invade an autonomous territory at the expense of massacring people. This genocide is known as the Pacification of Araucanía – Chile and Argentina in the Desert Campaign. Ethnocide was committed on both sides of the Andes Mountain which led to territorial dispossession. Lurking beneath the official version, which excludes the version of the defeated, is the framework within which to develop indigenous policies. The phrase “History is written by the people” is completely coherent in accordance to how we repair to make our historical narrative objective.

RW: To what extent are the Mapuche visible participants in Chile?
DAG: Within the framework of institutional policies needs are attended to, seeking to diminish the sources of conflict. Deep demands are met with political repression, imprisonment and harassment.
The standard dual role of the various ‘democratic’ governments since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship is based on neoliberal economic policies, to the detriment of the rights of communities in Southern Chile.
In a clear socialization of the Mapuche people’s demands, public sympathy has been towards the Mapuche. Long strikes in Chile have made the Mapuche political prisoners. In the context of the struggles which have occurred in different episodes, society has become aware that the Mapuche conflict has a solid basis in history that transforms into the cultural, becoming a display of enchantment for the Mapuche.

RW: How does your poetry combat discrimination and violence against Mapuche? By taking an offensive or defensive role?
DAG: Defensive. The offensive deserves a more cosmetic treatment against the status quo of the established paradigms in power – that’s my revenge poetry. The offensive has been reversed; a racist society that negates the different, intolerant, homophobic. I have nothing, but the defensive is a reflection – an observation from the small universe of how I perceive the world.

RW: Do you perceive your poetry to be solely relevant to the Mapuche, or it has the capacity to transcend borders?
DAG: What happened with my poetry was beyond, of course. A short circuit that incurs more of a political than artistic dimension – that’s my feeling. Poetry bears the burden in my case. I was fortunate to travel to Europe with a group of Latin Americans involved in alternative art. Some of my poems were translated in Berlin, even in France. I could see that the poetic language connects with human sensibilities. Both misery and beauty are repeated in all corners of the planet. Poetry always had the ability to transcend human boundaries, verifying the humanity in us – that’s the quality inherent in art in general. In Argentina, Mapuche identity is installed in the young through punk rock, metal and hip hop; they become attuned to the culture and vindication of identity.

RW: Do you have any forthcoming projects?
DAG: I intend to write a book that narrates my experiences through prose. A brother scholar suggested I should create a narration in the voices of characters of Mapurbe, related in prose. It is an exercise in narrative, which will cost me more than poetry. But through further observation it makes sense to delve into another literary genre. It is an exploration where the poems are the end through which a new form of literature emerges. I call it prose poetry.
In addition I am also creating audio visual poems – an experiment in visual poetic imagery.
My time is dedicated to the creation of expression, given the conditions. Many other artists should make an effort to form part of the creative dynamics since wage labour and survival are gruelling challenges. We can impart an attitude of resistance – the spirit to break the status quo.

For further examples of David Aniñir Guiltraro’s work, visit the newly launched blog, http://mapurbe69.blogspot.com

Seeking Social Justice Through Education in Chile

This article was first published in Upside Down World here.
The ongoing student protests in Chile are an unwavering accomplishment aimed at combating the social injustice riddling the country's education system. What started out as a series of peaceful protests has become a manifestation of unity between students, artists and much of the general population in a stance defying the current government’s position regarding social class, cultural difference and political division with regard to education.

Upon assuming power in a military coup that ousted President Salvador Allende, General Augusto Pinochet implemented a series of policies that spelled poverty for the working class. To this day, remnants of the military dictatorship are evident in Chile. Upon Milton Friedman’s advice, Pinochet altered the education system in Chile. Responsibility for public schooling was transferred from the Ministry of Education to public municipalities. Private schools were financed by the voucher system in proportion to student enrolments. The elite families began enrolling their children into schools which charged for enrolment. No effort was made on behalf of the government to improve the curriculum, education quality or management, resulting in a society which, for decades had to contend with social class division within education.

Private universities meant excessive tuition fees, causing students and their families to incur debts whilst education quality was barely improved. Universities were mostly attended by students from the middle class and higher income families. Impoverished areas had no access to quality education, with low income families obliged to send their children to public schools where no incentives, such as better working conditions for teachers were offered, to promote and enhance student educational performance. Discrepancy in Chile’s education system led to society incurring yet another split. The current system exploits class as well as cultural differences. Low income families have no option but to send their children to public municipal schools. Mapuche people living in rural areas having to contend with an inferior education as well as lack of intercultural awareness.

Students are demanding the state assumes responsibility to provide free education and broader access to education. The students’ proposals include eliminating the business concept of education, ensuring the quality of public education, the creation of an education system which falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and ensuring educational rights for Chile’s indigenous people.

Protests have ranged from sit-ins, to barricades and marches, as well as hunger strikes as a mark of resistance. Hunger strike protestors have read statements holding the government responsible for their plight. Cacerolazo protests (a common form of protest in Latin American countries which involves banging on pots with kitchen utensils) have also gained ground within the movement and Chilean society. This form of protest, which can even be performed from home, has achieved a high level of solidarity with the student protestors.

Thousands of students in Santiago clashed with the police as force was used in an attempt to restore what the state defines as public order. The students were met with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. In what may be portrayed as another relic of the dictatorship some protests were deemed illegal, citing the lack of a permit allowing students to demonstrate. Camilla Vallejo, spokesperson for the student’s movement described the state repression as a great mistake, adding that the student movement was not intimidated by threats and encouraging the students to persist in their various forms of protest.

President Sebastian Piñera’s attempts to appease the students have been rejected outright. In a televised speech, Piñera’s proposals including a cabinet reshuffle and an annual education fund used to support public education were dismissed as not addressing the students’ concerns and demands. While the students were calling on the government to end private education schemes, Pinera’s declared that nationalising the education system would damage quality and freedom of education.1The second attempt at reform was the government’s 21 point plan2, which was once again swiftly rejected by the students. The right to a quality education, promoting student involvement, promoting multiculturalism in higher education and an inclusive admission system were listed amongst the proposals being branded as reform.

The discrepancies in Piñera’s proposals highlight Chilean divisions. There is no mention of state takeover of education; hence the right to a free quality education for all society remains debatable. Education administered by the private sector remains the estate of the privileged, enforcing further gaps within Chilean society. Student involvement in education remains a distant objective, as protests continue to be met with force. Multiculturalism awareness and inclusive admission border on illusion when considering the intolerance and abuse of human rights suffered by indigenous people.

As a result of state repression against indigenous people, the Mapuche have been subjected to discrimination. Apart from the anti terror law, which allows the state to prosecute Mapuche in a military court, the community has been subjected to cultural repression. Yonatan Cayulao, leader of the Mapuche Federation of Students has proposed a Mapuche University3, stating that Chilean education has marginalised indigenous people in its quest to create a homogeneous nation. The Mapuche University would allow the community to protect their culture within their own environment.

In the latest turn of events, Camilla Vallejo was reported to have delivered a letter4 to President Piñera, challenging the president to a transparent debate and urging him to acknowledge education as a universal right instead of a consumerism scheme, as he had previously announced. The letter denounced student segregation under the current education system and called for education to be guaranteed constitutionally ‘as a social law’.

Reminiscent of the past is the way nueva canción singers are uniting once again in support of Chileans. In a message broadcast on You Tube5, Inti Illimani’s Jorge Coulon reiterated his support for the students. “We admire and respect tremendously the current student movement in Chile and we are glad to participate in it since they (the students) are not only writing, but rewriting the history of Chile, which is full of episodes in which the students have been fundamental. The present time is one of them, and you – the students, are playing a leading role in this history.”

Pinochet’s influence in Chilean democracy is never far from the people’s consciousness. Each year Chile’s September 11th anniversary is marked with violent incidents and manifestations – a reminder that justice remains a remote illusion for many victims of the military dictatorship. With the protests set to continue, talk emerges regarding the possibility of the army being deployed against the students if the protests continue up to that date.

An issue which portrays the social injustice incited by Pinochet is the attitude of Chileans towards state violence. In a conversation with Julieta, a local anthropology student,  I was told “In Chile, because we are accustomed to police violence, we have naturalised this violence that we receive.” The memory of the military coup is far from being relegated to the confines of history. With a democracy that moulds itself on past legislation, the concept of freedom and dignity for Chileans remains a battle to be fought from many societal aspects and the struggle for free education seems to have ignited the memory of the past to be combated in the contemporary realm.


Notes: 
1. http://www.gob.cl/destacados/2011/07/05/cadena-nacional-de-radio-y-television-presidente-pinera-anuncio-gran-acuerdo-nacional-por-la-educaci.htm 
2. http://www.mineduc.cl/index2.php?id_portal=1&id_seccion=10&id_contenido=15546
3. http://www.unpo.org/article/13030

4. http://www.nuestrocanto.net/joo/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2013%3Acarta-de-la-confech-al-presidente-sebastian-pinera&catid=36%3Achile

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itfa8lqaSfk&feature=youtu.be

Living Under the Oppression of Democracy: The Mapuche People of Chile

This article was first published in Upside Down World here.
In the years of Pinochet's military dictatorship, Henry Kissinger once remarked, "The illegal we can do right now, the unconstitutional will take a little longer." Kissinger's quote reveals the abuse of power that comes from the ruling majority. The dynamics of democracy define another reality for the minorities in a society, who do not have the same power to challenge and protest any form of abuse against them. The minorities' lack of political power becomes a tool within the structure of democracy. Minorities cannot substantially challenge the manipulation of laws and thus become victims of a political ideology that only seeks to protect the society that conforms to its rules.


As always, the concept of freedom within a democracy bears the shadow of obligation - a means that ensures compromise which heavily favours the institution of democracy. This compromise may remain unquestioned by a large segment of the population, which has been trained to think within the confines of its own wider territory of granted freedom and rights. When a democracy is tainted by the legacy of a right wing dictatorship, and no amendments to discriminatory laws are made, it is inevitable that minorities within societies suffer.

The Anti-Terrorism Law issued during Pinochet’s reign in 1984 was an effective tool to suppress the so-called counter-revolutionary groups which opposed the right wing dictatorship. Decades after Pinochet’s rule ended, the law is still providing authorities with the tools to prosecute the Mapuche people. Ironically, it was even used by left-wing governments against the Mapuche. Despite President Sebastian Pinera’s rhetoric of not repeating the mistakes of the past, the Anti-Terrorism law remains in force – proof that Pinochet’s legacy still provides useful outlets for the authorities and a reminder that the brutal history does not have the same meaning for everyone.

According to Pedro Cayuqueo, editor of the Mapuche newspaper Azkintuwe, around 1000 people have been in Chilean jails in the past ten years. In the beginning of 2010, 106 people were jailed and 58 of them were tried under the Anti-Terrorism law.

The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racism have condemned the law and its use against the Mapuche, illustrating how remnants of Pinochet’s oppressive legacy are continued by the hands of Chilean governments. In 2009, with referral to arson attacks in the region of Araucania, Deputy Interior Secretary Patricio Rosada stated, “We’ve decided to invoke the anti-terror Law to go after these groups of people who are set on perpetrating crimes, disorder and unrest in a region seeking peace and harmony.”

So the anti-terror law is being applied to Mapuche activists who are asserting their right to their ancestral land. In 1883, Mapuche territory encompassed 10 million hectares, presently their land has been reduced to around 300,000 hectares. According to the country's 2002 census, the Mapuche community numbered 604,349.

According to Estrella, a Chilean who studies anthropology, it is in the interests of the government to prosecute Mapuche, as their territory is rich in natural resources. The authorities and private companies have installed a hydroelectric power station on Mapuche land and the forest industry is also located on Mapuche land. The government’s concept of development – the law, the authorities in general, all protect the rights of the big companies at the expense of indigenous people.

Characteristics of trials under the Anti-Terrorism Law include the allowance of faceless witnesses, accepting the threat of crime as an action that has already taken place, and a mere insinuation can be taken as evidence against the accused.

Indicting and prosecuting Mapuche activists under the Anti-Terrorism law purposely brands them a violent people, thus legitimizing the implication of the law. However, police brutality has been pervasive in confrontations with Mapuche activists. Besides using force and maltreatment, as happened in 2009 when the police raided the house of Mapuche activist Miguel Tapia Huenulef, a report by the International Federation of Human Rights states that even children have suffered at the hands of the police. A school was raided in the Temucuicui Mapuche community and children were subjected to tear gas and pellet guns.

It is not only the Mapuche people who are subjected to the infamous Anti Terrorism law. Estrella also remarked that anthropology students who study the culture of the Mapuche may be at risk of being prosecuted by the Anti-terrorism law, even if the students are not Mapuche. Anthropologists support the Mapuche cause and the association with the subject can lead to prosecution, and the students who are most at risk are those involved with anarchist groups.

The majority of anthropology students are communist, anarchist or adhere to left wing political thought. However, anarchist students participate in actions, such as squatters, that make them more prominent in the eyes of the government and the police. Estrella commented on an incident during Bachelet’s rule, which was reported on the Chilean news, where two anarchist students were arrested in 2008 on the charge that hooded people attacked a police office situated in front of the university with Molotov bombs.

The authorities said that the hooded persons were the students they had arrested, and the caretaker of the university stated he recognised two of the hooded people and pointed out the students. The questions remains as to how the caretaker managed to recognise two hooded persons. Classmates of the students being prosecuted have stated that they were in class when the attack occurred. In the wake of such injustices, Estrella doubts the laws could be subject to change since the law provides a functional tool protecting the government’s interests.

Sebastian Pinera has spoken about change in Araucania – a Mapuche territory. These changes include development in the area, such as widespread road building and improving infrastructure, described by Sen. Alberto Espina as creating opportunities.

On the other hand, amendments to the Anti-Terrorist law and its implications for the Mapuche people seem to have become part of political rhetoric. Despite flimsy excuses and promises by the authorities to debate when faced with hunger strikes by the Mapuche activists, no real change is taking place. In a further attempt to disperse the unity of the Mapuche people, authorities differentiate between the Mapuche activists and the others who do not take part in demonstrations and protests, neglecting the fact that the community is struggling to reach identical goals.

The law leaves no avenue for the Mapuche to safely and freely challenge the government on issues concerning them, since every action or protest may be considered a criminal offence. While the concept of democracy which, for the majority does not translate into a variation of dictatorship, remains a strong term to eliminate any discussion of possible discrimination against minorities, for the Mapuche people, democracy has been the political ideology that negotiates with their dignity and natural freedom.

Fidelia, a Chilean doctor describes the government of Sebastian Pinera as a “fascist regime” that seeks to repress people’s rights and threatens their citizens, especially indigenous people. The terrorists, she declares, are those who govern us. Democracy does not exist for the Chileans, and even less for the Mapuche. “The laws that govern us are arbitrary and unfair.”

*Names in the article have been changed to protect the identities of people interviewed for the story.