This article presents an autoethnographic journey from Santiago (Chile) to the Mapuche Huilliche and Lafkenche territories. The route included two key stops that articulated ritual, productive, and political relationships: first, Fundo Huite, where a palín tournament was held together with Mapuche ancestral authorities; and second, Huapi Island, where a Machiluwün, the ritual consecration of a new Machi, took place. This journey connected one of the world’s most neoliberal capitals with a “red zone” of territorial conflict. There, the alliance between the Chilean state and extractive industries confronts Mapuche communities in southern Chile, generating tensions among human and more-than-human, spiritual and ritual, technological, political, and ontological forces. The territorial conflicts observed are not merely disputes over land but also expressions of resistance to capitalist neocolonialism. The researchers’ experience involved navigating tangible ontological barriers through five constitutive tensions: temporality, ontology–agency, economy–territory, epistemology–language, and sensoriality–objectivity. This autoethnography reveals embodied and perceived frictions, enabling a situated and sentipensante (feeling-thinking) approach capable of engaging with—though not resolving—questions that extend beyond the limits of modern epistemology. These forms of resistance and re-existence intertwine spiritual, corporeal, technological, and political entities, challenging conventional research methods and underscoring the need to integrate embodied experience into fieldwork.
The situation of Jewish migration from Nazi Germany generated significant debate among various Latin American nations. Chile was no exception to the controversy during the governments of Arturo Alessandri and Pedro Aguirre Cerda, between 1938 and 1942. This study aims to analyze Chile’s overall position regarding the phenomenon of Jewish migration to Europe, with particular attention to the experiences of Jewish refugees in Bolivia and their attempts to migrate to Chile. The central hypothesis suggests that the reception of German Jews from Bolivia occurred during a pivotal juncture in Chilean foreign policy, when decisions regarding European Jewish migration intersected with expectations for relations with Bolivia. Diplomatic ties at the embassy level had been strengthened; however, Bolivia’s landlocked status remained a central concern in Bolivian policy. Consular and diplomatic efforts regarding German Jews formed part of a largely unknown and overlooked period in Chile-Bolivia relations, reflecting the complexity faced by both states in responding to a universal human tragedy.
This study examines how the Quechua population of the village of Hualla, Peru, managed the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of a public health system crisis. An ethnographic method was employed to this end, including interviews with individuals exhibiting symptoms of the virus and the collection of information from the staff at the Hualla Health Center between April 2021 and June 2022. The findings reveal that community members relied on traditional medical knowledge, such as the use of medicinal plants, healing rituals, and invocations to divine beings, as well as on communal organization. These strategies enabled them to adapt to the new situation and demonstrate their agency. The study concludes that the strategies adopted by the population not only helped to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, but also constituted a form of cultural resistance against the hegemony of biomedicine and the state’s control over the body.
On the road to a fair, sustainable and inclusive energy transition, the decentralized and participatory use of renewable resources is favored in order to advance in the diversification of sources, the securitization of systems, the decarbonization of activities, and the fight against poverty. These changes require minerals for infrastructure and equipment, making the Andes increasingly dynamic in their supply. The link between mining and energy is reinforced by growing interdependence in territories that are increasingly open to community participation, where activities such as tourism and heritage promotion are associated. This paper brings together results obtained from research with a strong empirical basis. The aim of this article is to deepen our understanding of the energy transition, showing the link with the extractive activities it drives in mountain areas and with its promotion of tourism and heritage. To this end, it analyzes the cases of lithium and copper mines in the Andes, particularly Chuquicamata (Chile), the Olaroz salt flat (Argentina), and the Uyuni salt flat (Bolivia). In northern Chile and Argentina, and southern Bolivia, mining (energy) megaprojects are central to the transition toward sustainability. With multiple risks and possibilities, mining (energy) and tourism-heritage development converge in a new centrality of large-scale spaces.
The purpose of this article is to explore and analyze Ecuavóley as a fundamental element of identity and community for Kichwa-Otavalo migrants in Santiago de Chile. The research methodology is developed through a qualitative design with an ethnographic approach. Data collection techniques combine bibliographic analysis with fieldwork, participant observation, and conversational interviews. The participating subjects are Kichwa-Otavalo migrants who gather in Santiago. The study seeks to understand how this sport not only serves as a form of recreation, but also acts as a means to maintain social cohesion, culture, and traditions within the migrant community. The importance of Ecuavóley in constructing a sense of belonging is highlighted through the weaving of migratory networks as a form of support, as well as through social interaction in the construction of their own migrant territories.
Based on the theoretical-methodological elucidation of discursive territories (TD), an alternative way of materializing the intangible aspects of various territories is proposed by interpreting the emotions, collective memory, and mental maps available in the oral, written, and iconographic discourses of the subjects of knowledge. A hermeneutic analysis of the Chilean state’s territorial rhetoric will be conducted to explain its imaginaries and to identify intersections and ruptures relative to Mapuche-Williche perspectives. The results reveal contingent, heterogeneous state TD, actively contested for narrative control. A faction of the state, represented by local public employees, produces a narrative distinct from the hegemonic one, connected to the Williche identity of the southern region of Chile.
In this article, two research questions are addressed: How are migration-related grief experiences felt among individuals who migrate from rural areas to urban centers in the Tarapacá region of Chile from the 1990s to 2023? And what connections exist between rural-urban mobility dynamics, the growth of mining extractivism, and the experiences of migration-related grief? To explore these topics, we implemented a qualitative research approach that included semi-structured interviews, which were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that mining extractivism does not act as a determining factor in migration decisions. Despite being associated with critical phenomena, interviewees tend not to question its influence, considering it an almost unavoidable aspect. However, experiences related to migration-related grief, especially during the process of reconnecting with the community of origin and its worldview, lead participants to politicize their experiences and adopt a proactive role, questioning the presence of extractive companies in areas formerly inhabited by their families.
This research aims to describe and explain the transformation and cultural rationalization of the musical genre wayliya, which is integral to the complex festive system of takanakuy, primarily practiced in the Cusco province of Chumbivilcas. A brief overview of recent developments in the wayliya chumbivilcana congresses will be provided to demonstrate this phenomenon, along with the documents produced in these settings. It will be argued that these congresses constitute spaces where symbolic violence is exercised through regulations and normative instruments developed by local intellectuals and through the traditionalist discourse promoted by local governments. Additionally, brief reflections will be offered on the emerging intolerance and stigmatization of takanakuy by state institutions and the media, as a consequence of this rationalization.
Water has emerged as a central historical agent, playing a central role in a wide range of uses, disputes, and political, economic, and cultural debates. This article analyzes, from a historical perspective, the environmental transformations of the Isla La Laja territory in relation to its economic cycles and their effects on the hydrological cycle and water management. Based on the study of documentary sources from the National Archive and the National Library of Chile, the article examines how the discourse of progress and hydraulic modernization legitimized a state policy that mobilized significant economic and institutional resources. This policy favored the appropriation and control of water through the establishment of canal associations, transforming the social and economic relationships surrounding the resource: from a freely accessible public good, granted through usufruct rights, to an exchange good managed by shareholder associations that sought to monopolize its distribution and use.
The article discusses the implementation and development of rural education in a Mapuche context. Its objective is to present research findings that document rural education experiences in indigenous settings. The methodology of the article is qualitative with a hermeneutic design. A semi-structured interview was used, consulting eight participants about the challenges, scope, and limitations faced by rural school education. The information was analyzed through thematic analysis. The primary findings identify three key challenges in rural education: 1) Precariousness of rural education in indigenous contexts; 2) Multilevel courses; and 3) Voucher system. These findings are attributed to the commodification of school education, which is linked to tuition-based funding models and the consequent objectification of students. Addressing these structural challenges in rural education is essential to guarantee an education that promotes rural development and responds to current educational demands in indigenous and intercultural contexts, thereby improving learning opportunities and fostering educational success.
This paper presents the results of the impact of conservation policies on the territory and population of the vaquita marina (Phocoena sinus) in San Felipe, Baja California, one of the fishing communities affected by the 2015 fishing ban. The objective of the study is to identify changes in land cover and land use, as well as in the economic characteristics of the population, complemented by an analysis of local perceptions regarding restrictions on access to coastal fishing. Satellite imagery from 2014 to 2024 was interpreted to identify territorial changes. Additionally, data from the 2010 and 2020 population and housing censuses and hotel occupancy statistics from 2014 to 2019 were analyzed. A survey was conducted to assess the population’s perception of the consequences of the ban and the prohibition of fishing gear. The results include a decrease in the number of permitted boats, greater densification of human settlements, an increase in hotel occupancy, increased participation of women in the labor market, and improvements in housing characteristics and amenities. Five years after the ban was implemented, no negative impact on the population has been identified.
This paper addresses the current configuration of rural land in the department of Cachi (Salta) and its forms of tenure, and analyzes the local and regional processes that have contributed to its formation. Within this arrangement, the State at its municipal, provincial, and national levels has exercised preeminence, conditioning the ways in which its inhabitants appropriate and construct an identification with it. Within this framework, legal forms of land tenure that enable access and use of productive spaces for agricultural activities, reflecting the paradigm of private market ownership and state-imposed organizational logic, are in tension with other local alternatives of territorial organization and conception that have been perpetuated, albeit with changes and reinterpretations, for centuries in the region. This study employs bibliographic review and documentary analysis of state sources, complemented by data from interviews and field observations. Retracing the socio-historical processes that shape the configuration of the territory, while paying attention to the different ways of constructing territoriality, provides insights into its complexity and the tensions inherent in these networks.
This article is part of the project “Interculturality and Digitalization: Dynamic Approaches to Marketing Misak Women’s Agricultural Products.” Its purpose is descriptive and interpretive, and it addresses, from different perspectives and historical, cultural, social, economic, and political aspects of the Misak community, the role of women and their contributions within the framework of possible Indigenous feminisms. As part of a mixed-method research approach, qualitative data collection was prioritized through interviews, focus groups, and bibliographic reviews. Based on the information obtained, behaviors, ways of life, and values of the Misak community are identified, as well as an approach to women’s work, their role in tradition, and their contribution to Buen Vivir (Well Living). The conclusions highlight women’s participation in various events and the challenges they face due to cultural resistance to their roles. The article argues that, despite cultural resistance and limited opportunities, Misak women’s increasing participation challenges traditional paradigms. It calls for not just formal acknowledgments but concrete empowerment, proposing the recognition and strengthening of Misak women’s transformative agency across diverse spheres.
Informed by the theory of coloniality of power, knowledge, and being, this study presents a longitudinal, contextual, and content-based descriptive analysis of Spanish migration to and from Ecuador between 2008 and 2021. Utilizing a concurrent mixed-methods design, the study integrates quantitative and qualitative data collected to examine this phenomenon within the broader framework of Global North-South migration flows, with particular attention to return migration processes from Ecuador to Spain. The findings suggest that this migratory dynamic was relatively favorable for Spanish migrants, an outcome attributed to the enduring presence of colonial mechanisms in Ecuador. These mechanisms effectively position individuals from the Global North within Ecuador’s hegemonic social hierarchies, underscoring the ongoing influence of historical and structural inequalities on migration outcomes.
