The anthropologist Danko Mariman has recovered the history of the ancient inhabitants of Temuco in a book entitled “Lofmapu Botxolwe”.
It is a territory where the State of Chile settled in the framework of the war with the Mapuche, with a thousand years of history in the territory. The city of Temuco itself was founded by Chileans only in 1881.
“This book is born from the need to publicize the territory of Botrolhue or the lofmapu Fütronwe of the Temuco commune, which today is being drastically intervened by the communal urban advance, irregular subdivisions and real estate pressure”, explains its author. .
For his writing, Mariman carried out exhaustive documentary research, as well as numerous interviews with the original inhabitants of the region. She also had the support of the Book Fund of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage.
“We must make the territory and its problems known in order to defend it. For this reason, I would like to thank all the communities that were part of this story and all the people who shared their knowledge and memory, in addition to the team that worked on the book” , he points out.
land demand
The researcher says that the information gathering and research process was carried out in different stages.
“Personally, as a Mapuche leader and person in the territory, I collected many stories and information on the demand for land from the lofmapu communities between 2014 and 2020. Those stories served a lot to put together a common story about the situations they live the communities of the commune and of the specific territory”, he comments.
Then, once the project was awarded (2021-22), a process began to collect all the information that was available and began to organize to account for the missing elements.
“Unfortunately, it was not possible to hold focus groups or visit people a lot because Covid entered at the time of the project’s development, however it was possible to talk with key actors and interviews were carried out using technological tools such as WhatsApp,” he highlights.
Findings
Mariman also points to important findings in the framework of the investigation, which had to be brought together in a single story. For example, the fact that the families of the lofche (communities) fought against the arrival of the State and the formation of towns.
“Botrolhue had a very strong organization until 1900, a period from which a very hard stage began for its inhabitants and families who were persecuted and suffered consecutive attacks and intimidations by the founders, the carabineros and the actions taken by the State “, he recounts.
“It is key to see that this pressure for the land has not ceased, but has been perpetuated in new conflicts over spaces to this day. That is to say, there is a territorial memory of more than 100 years of conflicts with the Chilean State and their colonization policies in the area”.
Changes due to colonization
Regarding the changes in the area with colonization, Mariman gives as an example the situation of the lofmapu Botrolhue, which had an original area of approximately 5,000 hectares before the arrival of the Chilean State and the first settlers who were given land. in the territory during the 1900s.
With the arrival of the State and the settlement, of those 5,000 hectares, today there are no more than 2,000 left in the hands of the communities, “which continue to suffer from damages to their Merced Titles due to the contemporary disaffections that contemplate violations of the Indigenous Law 19,253 , and where the institutions in charge of supervising –such as Conadi- have turned a blind eye to the situation, in which there are lawyers and notaries involved”.
At the same time, Mariman says that the municipality of Temuco has not closed the process of creating its communal regulatory plan, a situation that generates a favorable ambiguity for real estate development, which has more than 27 grant titles affected in Temuco.
According to a recent study by the company Atisba, with data from Conadi and the INE (2022), it says that in Temuco there are more than 88,000 non-Mapuche people living on Titles of Merced between Temuko and Labranza, spaces where the lofmapu Botrolhue is located.
“Today, there are communities such as Antonio Huala and Hueche Huenulao with 90% damage to their lands resulting from the installation of aggregate extraction companies, real estate companies such as Pocuro, irregular subdivisions, small farmers, the Temuko-Labranza highway and micro illegal dumps.
Estero Botrolhue
For the author, a clear example is that -today- no community in the territory adjoins the Botrolhue estuary, a key space in shaping the life and identity of local communities. But yes, the Aguas Araucanía plant adjoins the estuary, and has discharge points on it and towards the Cautín River, affecting the waters, the aquifers and the deep wells of the communities, generating contamination, plagues of flies and a cultural affectation. to the use of spaces by communities.
“What is happening in Botrolhue is the cruelest process of invasion and forced assimilation to Chilean identity, it is a systematic and total dispossession that tries to overcome a rich history of more than 1,000 years,” he accuses.
The book presents a critical look at the situation of Chilean political domination over the Mapuche in Botrolhue and raises important perspectives on the paradigm of urban development and growth.
“The Mapuche communities also need to grow and preserve their spaces for family and collective use, the most convincing proof of this is the demand for land that the lofmapu communities have initiated and that pose important challenges to the territorial planning of the commune of Temuco, which cannot continue to deny or hide the Mapuche presence.The authorities have the challenge of giving their community a story and identity, the Mapuche must be seen as a challenge and an opportunity, but heritage cannot continue to be destroyed neither memory nor transgressing spaces, the era of colonization is over, today a new stage must be achieved or future associated conflicts must be assumed,” he warns.
sacred spaces
The book also highlights the pre-Hispanic elements currently present in the area.
“After the recovery of a menoko (sacred site) that was in the hands of a real estate company in 2019, by communities of Botrolhue, a process of reconstruction of the history and memory of the Mapuche use of these sacred spaces that represent wetlands was generated, “he explains. Mariman.
“There they kimche or wise men of the territory spoke about the waters of the menokothose with a genmapu or spiritual deity. Such is the case of Gürüfilu which appears in the form of shumpal in dream. The presence of deities typical of the Mapuche culture and our feyentun or spirituality, makes us immediately go back to a pre-Hispanic and pre-Christian period, which, added to archaeological finds in the area, makes us speak of a habitability of more than 1,000 years in the area by the families inheriting the ancient history “, reflects the author.
“This ancestral habitability has been verified through archaeological studies in the area and contrasted with local memory, showing that the people of Botrolhue are descendants of the first and ancient inhabitants of the valleys and basins that today form part of the commune of Temuco,” he concludes.
Anthropologist recovers in a book the history of the ancient inhabitants of Temuco