In my time here I have found that there is a certain "air" about Chile. There's an underlying common attitude or personality that all Chileans possess. It has become more clear in class, and especially in my classes where I read Latin American Literature. My assignments and readings have all been about "hopelessness", "solidarity", or "loss of identity". And my first thought was, "Wow, does Chile sound like the middle child or what?"(Sorry Madi). I thought that it was just a bit of drama from the authors, and it's further exaggerated by my professors.
However, the more time I spend here, and the more I learn about Chilean history, the more I am coming to understand the depth of this sentiment. It's not just localized to Chile either, but extends throughout Latin America. This is a continent that has a completely unique history to others. In many ways it is extremely complicated, but in my view the way it came about is straight forward. Get ready for a history lesson...
Before Chile was discovered by Spain is was inhabited by many indigenous tribes (about 13 distinct tribes) and the most prominent tribe was the Mapuche (literally meaning "men of the earth"). There was a brief Incan presence in Chile before the conquistadors came, but they didn't do much except trade with the Mapuche. I find the Mapuche extremely fascinating for many reasons. One being that when the conquistadors came, they were the only tribe that the Spanish could not overtake. They were the tribe sin rey, sin ley, y sin fe (without a king, without law, without faith). So the conquistadors couldn't attack a king and disorganize them, or attack a god to overtake them, or barge into their territory because they had no one place where they stayed permanently. So the spanish resigned to just trade with them because all the tactics they use to overtake the indigenous were useless on the Mapuche. After a while though, Spain had its foot in Latin America and everything started to Europeanize and many many indigenous were killed. It's a similar story to that of our Native Americans.
The sad part today is that many of those tribes are extinct, and the ones that still exist are hated by their own countrymen. Chileans do not like indigenous people. They think they are dirty, drunks, lazy, and thieves. Yet at the same time, every year on their Independence Day they dance around in the typical Mapuche wear and sing traditional songs with the cultural instruments. These people are blood related to the Mapuche! One day they love them, and the rest they hate them. One day they hate what a Eurocentric society has done to their culture, and the next they want to be Europe. It's very tragic to me. And it's tragic to them. You can tell they're sick of trying to figure out where they fit in the world. The countries were made by Europe, but Peruvians, Bolivians, Chileans, Argentinians, and all the rest are really brothers. They share the same indigenous roots. Many of the authors hope for a united Latin America, that's not separated by borders or economic fights.
The whole personality of Latin America is complicated and hard to understand. They don't think America is that good of a country, yet at the same time they strive to be like us. They laugh at our mistakes, but make the same ones all for the sake of modernizing. Chile is considered part of the Third World, but in my time here I have seen that they have so much more culture and a better grasp on reality than the United States. They see the results of poverty, political unrest, and violence in their communities. Therefore they are more capable of making decisions to better their community, and have a deeper love of their country because they want to see it reach its full potential. My own hopes for Chile would be that they come to love their cultural identity, and stop seeking the culture that the U.S. and Europe has to offer. Ours is a gross culture of materialism, power, and entertainment. Chile has it's indigenous people, it's beautiful land, and it's passionate people. I would hate to see them trade that in the name of "modernization."
We have all next week off for National celebrations! It's even against the law to go to work on these days! It's a whole week of empanadas, mariscos (seafood), wine, beer, singing, dancing, and all that jazz. I think the U.S. should look into implementing a week like this around the 4th of July! Ciao!
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