Life in the Valley

Howdy All,

I spent the past week on a fantastic excursion to several cities in the mid-south of Chile. If you haven't looked at a map of Chile yet, first of all, shame on you, second of all, it is a very, very, long country. Our group spent time in and around Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, which is roughly 6 hours south of Santiago and nowhere near the bottom of Chile. The entire area is dominated by huge forests of pine and eucalyptus trees, neither of which are native to Chile. Why, you might ask, do they cover millions of acres of hills and valleys in the area? The reason is that Chile is one of the world's principle exporters of wood and celulose. During our visit, we toured a huge celulose plant run by Arauco, a Chilean transnational corporation, where the trees are processed into large sheets of celulose, which is then exported to other countries where it ismade into paper. I was astounded at the size and technical sophistication of the celulose plant. Chile has been cultivating a forestry industry since the 70s and has planted vast forests of fast growing trees that it harvests and then replants.

Just outside Concepcion is the city of Lota, former center of the region's previous important industry, coal mining. We toured an old coal mine (restored for tourists, of course) called Chifron del Diablo. As you might imagine, coal mining around the turn of last century involved a certain amount of risk. If the gas explosions or cave-ins didn't get you, you could look forward to dying of the black lung in your early 40s.

The unquestionable highlight of the trip, however, was the four days we spent in the Valley of Elikura with the indigenous Mapuche people. The Valley is a secluded strip of fertile land surrounded on three sides by steep hills and on the fourth by a huge, pristine lake. A small stream flows through the valley and the Mapuche have farmed the land on either side for over 500 years. I stayed with a middle-aged Mapuche women named Rosa, her parents and her 22 year-old nephew. Every day her father farms the land from dawn until dusk, growing potatoes, peppers, lettuce, wheat or fruit, depending on the season. His wife takes the sheep out to graze and feeds the chickens. Rosa knits the sheeps wool into clothing and other handicrafts that she sells out of the house or at fairs in other towns. The food I ate, almost exclusively produced in the Valley, was some of the best that I have had during my trip thus far.

The Mapuche, like indigenous peoples around the world, have been pushed off almost all of the land they once owned. They actually hold the record for longest sustained resistance to European conquerers of any Native American peoples, having fought first the Spanish and then the army of independent Chile consistently for over 300 years. After being slowly pushed southwards during that time, they lost much of their remaining lands to the forestry industry during Chile's military dictatorship. The return of democracy came with a promise from the elected government to return some lands, a promise that still goes unfulfilled. Most of the hills surrounding the Valley are covered with forest industry planted Pine and Eucalyptus. Unfortunately, these non-native trees suck up water that used to flow into the valley and sustain Mapuche crops.

Even more disconcerting is the future of the Mapuche culture and community. The Valley has few young people, most having moved to the cities to find work. Rosa's nephew was in the army for awhile and is now a temporary laborer for, you guessed it, the forestry industry. I am pretty sure he wont continue farming his family's dwindling parcel of land as his ancestors have done for centuries. He doesn't speak the Mapuche language, either.

My stay with the Mapuche family in their gorgeous valley is something I will never forgot. It was extremely interesting to study how the Mapuche have adapted over time and how they plan to maintain their identity in a changing world. New government funding for infrastucture development and education offers some hope. The prospect of increasing tourism does as well. Part of me wishes that Rosa and her relatives could remain in their valley forever, unchanged and unbothered. Sadly, it is 500 years to late for such hopes and I can only wish that the future will be better for the Mapuche.

I took tons of pictures during my trip and will try again to post some on the blog site. I will post all of them on Facebook and post the link as soon as I am done.

Love and miss all of you,

Daniel