SILENT STRUGGLE FOR THE (INDIGENOUS) RIGHT TO THE CITY: MAPUCHE BAILMENTS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF SANTIAGO DE CHILE

Abstract

This article discusses the contradictions involved in the access of indigenous peoples to physical, social, and political spaces of the city. These contradictions arise since cities have contributed to the colonization of Indigenous territories in the past and continue to make invisible those Indigenous individuals who migrate to, or reside within urban areas in the present. The Lefebvrian concept of an emergent right, which was forged through social struggles, finds echo in the processes experienced by Mapuche associations accessing urban land given in bailment in the metropolitan area of Santiago. These associations seek to collectively practice ownership of these spaces by filling them with socially productive activities, thus avoiding the termination of precarium bailment contracts. It is a silent activism that focuses on gaining concrete spaces rather than more visible political mobilizations. The social practice of property is analyzed here under five themes: how bailments serve as a form of governance over associations, how they have a complex impact on the autonomy of these groups, the performance of property, and property support in surrounding spaces and the tension between moral claims and legal rights. However, this collective practice of property creates a sense of belonging to the spaces of the metropolitan area of Santiago that is in tension with Mapuche territorial aspirations in the south of the country. The discussion is based on a qualitative research project on property struggles for which interviews were conducted with members of Indigenous associations that coordinate rukas (cultural centers) in Santiago.