“...Maybe there is not only one chilean living in every stream...” Local conflicts and anti-state resistance among the Aymaras of Tarapacá, 1880-1920

Abstract

This article reconstructs the transit that the Aymara population suffered since their incorporation to Chile, particularly in two ambits. On one hand, it explores the local conflicts inbetween the Aymara people and their capacity to resolve them in a context in which personal interests surfaced, as well as family structures that tended to replace the traditional indigenous authorities. On the other hand, those who envolved the aymaras with the Chilean State and its representatives in the valleys and streams of Tarapacá, particularly those that ocuppied the latter's last administrative echelons, among which their venality and the privilege of their alliances and personal interests led them to become a bumping stone, rather than those who will mediate and resolve disputes.