Araucania region

Temuco is the regional capital, and the main demographic, economic and productive centre of the region

The Pablo Neruda Railway Museum is one of the icons of the city, due to its role in the communications of the city in the centuryXX. and inspiration for the poet Neruda.

Mapuche culture is a symbol of the Region of La Araucanía and Chile. In the image Chemamull is appreciated in a Mapuche cemetery (1903)

The vast Mapuche gastronomy is based on various fruits such as the pineapples of Araucaria or Catuto made of wheat.

The La Araucanía Region is one of the sixteen regions into which Chile is divided. Its capital is the city of Temuco. It is the gateway to the southern part of the country. It limits to the northwest and north with the Biobío Region, to the east with the province of Neuquén in Argentina, to the south with the Los Ríos Region and to the west with the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 31,858 km² and a population of 1,046,322 inhabitants. according to the projection of the INE of the year 2014, being the ninth region with the largest regional extension in Chile and the fifth most populated, behind the Metropolitan regions of Santiago, Valparaíso, Biobío and Maule.

The region is made up of the provinces of Cautín and Malleco. Its main urban center is Gran Temuco with 358,541 inhabitants, followed by Villarrica with 51,511 inhabitants and Angol with 51,268 inhabitants.

Toponymy

La Araucanía refers to the “place inhabited by the Araucanians”, the name by which the Spanish designated the Mapuche. In turn, the word "araucano" is the demonym of the word "Arauco", an old place name used by the Spanish to refer ambiguously to southern Chile and more specifically to the area controlled by the Mapuches. (Not to be confused with the current commune of Arauco, much smaller in size). The main hypothesis is that Arauco is the Hispanicization of the word “Ragko”, which in Mapudungun means Chalky Earth.

Symbols

Flag

Regional shield

The region does not have an official flag. However, the banner used by the mayor, which consists of a white field with the regional coat of arms in the center, is usually used as the regional flag, although its status is not defined. The shield is designed on the basis of two red and black quarters, adorned with six white guemiles and a trapelacucha (Mapuche jewel) of the same color, surrounded by a garland of copihue and crowned by a snowy mountain escorted by araucarias,

In recent times the use of the Wenufoye or Mapuche Flag has become popular in the region, so much so that it is used officially in dozens of municipalities in the region and even in the mayor's office and governorates.

History

Pleistocene or final ice age (Paleoindian period)

The beginning of the history of human settlement in this region dates back to around 11,000 years before the Christian era in the final ice age (Paleoindian Period).

She was associated with the end of the Wisconsian ice age. The first settlers of these southern places were organized in family groups (bands) of hunters and gatherers (as) who practiced residential mobility and who were successful in colonizing the different American ecosystems, reaching the current southern Chile at least 13,000 years ago. years where they began to learn to inhabit the evergreen forest of the valley and practiced sporadic excursions to the Pacific coast. These events are the beginning of the History of Araucanía.

Archaic Period

During this period, profound changes took place in the societies that inhabited this south-central area, those that had the greatest experience in social organization and specialized technologies for gathering and hunting, the product of more intimate knowledge and the expression of behaviors surely flexible for their establishment in different ecosystems as a result of the global environmental change that had occurred in previous millennia. Gathering peoples began to arrive 4,800 years ago, leaving several archaeological sites in the area, in Quillén, Quino, Isla Mocha, and the Pucón Peninsula. These groups brought finished hunting techniques, however the gathering techniques were adopted from previous groups., from the Paleoindian. No Paleoindian archaeological remains have been found but it is known that they were since there are remains further south, in Monte Verde (11,000 BC). Under these remains were found others from at least the period 31,000 BCE C. The archaeological sites in the region correspond to the so-called eaves, which are high places where access sites and water sources are dominated, and allowed hunting and defense tactics to be outlined. In them, arrowheads and other instruments were found. lithic. The eaves are generally in rocks or basalt caves, which also provided the raw material to make their lithic tools. Among the lithic items were knives, scrapers, and projectile points. The eaves overlooked areas of forest where locals gathered fruits and plants and hunted. In this period there was already recognition and knowledge of territory. This is inferred because they used different projectile points in the valley or on the coast.

During the summer, they moved to high sectors of the Andes mountain range to stock up on the piñón, the fruit of the pehuén, collect obsidian and rhyolite from sectors near volcanoes to make their instruments, and hunt the fauna that came up in in search of green meadows. This activity, the summer, is carried out in the area until today.

The Archaic period lasted from 8000 B.C. C. until 700 a. C, approx.

Early agro-pottery period

The early agro-pottery period is an archaeological period used for the classification of archaeological cultures of the original peoples of northern Argentina and northern and central Chile. It develops between 500 a. C. and the year 650 of our era.

Pitren Complex

The Pitrén culture is an early Chilean agro-pottery cultural complex. The communities included under this denomination were located between the Bío Bío river and Llanquihue lake, located in the Lakes Region. Already around the year 600, these groups began the cultivation of corn and potatoes, by clearing spaces between the forests, without abandoning their hunting and gathering practices. Ceramics, a particular element that has characterized these communities, is the oldest in the area. In it is the ketrumetawe, a jar in the shape of a bird, symbol of the married woman; in addition to another diversity of jars with globular structures, with a cylindrical and straight neck, with a handle on the neck or with a straight handle that ends in an animal figure, such as ducks, frogs or toads at the end. Pitrén ceramics show an evident contact with the cultures of El Molle and Llolleo. They decorated the pieces with a procedure called "negative painting". Scholars seem to agree that Pitrén constitutes the first agro-pottery expression in southern Chile.

El Vergel Complex

Tirúa Complex

The Tirúa complex most likely had its roots in the Diaguita complex further north, or in the Aconcagua style of the central valley, the pottery types of El Vergel, Tirúa and Valdivia are linked to each other, as well as to the Aconcagua complex, sharing common traditions, given that many symbolic elements of its graphics, as well as the shape of the objects in which said graphics are installed, tend to be the same, as can be seen when comparing the objects that are preserved in museums and private collections.

The biggest problem is the so-called Tirúa type, due to the fact that, when describing it, Latcham did not provide photographs of the pieces but only some not very well achieved drawings, reproduced in his book Chilean indigenous pottery and whose description in said text seems insufficient. In addition, the pieces are not known in Chilean collections and museums, nor in Argentine collections where they could have been taken, so the problem persists.

Mapuche period

The Mapuche culture arises from these previous cultures, represented then by their ancestors Pitrén and El Vergel. Over time, in hundreds of years these cultural traits expanded and became homogeneous, until reaching the year one thousand of our era to constitute what can now be fully recognized as Mapuche culture.

After a brief contact with the Inca Empire that never reached the area, its inhabitants were called promaucaes (hanan runasimi purum auca, 'wild people'). The later influence of the Incas was not small either and they adopted numerous products from the "enemy" who did not manage to enter their territory.

In 1536, after the Incas, came the Spaniards called huincas by the Mapuche (Mapudungún we inka, 'new Inca'). The definitive contact with the Spanish occurred in the battle of Reinohuelen in 1536. This town was known by the Spanish conquerors with the generic name of "araucano", used for the first time by Alonso de Ercilla in 1589. Arauco, is derived from the word ragko (Mapudungún ragko, 'white clay water'), synonymous with Malleco, Malloco or Mallarauco.

Among them they were called by demonyms that alluded to the different localities of origin (for example, purenes), or to cardinal points from which they came, with respect to the referents (picunches (pikun, & #39;North'), Huilliches (willi, 'South')).

Arauco War

More than 180,000 indigenous people lived on these lands, made up of the Pehuenche and Mapuche peoples. Said territory had remained rebellious since the so-called Arauco War against Spanish rule during the Conquest of Chile and the entire colonial period of Chile, without any side clearly winning.

After the independence of Chile, already in the republican period, a general parliament was ordered to be held with the Mapuches who lived south of the Biobío river, in order to agree on the statute that would regulate relations between the nascent republic and the Mapuche people; Thus, the Parliament of Tapihue was held in January 1825. However, later various events occurred that forced the Chilean state to allocate resources to the border area.

In addition, during the Revolution of 1851, General José María de la Cruz, leader of the coup movement, recruited several Mapuche loncos and their clans to take up arms against the government, this was achieved thanks to the friendship relationship that the general maintained with the caciques, among them Colipí. When their insurrection was crushed by General Manuel Bulnes, the caciques, instead of surrendering together with De la Cruz, retreated to the border along with various members of the old army, dedicating themselves to looting and cattle rustling for the next 4 years.. This motivated the government to mobilize the second battalion of the second line, until January 1856.

Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia

A French adventurer, named Orélie Antoine de Tounens, went to the Araucanía area, made contact with the lonco Quilapán, who was enthusiastic about his idea of founding a state for the Mapuche people as a form of resistance to the Chilean army during the final period of the Arauco War and on November 17, 1860, he founded the Kingdom of Araucanía and proclaimed himself king under the title of Orélie Antoine I. During the following days, Tounens promulgated the constitution of the kingdom and on November 20 of the same year declared the annexation of Patagonia, establishing as limits the Biobío River to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the river Black to the Strait of Magellan, southern limit of the Kingdom. The Chilean government, under the command of President José Joaquín Pérez, ordered Tounens' arrest in January 1862, and he was transferred to Los Angeles where he was detained and later sent to Europe.

Occupation of Araucanía

Change of the Chilean border in the occupation, 1870.

In 1879 the last great Mapuche uprising took place in the current Araucanía Region due to the migration of Chilean forces to the north due to the War of the Pacific. The uprising was put down by the troops led by Cornelio Saavedra Rodríguez in 1881, ending the process known in traditional Chilean history as the "Pacification of Araucanía".

This stage contemplated the total occupation of Araucanía and its consolidation. In this way, the Chilean government finally carried out one of its main state projects, longed for even since the time of the Spanish, who in the colonial period failed to settle or explore Araucanía.

The losers were relocated to “reductions”, with their respective “grace title”, that is, small community lands for them to practice their livestock activities, where they remain until today. In the occupied territories, land was given to Chilean and European settlers, mainly Spanish, German, French, Italian, British, Swiss and from the rest of Europe; In total, between 1882 and 1901, 36,000 Europeans arrived, 24,000 hired by the colonization agency and 12,000 arrived by their own means, as part of the process called the European colonization of Araucanía. To these 36,000 Europeans must be added the 100,000 Chileans of Hispanic (Creole) and mestizo origin, who arrived in this first stage, a phenomenon of internal immigration, which added to the European one, would explain the current ethnic composition of the region, where the ethnic group indigenous Mapuche, is a minority in absolute terms, with miscegenation being a common phenomenon.

Current time

Monument to Araucanía, Temuco.

The region is very rich in natural resources, services, logging, livestock, agriculture and with a great boom in international tourism, due to its natural beauties (volcanoes, ancient forests, ski resorts, lakes, rivers, fishing, thermal centers, mountains, etc). Despite its wealth, it is one of the poorest regions in the country with high rates of poverty and socio-economic inequality.

Violence

In the history of the Araucanía Region there are constant conflicts between Mapuches and forestry and agricultural companies and police forces due to historical events where many Mapuche lands were illegally expropriated and later sold to private individuals and companies. Today there are many programs underway in the Region of the National Corporation for Indigenous Development to try to resolve many of the land conflicts and encourage Mapuche communities to improve economic conditions. Despite the enormous resources destined to purchase land, machinery and equipment, it has not meant an improvement in the living conditions of the beneficiaries, but it has caused enormous damage to the regional economy.

Government and administration

Political-administrative division

The Araucanía region, whose capital is the city of Temuco, for government and internal administration purposes, is divided into two provinces:

• Province of Cautin, capital Temuco.
• Province of Malleco, capital Angol.

While these three provinces are subdivided into 32 communes ―Carahue, Cholchol, Cunco, Curarrehue, Freire, Galvarino, Gorbea, Lautaro, Loncoche, Melipeuco, Nueva Imperial, Padre Las Casas, Perquenco, Pitrufquén, Pucón, Saavedra, Temuco, Teodoro Schmidt, Toltén, Vilcún, Villarrica, Angol, Collipulli, Curacautín, Ercilla, Lonquimay, Los Sauces, Lumaco, Purén, Renaico, Traiguén and Victoria―.

Province Capital Commune Province of Cautin Temuco Carahue Cholchol Cunco Curarrehue Freire Galvary Gorbea Lautaro Loncoche Melipeuco New Imperial Father Las Casas Perquenco Pitrufquén Pucon Port Saavedra Temuco Teodoro Schmidt Toltén Vilcún Villarrica Province of Malleco Angol Angol Collipulli Caution Ercilla Lonquimay The Sauces Lumaco Purén Renaico Come on. Victoria

Carahue Cholchol Cunco Curarrehue Freire Galvary Gorbea Lautaro Loncoche Melipeuco NewImperial Father Las Casas Perquenco Pitrufquén Pucon Saavedra Temuco TeodoroSchmidt Toltén Vilcún Villarrica Angol Collipulli Caution Ercilla Lonquimay The Sauces Lumaco Purén Renaico Come on. Victoria

Authorities

Building of the Regional Government of Araucania.

The administration of the region's executive power lies in the Regional Government of Araucanía, made up of the Governor of Araucanía and the Regional Council, in addition to the presence of the regional Presidential Delegate of Araucanía and the Presidential Delegate Provincial of Malleco, representatives of the central government of the country.

For the purposes of local administration, the provinces are divided into 32 communes: Carahue, Cholchol, Cunco, Curarrehue, Freire, Galvarino, Gorbea, Lautaro, Loncoche, Melipeuco, Nueva Imperial, Padre Las Casas, Perquenco, Pitrufquén, Pucón, Saavedra, Temuco, Teodoro Schmidt, Toltén, Vilcún, Villarrica, Angol, Collipulli, Curacautín, Ercilla, Lonquimay, Los Sauces, Lumaco, Purén, Renaico, Traiguén and Victoria― all governed by their respective municipalities.

The legislative power is represented and territorially divided through the 11th constituency of the Chilean Senate, made up of five senators and the 22nd electoral district of the Chamber of Deputies -composed of four deputies- and the 23rd.º electoral district of the Chamber of Deputies -made up of seven deputies-, who represent the citizens of the region.

Health

Main entrance of the Assistance Complex Father Las Casas.

The region is divided into the Araucanía Norte and Araucanía Sur Health Services, the former administering the 7 hospitals in the Province of Malleco and the latter the 17 hospitals in Cautín.

The most important hospitals in the region are the Hernán Henríquez Aravena Regional Hospital in Temuco, the Mauricio Heyermann Hospital in Angol, the San José Hospital in Victoria, the Intercultural Hospital in Nueva Imperial, and the Complejo Asistencial Padre Las Casas.

Education

Higher Education

Various university centers, professional institutes and technical training centers are located in different cities of La Araucanía. They have presence in the region:

Traditional Universities

• Catholic University of Temuco (UCT): Temuco and Lautaro (Campus Pillanlelbún).
• Universidad de la Frontera (UFRO): Temuco, Angol and Pucón.
• Universidad Arturo Prat (UNAP): Victoria.
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC): Villarrica.

Private universities

• Universidad Autónoma de Chile (UA): Temuco.
• Universidad Mayor (U.Mayor): Temuco.
• Universidad Santo Tomás (UST): Temuco.
• University of Aconcagua (UAC): Temuco.
• Technological University of Chile (Inacap): Temuco.

Technical training centers

• C.F.T. Teodoro Wickel Klüwen: Temuco
• C.F.T. State of La Araucanía: Lautaro
• C.F.T. St. Thomas: Temuco
• C.F.T. Canon: Villarrica, Pucón, Vilcún, Cunco and Loncoche.
• C.F.T. INACAP: Temuco
• AIEP: Temuco

Geography and climate

Laguna Toro, in the Huerquehue National Park.

It is located between the Biobío and Los Ríos regions and between Argentina and the Pacific Ocean. Its relief is characterized by the presence, from west to east, of coastal plains, the Coastal Range, the intermediate depression, the foothills and the Andes Mountains.

The climate of the region is characterized by the transition, from north to south, between the Mediterranean and rainy oceanic climates. Being possible to observe the following types of weather:

• Warm season with short dry season;
• Rainy warm season with Mediterranean influence;
• Rainy cold season with Mediterranean influence; and
• High ice.

The hydrographic configuration of the region is characterized by the presence of three large rivers that run from east to west: the Imperial, the Toltén and the Biobío, which extends in a north-westerly direction, flowing into the Biobío Region. The main tributaries of the Imperial River are the Cautín, the Chol Chol and the Quepe, and those of the Toltén River are the Allipen and Villarrica Lake. It also has some smaller coastal basins, such as the Moncul and Queule rivers. The region has a series of lakes, including Villarrica, Caburga, Budi and Collico.

Two of the most active volcanoes in the country and in South America are found in this region: Llaima and Villarrica.

Economy

The main economic activity of the region is agriculture, highlighting the cultivation of plants such as oats, barley, and rye, as well as lupine and potatoes. These crops, with the exception of potatoes, represent the largest cultivated areas in the country. These same products have historically been the regional economic engine, at least since the region's incorporation into Chilean territory. It is worth noting the increase in the production of berries, for example raspberries and blueberries for export, grown mainly in the Gorbea area. In addition, livestock production is notable, especially in the bovine sector, which makes it the second region with the highest production in Chile, amounting to more than 700,000 head of cattle per year. In recent years, the forestry activity, of pines and eucalyptus, has experienced considerable growth, mainly in the province of Malleco.

In addition, the region has great tourist potential due to the beauty of its landscape —made up of forests, lakes, rivers, volcanoes and mountains—, and it has a wide range of hotel and tourist complex services.

In 2018, the number of companies registered in the Araucanía region was 20,410. The Economic Complexity Index (ECI) in the same year was 0.21, while the economic activities with the highest Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index were Manufacture of Charcoal and Briquettes (43.86), Primary Schools and Secondary School for Adults (30.57) and Wholesale Solid Fuels (13.71).

Demographics

The city of Temuco is, along with Iquique, one of the most explosive growth cities nationwide. According to the 1970 census, about 88,000 inhabitants lived in Temuco; This population, in 30 years, almost tripled to around 250,000 inhabitants. Currently, the city of Temuco and the commune of Padre Las Casas form the so-called metropolitan area of Temuco, which according to estimates by the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism of Chile, had 460,824 inhabitants for the year 2016, being the sixth center largest urban in Chile.

The touristic lakeside city of Villarrica has also experienced this demographic phenomenon by becoming, together with the Pucón spa, one of the 4 tourist destinations in Chile due to its large natural moors surrounded by Andean forests, clear-water lakes and immense andean volcanoes.

Current national immigration comes from the central zone of Chile and 23.46% of the population of the Araucanía Region still claimed to belong to an original/indigenous ethnic group, mainly Mapuche; however the people of indigenous origin who have assimilated would be much higher.

Ethnography

The region has a diverse population where the original Mapuche society reaches around 314,000 people, thus representing approximately 33% of the total regional population (18% of the Mapuche community nationwide) according to the 2017 census., with the majority population being of Spanish or Chilean Creole origin, followed by descendants of Swiss, French, German and Italian immigrants, including a small Dutch community that arrived in the region after 1883, thanks to a policy of colonization by the State during the Incorporation of Araucanía. From the moment this territory was incorporated, a process of forced miscegenation began between the different ethnic groups that inhabit it, both among Chileans from the area, and those who arrived from other areas of the country, as well as foreign migrants. There are differentiated communities in the region as a result of the Mapuche conflict, mainly between the descendants of foreign settlers and the indigenous population, the latter being persecuted and criminalized by the Chilean state. La Araucanía is also a region with a large number of bilingual population in Chile, where there are about 75,000 Mapudungun speakers, who also speak Spanish. Spanish is the de facto language of the region and the most widely spoken, however the Mapuche language is officialized in some communes of the region and is projected to be a co-official language in the region.

The inhabitants of the Mapuche ethnic group in this region represent 18% of the total Mapuche population nationwide, many of them are mestizos with part of their origin shared with Spanish-Chileans or even other European peoples, but with a predominance of the Mapuche ethnic descent, being the second region with the most net members of this people (after the Metropolitan Region, which brings together 37% of the total Mapuche or Mapuche-mestizo population nationwide).

Cities

Languages

The most widely spoken language is Spanish and it is the de facto official language, as in all of Chile; In addition, part of the Mapuche population speaks Mapudungun and there are communities of descendants of immigrants who use languages such as German or Italian in a minority. Mapudungun is an official language in the communes of Galvarino and Padre Las Casas and in 2015 the Regional Council approved its co-official status throughout the region, but the way in which this measure will be made effective has not been implemented.

Culture

Various cultural manifestations coexist in the region, as a consequence of the diverse relational groups that populated the region, and that are manifested in traditions, religion, architecture, gastronomy, educational projects, in which a strong cultural component stands out European, whether of Creole (Hispanic) origin or those derived from European immigration, and the Mapuche, such as the celebration of We Tripantu (Mapuche New Year) held during the winter solstice, an activity in involving more than 30 indigenous communities in the sector. This festival begins a new year for the Mapuches, which is celebrated with typical meals and prayers whose purpose is to ask that the coming season be abundant in food and crops, and that nature be protected.

Cultural Community Organizations

In the community cultural field there are more than 30 organizations that are concerned with cultivating and disseminating community art present in the region. Most of them organized in a network of organizations called ROCCO created in 2012 from a collaborative effort with the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, and ranges from environmental, sociocultural, artistic organizations, community media, Mapuches and territorial political activism.

The Traiguén House of Culture was founded on September 9, 2005, at Calle Lagos 562, Traiguén. The House of Culture is a physical space for the development, promotion and display of the different cultural expressions of the commune, region and country.

Titerike, a well-known Chilean puppet theater company, is an integral part of the network of cultural organizations and has brought plays that reflect the cultural identity of the Araucanía region to different stages of the world.

Cinema

In the film La Araucana (1971), a loose adaptation of the homonymous poem by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Araucanía is played by Chilean actress Rebeca Ghigliotto.