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Gabriela Romo

Professor Park-Wedlock

EN111 Research Project

13 May 2019

A Study of Language and its Socio-Cultural Impacts: Mapudungun and the Search for Queer Indigenous Identities in

INTRODUCTION

Language is transformative. There is power in the reclamation of words. Language plays an integral role in shaping our identities by providing terminologies that define us as well as avenues of discussion that spark new and ever-changing ways to bring words and concepts to life via personal experiences. In this paper, I want to explore how indigenous language intersects with the queer community and how western concepts of queerness can engage and learn from indigenous groups and their ways of thinking. In particular, I want to analyze Mapudungun, which is the language spoken by the people of Chile, and learn about what terms may signify queerness and how LGBTQ people are viewed/exist within the Mapuche community.

I am interested in the identity component of language and how intersecting identities manifest themselves. How does Mapudungun amplify our cultural understandings of queerness and indigenous ways of life? What can we learn from the nuances of language, and particularly indigenous languages, in relation to the LGBTQ community on a universal scale versus a local scale?

This topic is important on a global scale, because the more people are exposed to queer ideologies, experiences, and lived realities, the more they can be normalized and accepted. The ways in which people, primarily cisgendered-heterosexual people and even members of the Romo 2 queer community, view, understand, and talk about the LGBT community within the United

States is under a Western lens. The terms used in the United States and white western culture are not inclusive of indigenous languages and other languages spoken besides English. This must change on a societal scale so that people will be more respectful, aware, and inclusive of indigenous people and alternative notions of sexuality and gender identity. How do we translate words into other languages? Words exist in some languages that don’t exist in others, and often a direct translation is not possible, however that is precisely what opens our eyes to new perspectives. When we listen to a native speaker of any language provide their own meanings and contexts, our own personal worldview can be infinitely expanded thanks to this exchange of knowledge led by an appreciation of our differences.

It is extremely important to appreciate and acknowledge the value of indigenous knowledge and indigenous perceptions of the world and humanity. There is much that

Westerners, white, and non-indigenous people can learn from as well as become allies for native and indigenous people, their knowledges, and languages. In a white dominated society, the narratives are often told through a homophobic, transphobic, patriarchal culture and speech.

English as a language has manifested an influence and precedence over other languages as being superior, and is prioritized by white culture as an after-effect of colonialism. We as a society must be reminded that Western ideals are not the center of truth; that indigenous, black, and brown people, our languages and manners of speech are valid and contribute to the differences and beauty of cultural and ethnic diversity.

I will be examining my topic through an anti-colonial, queer, non-white lens in an attempt to support and empower the indigenous community I am researching, the Mapuche. A large part of my desire to do this research stems from its personal connection to my many Romo 3

identities. As a Chilean-american queer mestiza womxn, I have always been interested in my

roots and particularly the indigenous people of my country, the Mapuche people of Chile. Thus,

through this essay and my research, my perspective as a queer, Chilean-american person of color

guides me as I navigate this topic.

Thesis Statement

I want to explore the ways in which indigenous language, particularly Mapudungun of

the Mapuche people of Chile, serves as a beacon of change, resistance, and alternative modes of

thinking in regards to the human understanding of queerness. I want to try to understand the

perceptions and realities of queerness as they exist and are viewed through Mapudungun and

thereby the Mapuche people. By honoring indigenous language and not trying to find exact

translations in English (or any other globally “dominant” language) I want to understand the

meanings that are unique, cultural, and historical to the Mapuche people.

HISTORY

It is necessary to situate and provide background knowledge on key terms and of course

on the Mapuche themselves before analyzing the core themes of this essay regarding language

and queer indigenous identity. A critical account of Mapuche culture and their histories should

be examined alongside the Chilean perspective to get a better understanding of the dominant

discourses that permeate Chilean society and that then impact indigenous beliefs. The dominant

Chilean culture that has dictated norms and ideals regarding queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people as well as on the indigenous community needs to be challenged. Romo 4

Some key terms and ideas that will be defined and discussed in this essay are: co- gendered identity and the language of co-genderism as coined and explained by Bacigalupo, linguistic memory, colonial inheritance, and differing gender ideologies. Relating to gender ideologies, I will also analyze Chilean norms and contrast them with Mapuche norms to discuss each group’s respecting views on gender, sexuality, and identity. The linguistics of gender performance and the various discourses surrounding indigenous views of queerness are also key to this essay.

The story begins with the Mapuche people residing in the southern territory of Chile.

“Mapu” in their native language Mapudungun, means “of the land” while “che” means “people,” thus, they are the people of the earth/land (New World Encyclopedia). Previously identified as

Araucanos by the invading Spaniards, today this term is rejected by the Mapuche people and has been replaced with Mapuche or Reche as the official name of their ethnic identity (New World

Encyclopedia). An incredible fact is that the Mapuche were the only indigenous group that the

Spanish colonizers could not defeat in Latin America. They were forced to recede north and leave the Mapuche to maintain their lands south of the Bío Bío River. Going even further back in history, the Mapuche even kept their independence from the powerful Inca Empire for over

300 years (New World Encyclopedia).

Sadly, the Chilean treatment of Mapuche people has a history of exclusion, racism, and antagonism as a result of colonization and white power over indigenous people. Mapuche histories have been scrapped from the books and often were undocumented to begin with, creating a loss of cultural memory in contemporary Mapuche communities. Language thus intersects with cultural memory because words change over time and this shifting can reveal the dynamics and social norms between groups of people. Language is powerful, and for the Romo 5

Mapuche, speaking, practicing, and reclaiming Mapudungun offers liberation from the constrictions Spanish places on Mapudungun. For example, the native Mapuche term “weye,” which the Spaniards usurped and defined as someone “nefarious,” “a male invert,” “puto,” and

“sodomite,” has been reclaimed by the Mapuche and refers to someone who is able to fluctuate between the feminine and masculine, which was the original definition prior to Spanish influences.

Tying language and my search for queer identity within Mapuche communities has been difficult because not much has been written about the topic. There has also been a reconstruction of identity within the Mapuche community over the centuries of colonialism that has altered their perception of themselves and their culture which makes it difficult to cling to a single definition, therefore it is important to understand the why behind thought processes. I want to discuss these changes of time and place that impact the language used to signify queerness in its native and original tongue. I want to show that despite the difficulty in translating something word for word, new concepts can be learned that expand vocabularies and understandings of the world. By situating and centering focus on indigenous communities that for centuries have been neglected a place and a voice in history means that awareness can change ignorance. Knowing more than one language is to step into different worlds and their respective cultures.

I do not wish to speak for the Mapuche people, because it is their voices that need to be amplified, not mine. I only wish to invite all those who are not indigenous and Mapuche into the conversation so as to learn, reflect, and support this community.

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ANALYSIS

Mapuche Co-gendered Identities/Gender and Sexuality Performances

The Mapuche people prior to contact with the Spanish had their own set of beliefs regarding gender and sexuality as well as their own set of terms for people who did not belong to the simple man/woman binary that we, as Westerners, are accustomed to. Researcher Bacigalupo has done extensive work on the topic of Mapuche “co-gender identities,” a term coined and defined by Bacigalupo. Bacigalupo writes, “I use the term co-gendered to refer to weye to reinforce the idea that machi weye identity was constantly fluctuating between the masculine and the feminine, an oscillation that in spiritual and political contexts appears as a binary opposition between men/nonwomen and women/nonmen, and in everyday contexts as an opposition between men and women” (Bacigalupo, 514-515). I really like using the term “co-gender identity” to relate to the machi weye identity/experience because it encompasses the original definition of “machi weye” in Mapudungun as well as functions as a decentralization and critique of Western concepts of “alternate genders.” Bacigalupo emphasizes this critique of the concept of “third-gender persons” as a concept created by “Euro-American scholars to describe people around the globe with gender identities distinct from those of women and men. Such persons are labeled cross-gendered or transgendered because their gender and sex do not match up according to the Euro-American woman–man binary system” (Bacigalupo, 514). However, despite many writers/scholars who believe that terms like third gender or alternate gender are inclusive of genders outside the binary, Bacigalupo argues that instead, the effect of

“universalizing” the “culturally variable and context specific” actually reinforces the Western lens onto societies/cultures that do not perceive the binary at all (Bacigalupo, 514). What is key here is the “culturally variable” and “context specific” notion of gender and sexuality, which Romo 7 relates to how language is precise and contextual and therefore cannot always be translated directly. In addition, “third gender” implies that there are only two genders to begin with, and that “sex is naturally associated with gender” (Bacigalupo, 514). Western cultures must think and go beyond Euro-American concepts of gender and sexuality and start to look at the ways indigenous people see and engage with queerness, gender, and sexuality.

Regarding gender and sexuality performances, the machi weye were and are male spiritual leaders who can fluctuate between performances of femininity and masculinity and engage in sexual acts with both men and women. They possess a combination of feminine spiritual power and masculine political power and were highly valued in Mapuche society prior to Spanish colonial influences. Aside from male machi weye, female machi also existed and still exist to this day, however not much was documented about their societal roles when the Spanish first confronted the Mapuche, primarily because the patriarchal Spanish view deemed women as less important (Bacigalupo, 511). Not much is known about whether female machi also presented a sort of queer identity within Mapuche culture, although it is known that they had the power to fluctuate between the masculine and feminine during rituals (Bacigalupo, 515).

However, their sexuality and engagement in queer sexual relations/activities is not known.

Contrasting Cultural and Social Perspectives

In order to get a better understanding of queer identities in Mapuche culture, it’s important to document and analyze both the pre-colonial and contemporary Mapuche perspectives as well as the dominant Chilean perspectives that have permeated and even dictated norms within Mapuche society. Most Chileans are the descendents of Europeans/Spaniards and the indigenous peoples of Chile (primarily the Mapuche), although there are other indigenous groups that exist and are part of the mestizaje of Chilean people. Mestizaje comes from the term Romo 8 mestizo, which means someone of mixed indigenous and white race. Due to Spanish/European ideals of beauty and legitimacy, which dictate whiteness as the pinnacle of beauty and desire,

Chileans have adopted this racist mentality as an after effect of colonialism. Many eurocentric ideals have been adopted into Chilean mainstream society, as is the case with many countries and peoples that have been colonized. Colonization is pervasive and forcefully engrains norms to capitalize on minorities, particularly indigenous people and those deemed inferior to whiteness, heteronormativity, and patriarchy. Bacigalupo reinforces this: “The Spaniards perceived Spanish male bodies, dressed in men’s clothing, as natural and correct. Native bodies had to be made to conform, to learn their Spanish gender, in order to be considered part of society” (Bacigalupo,

503). Authors Oteíza, Terea, and Merino then bring this notion of Spanish conformity to the modern age, highlighting that “interethnic and intercultural interactions between Chilean mainstream society and members of the Mapuche culture have shown the mainstream attitude to be distant, suspicious and prejudiced” (Oteíza, Terea & Merino, 299). Discrimination is rampant against the Mapuche people by Chilean people. Being queer AND Mapuche adds another layer of discrimination to the mix, seeing as homosexuality is a taboo in Chile. The Chilean perspective on gender and sexuality is that both are dependent on the genitals assigned at birth, which are ideals enforced by the binary system that Western cultures adhere to. Femininity is also viewed as inferior to masculinity under the patriarchal, machista world view Chileans live by.

In contrast to the Chilean narrative, Mapuche discourse can be analyzed through their pre-colonial views alongside contemporary, post-colonial views. Pre-colonial/colonial perspectives documented upon contact consisted of the following: gender and sexuality were based on performance, not anatomy; masculinity and femininity were both equally important in Romo 9

life; and same-sex sexual relations were not seen as taboo/unnatural (Bacigalupo, 513-514).

Bacigalupo links language directly to this concept of performance as the signifier of gender and

sexuality in the Mapuche community: “The terms chegelcen (to be made a man), chegelun (to

make oneself a man), cacudueltun (to disguise onself by using a dress), and kureyen (to use as a

woman) all point to the fact that gender was made, performed, and enacted rather than

determined by sex or sexual identity” (Bacigalupo, 514). This quote makes it evident that

studying languages can give us an invaluable perspective into a group’s social world views.

While these Mapuche ideals on gender and sexuality were all in complete opposition to

Spanish and current Chilean ideals, “Co-gendered identities and sexualities based on gender or sexual positions continue to play important roles in machi life, and some male machi are now labeled as domo-wentru, or woman–man. These co-gender identities provide machi with

legitimacy in ritual but do not undercut national hierarchical constructions of sexual identity and

gender in everyday contexts” (Bacigalupo, 517). Mapudungun has shifted to adopt

Spanish/colonial concepts of gender and sexuality in a binary system yet still express and retain machi ancestral knowledge and “legitimacy” using their own Mapuche terms as identity markers.

Although having to adopt the Spanish notions of gender in a binary system may seem repressive, which it definitely is, I also see it as an act of resilience, because despite these imposed ideas the

Mapuche have done with they can within the limitations of the binary heteronormative

framework to keep their heritage alive. Still, many contemporary Mapuche deny and suppress

the existence of homosexuality within their community, a fact which leads me to my next topic

of analysis on colonial inheritance (Bacigalupo, 506-509).

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Construction of Linguistic Memory and Colonial Inheritance

When I speak of colonial inheritance, I am referring to the norms and mentalities instilled by colonizers that have then been inherited by a colonized society and that manifest over time to the present day. An example of colonial inheritance in the Mapuche community is the inheritance of homosexuality as a sin, which has led to an alteration of linguistic memory.

Linguistic memory is one of the things I wanted to learn more about through my research to uncover not only the language and terms used to refer to queer identities, but also how these terms have shifted over time in Mapuche collective memory to signify new meanings. In the performance piece by queer Mapuche Sebastián Calfuqueo, he explores what it means to be machi weye today, and how the term and identity has become something the Mapuche discriminate against within their own community as opposed to the reverence once held towards machi weye within the Mapuche social structure. Gutiérrez interviewed Calfuqueo and received the following statement: “‘Eran dos cosas que históricamente no se podían aunar. Según la historia oficial estaba ese discurso de que el homosexual es una construcción del occidente contemporáneo, casi un mal burgués y no algo que pertenecía anteriormente a nuestra tribu originaria” (Gutiérrez, 2017). Again, the notion that homosexuality is not intrinsic to Mapuche communities and was something brought by the Spaniards appears in the narrative and language referring to queer, co-gender identities. Calfuqeo’s commentary highlights the detrimental loss

Mapuche have suffered due to the “official history” of Chile which forced them to internalize heteronormativity, reject their own ideologies of gender and sexuality, and even claim that homosexuality had never existed in their communities prior to Spanish contact. Instead, some believe that homosexuality is actually a construction of the contemporary West. This “official history” is the history of the conquerors and the Western powers that have used their dominance Romo 11 to erase thousands of years of indigenous culture and knowledge. For Mapuche today, identity is very complex, especially in relation to language: “Often not knowing the or participating in Mapuche rituals and ceremonies leads to self-classification as ‘not really’ or ‘sort of’ with regard to Mapuche ethnicity. Mapuche adolescents consider it their own personal responsibility to maintain their culture and thus reinforce their Mapuche identity” (Oteíza, Terea

& Moreno, 314). This pressure for Mapuche youth to have to prove their indigeneity in a modern society stems from the historical loss colonization has created. Colonial inheritance alters language and in turn linguistic memory. Linguistic memory thus extends to signify both the historical record of language pertaining to a culture and how it evolves, as well as the literal practice and remembrance of a language.

PROPOSAL/IMPLICATIONS

This study opens up the conversation around the validity of indigenous languages/knowledges and the importance of recognizing peoples and cultures that exist beyond the colonial gaze. It challenges the centralization of English as a global language unifier and reminds Westerners in particular that the West is not the center of the universe. I argue that despite the difficulties in translating certain words, rather than translate, we should value and incorporate the original words themselves into a given lexicon, as opposed to trying to mold said words to fit whatever dominant ideals may be at play, as is the case with the term machi weye, which the Spaniards translated as “sodomites,” “hermaphrodites,” and “nefarious sinners” and which actually means to fluctuate between the feminine and masculine (Bacigalupo, 490). Even words like queer, nonbinary, and transgender all reflect an English speakers perspective. Further work should be done to focus on indigenous communities and centralize their perspectives to Romo 12 incorporate them into mainstream narratives as a way of honoring and respecting alternate modes of thinking and existing. I think my research question is one that should continue to be asked and worked on because it is so valuable to the making of a global culture of respect and unity.

CONCLUSION

Time and time again, indigenous people have experienced oppression via the legacy of colonization. The Mapuche people are no exception. Despite this, their culture is still alive and there is much that Westerners can learn from their language and cultural practices. This essay sought to detail and analyze Mapudungun in relation to queer identities within the Mapuche community. How do they see, approach, and value queerness? What alternate words and identities exist that are not part of the English vocabulary, especially regarding queer terms? I have found that memory within the contemporary Mapuche community suffers a loss due to

Spanish colonization and has shifted queer perspectives to match Chilean norms. Nonetheless, there is still active resistance to Chilean norms and movements within Mapuche youth who are trying to recover their ancestral histories, knowledges, and customs. Through my research, I learned so much about Mapuche ideologies regarding queer and co-gender identities and the intersections of language and history. Part of my duty with this research was to emphasize the value of learning languages beyond the scope of English and Western tongues; to emphasize that to decentralize colonial modes of communication is to centralize the validity of indigenous languages and how learning/teaching them expands our collective knowledge of linguistic, social, and cultural understandings. If change is to happen in recuperating indigenous identities and histories, there must be a shift in the way dominant cultures value indigenous people. I Romo 13 believe change is possible, but not without hard work, persistence, intentionality, and above all, respect and love for one another and our differences.

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Works Cited

Bacigalupo, Ana Mariella. “The Struggle for Mapuche Shamans’ Masculinity: Colonial

Politics of Gender,Sexuality, and Power in Southern Chile (Book).” Ethnohistory, vol.

51, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 489–533. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1215/00141801-51-3-489.

Gutiérrez, Lucas. “Gay, Mapuche y Feminista: Un Joven Chileno Interroga Desde El Arte.”

Agencia Presentes, 29 May 2017,

agenciapresentes.org/2017/05/29/gay-mapuche-feminista-joven-chileno-interroga-desde- arte/.

“Machi (Shaman).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2019,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machi_(shaman).

“Mapuche.” New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mapuche.

Oteíza, Teresa & Merino, María. (2012). Am I a genuine Mapuche? Tensions and contradictions

in the construction of ethnic identity in Mapuche adolescents from Temuco and Santiago.

Discourse & Society - DISCOURSE SOCIETY. 23. 297-317. 10.1177/0957926511433455.

Warren, Sarah D. “HOW WILL WE RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER AS MAPUCHE? Gender

and Ethnic Identity Performances in .” Gender and Society, vol. 23, no. 6,

2009, pp. 768–789. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20676830.