In this book, Augusto Samaniego Mesías and Carlos Ruiz Rodríguez attempt to reveal the mentalities, politics, and policies of the Chilean state and governing sectors toward the Mapuche throughout much of the twentieth century. They start by uncovering the fiction that the Chilean nation-state is a unitary one with a homogenous citizenry. This conception has generally not allowed for the collective rights or alternative practices of a group such as the Mapuche. Instead, the Mapuche people have had to conform to liberal conceptions of individual personhood and private property, even as they have often been understood as a distinct group. Through their work, Samaniego and Ruiz hope to contribute to current efforts to change this dynamic in order to achieve the “effective development of democracy” (p. 14).
In developing this approach, Samaniego and Ruiz invert what has generally been the focus of studies on the Mapuche population. Instead of analyzing...
