Beyond recognition: autonomy, the state, and the Mapuche Coordinadora Arauco Malleco

Abstract

The initial resurgence of indigenous mobilization in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s was certainly driven by the framework of the ‘politics of recognition’. However, since then much has been altered in the politico-economic and cultural framework of Latin American societies. This paper examines a new strand of indigenous mobilization in the region today, what we call ‘revindicative autonomism’. Moving away from the language of ‘rights’ and statist autonomy arrangements, this is a struggle against the much-lauded regimes of multiculturalism and differentiated citizenship. Although officially formed back in the late 1990s, the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) has more recently emerged as the central actor in what has been called the ‘New Arauco War’ in south-central Chile. This movement has put forward a sui generis project for autonomy that is contingent on the complete territorial recovery and the reconstruction of Wallmapu as a whole. To achieve that, CAM draws from the pre-colonial past and resuscitates the ontologies and epistemologies of the Mapuche nation.