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The Open Wound: Five Mapuche Texts

March 2023

Portraits of Elisa Taber and Liliana Ancalao

Elisa Taber (left) and Liliana Ancalao (right)

Living Words: An Introduction to Five Contemporary Mapuche Texts

By Elisa Taber & Liliana Ancalao

Liliana Ancalao and Elisa Taber discuss the genocide of the Mapuche people, and how Mapuche writing both stitches together that open wound and recognizes the historical and cultural continuity of this people.

Translated from Spanish by Elisa Taber

Multilingual

Photo of rocks and brush in Fitatimen, Río Negro

Photo: Liliana Ancalao

I Write to Purge This Memory

By Liliana Ancalao

Liliana Ancalao honors her Mapuche identity and records the violence the state committed against her people in the Conquest of the Desert and Occupation of Araucanía, violence that continues to this day.

Translated from Spanish by Liliana Ancalao & Seth Michelson

Multilingual

The Rahue River winding through lush greenery

Manuel cossu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reductions

By Jaime Huenún Villa

Jaime Huenún Villa remembers his Huilliche-Mapuche ancestors and their wise way of being in the territory.

Translated from Spanish by Cynthia Steele

Multilingual

A tall foye tree trunk shot from below, surrounded by leaves

Patricio Novoa Quezada, CC BY-NC 2.0, via Flickr

Letters Drawn from Foye Bark

By Adriana Paredes Pinda

Adriana Paredes Pinda considers the power and implications of writing, what it means to exist between languages, and the lasting effects of colonialism on the Mapuche people.

Translated from Spanish by Arthur Malcolm Dixon

Multilingual

A loom with Mapuche textiles

Marco Antonio Correa Flores, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Following Luminous Traces

By Daniela Catrileo

Daniela Catrileo reaffirms the existence of Mapuche literature—historically considered static or even nonexistent—as a vital, diverse, and growing body of work.

Translated from Spanish by Edith Adams

Multilingual