The small argentine city of Bariloche in northeastern Patagonia is commonly promoted as a picturesque, sleepy resort destination set in the Andes. It is even referred to by some in the tourism industry as the “Switzerland of Argentina.” But the teeming slums of the city paint quite a different picture; these neighborhoods house the hidden workforce of the tourist industry. Among them are a large number of Mapuche who have migrated from the region’s rural areas and from various towns in nearby Chile. During the 1990s, young people from the peripheral neighborhoods began a movement to challenge the rhetoric of a postcard-perfect city in an effort to show its other side, the darker face of Argentina’s “Switzerland.” This movement included public demonstrations as well as the creation of alternative spaces where punk and heavy metal proliferated. In 2002 they launched the Mapuche Campaign of Self-Affirmation, Wefkvletuyiñ (“We are Re-emerging”), which promotes public debate on Mapuche identity throughout the region. The idea was to not only confront the dominant denial of an indigenous presence in Argentina, but to also challenge perceptions of the Mapuche as simply a part of some rural or folkloric landscape—a narrow definition in which mapunks and mapuheavy youths, as they call themselves, were never considered part of the native nation. In this context, Wefkvletuyiñ’s focus on identity encourages self-affirmation (particularly among the young) and rebuilds broken social bonds while creating new ones. Coordinated by young Mapuche and non-Mapuche activists mainly based in Bariloche, Wefkvletuyiñ is actually a network of individuals, including Mapuche youths from other cities. The campaign includes a Mapuche Drama Project and media projects carried out by the MapUrbe Communication Workgroup. The Mapuche Drama Project intends to create a specific theater language all its own, affirming that identity is as much verbally as it is physically performed. The Project has already presented two plays featuring Mapuche actors from both rural and urban areas. The MapUrbe Communication Workgroup produces radio shows and a fanzine—MapUrbe’zine—that is directly oriented toward urban youths, incorporating their slang and aesthetics, and circulating mostly in the heavy metal and punk scene. The campaign’s final productions are mainly distributed in northern Patagonia (Argentina) and in the south of Chile, areas that comprise the Mapuche’s historical territory. At the same time, their activities highlight pressing concerns such as Mapuche territorial claims, the eviction of Mapuche communities, the imprisonment of political leaders accused of terrorism in Chile, the indiscriminate sale of natural resources to corporations, the marginalization and poverty of the barrios and more. With renewed voice, young people are thus creatively using discursive codes specific to the barrios—from language to cultural production—that allow youth to identify with them and open up the possibility for Mapuche identity to be reconsidered from varied angles. Due to the commitment shown by young urban Mapuche over the last five years, their presence is now accepted in many Mapuche spaces—rural, communal, ceremonial and political. Though they are still occasionally challenged by many Mapuche activists, old and young, who insist on only one particular way of being Mapuche, such instances only confirm to the young activists that their campaign does indeed move the ongoing debate forward. About the Author MapUrbe Communication Workgroup can be contacted at encuentromapu@yahoo.com.ar.
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