The Chile Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Description

The Chile Reader makes available a rich variety of documents spanning more than five hundred years of Chilean history. Most of the selections are by Chileans; many have never before appeared in English. The history of Chile is rendered from diverse perspectives, including those of Mapuche Indians and Spanish colonists, peasants and aristocrats, feminists and military strongmen, entrepreneurs and workers, and priests and poets. Among the many selections are interviews, travel diaries, letters, diplomatic cables, cartoons, photographs, and song lyrics. Texts and images, each introduced by the editors, provide insights into the ways that Chile's unique geography has shaped its national identity, the country's unusually violent colonial history, and the stable but autocratic republic that emerged after independence from Spain. They shed light on Chile's role in the world economy, the social impact of economic modernization, and the enduring problems of deep inequality. The Reader also covers Chile's bold experiments with reform and revolution, its subsequent descent into one of Latin America's most ruthless Cold War dictatorships, and its much-admired transition to democracy and a market economy in the years since dictatorship. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction I. Environment and History “No Better Land,” Pedro de Valdivia The Poetry of Place: “My Country,” Gabriela Mistral Crazy Geography, Benjamín Subercaseaux Catastrophe and National Character, Rolando Mellafe Deforestation in Chile: An Early Report, Claudio Gay “Catastrophe in Sewell,” Pablo Neruda A Call to Conservation, Rafael Elizalde Mac-Clure In Defense of the Forests, Ricardo Carrere Pollution and Politics in Greater Santiago, Saar Van Hauwermeiren II. Chile before Chile: Indigenous Peoples, Conquest, and Colonial Society A Paleolithic Footprint Chinchorro: The World’s Oldest Mummies Diaguita Ceramics Mapuche Textiles: Culture and Commerce The Inca Meet the Mapuche, Garcilaso de la Vega A Conquistador Pleads His Case to the King, Pedro de Valdivia Exalting the Noble Savage, Alonso de Ercilla Debating Indian Slavery, Melchor Calderón and Diego de Rosales “To Sell, Give, Donate, Trade, or Exchange”: Certification of Indian Enslavement Portrait of Late Colonial Santiago, Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche From War to Diplomacy: The Summit of Tapihue “The Insolence of Peons,” Mine Owners of Copiapó III. The Honorable Exception: The New Chilean Nation in the Nineteenth Century A Revolutionary Journalist: “Fundamental Notions of the Rights of Peoples,” Camilo Henríquez An Englishwoman Observes the New Nation, Maria Graham The Authoritarian Republic, Diego Portales A Political Catechism, Francisco Bilbao A Literature of Its Own: Martín Rivas, Alberto Blest Gana The University and the Nation, Andrés Bello A Polish Scientist among the Mapuche, Ignacio Domeyko German Immigrants in the South, Vicente Pérez Rosales The Beagle Diary: “A Peculiar Race of Men” Charles Darwin How to Run an Hacienda, Manuel José Balmaceda A Franco-Chilean in the California Gold Rush, Pedro Isidoro Combet “The Worst Misery”: Letters to the Santiago Orphanage “A Race of Vagabonds,” Augusto Orrego Luco IV. Building a Modern Nation: Politics and the Social Question in the Nitrate Era Audacious and Cruel Spoilations”: The War of the Pacific, Alejandro Fierro A Mapuche Chieftain Remembers “Pacification,” Pascual Coña Chile and Its “Others” Race, Nation, and the “Roto Chileno,” Nicolás Palacios Nitrates, Nationalism, and the End of the Autocratic Republic, José Manuel Balmaceda, Arturo Alessandri, and a popular poet A Manifesto to the Chilean People, Democratic Party “God Distributes His Gifts Unequally”: An Archbishop Defends Social Inequality, Mariano Casanova Workers’ Movements and the Birth of the Chilean Left, Luis Emilio Recabarren Nitrate Workers and State Violence: The Massacre at Escuela Santa Maríade Iquique, Elías Lafertte Women, Work, and Labor Politics, Esther Valdés de Díaz The Lion of Tarapacá, Arturo Alessandri Autocrats versus Aristocrats: The Decay of Chile’s Parliamentary Republic, Alberto Edwards Rescuing the Body Politic: Manifesto of a Military Coup The Poet as Creator of Worlds: Altazor, Vicente Huidobro “Mother of Chile”? “Women’s Suffrage” and “Valle de Elqui,” Gabriela Mistral V. Depression, Development, and the Politics of Compromise “Their Work Has Laid the Foundation for Greatness”: Chile’s Arab Industrialists Is Chile a Catholic Country? Alberto Hurtado “I Told Myself I Must Find Work, I Cannot Continue Here”: Interview with a Household Worker Fundamental Theoretical Principles of the Socialist Party, Julio César Jobet Public Health Crisis, Salvador Allende “Progress for All Social Classes”: Campaigning for the Popular Front, Pedro Aguirre Cerda Rural Workers, Landowners, and the Politics of Compromise, The League of Poor Campesinos of Las Cabras and the National Society of Agriculture A Case of Frustrated Development, Aníbal Pinto The Movement for the Emancipation of Chilean Women: Interview with Elena Caffarena Poetry and Politics: Memoirs and “The Heights of Macchu Picchu,” Pablo Neruda Miners’ Strikes and the Demise of the Popular Front: U.S. State Department Cables States of Exception, Elena Caffarena The Birth of a Shantytown, Juan Lemuñir Klein-Saks: Chile’s First Experiment with Neoliberalism VI. The Chilean Road to Socialism: Reform and Revolution Between Capitalism and Communism: Social Christianity as a Third Way, Eduardo Frei Property and Production: A Pamphlet Promoting Christian Democracy’s Agrarian Reform The Christian Left and Communitarian Socialism, Jacques Chonchol and Julio Silva Solar The New Song Movement: An Interview with Inti-Illimani Lyrics of the New Song Movement, Violeta Parra and Victor Jara The Election of 1970 The Election of Salvador Allende: Declassified U.S. Government Documents The Mapuche Land Takeover at Rucalán: Interviews with Peasants and Landowners Revolution in the Factory: Interviews with Workers at the Yarur Cotton Mill The Chilean Revolution One Year In, Salvador Allende Gossens Women Lead the Opposition to Allende: Interview with Carmen Saenz “So That Chile Can Renew Its March Forward,” Chilean Business and Professional Associations The Demands of the People, Movement of the Revolutionary Left “A Treasonous History,” A Group of Retired Generals and Admirals United States Policy and Covert Action against Allende, The Church Committee “Everyone Knows What Is Going to Happen,” Radomiro Tomíc to General Carlos Prats “These Are My Final Words,” Salvador Allende Gossens VII. The Pinochet Dictatorship: Military Rule and Neoliberal Economics Diary of a Coup, Peter Winn “In the Eyes of God and History,” Government Junta of the Armed Forces and Carabineros of Chile 450 Pinochet’s Caravan of Death, Patricia Verdugo Women and Torture, National Commission on Political Detention and Torture Operation Condor and the Transnationalization of Terror, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Protected Democracy and the 1980 Constitution, Jaime Guzmán Shantytown Protest: Interviews with Pobladores “There Is No Feminism without Democracy,” Julieta Kirkwood The Kids of Barrio Alto, Alberto Fuguet Sexuality and Soccer, Pedro Lemebel Competing Perspectives on Dictatorship as Revolution, Joaquín Lavínand Ernesto Tironi The Whole World Was Watching: The 1988 Plebiscite, The Observer Group of the Latin American Studies Association VIII. Returning to Democracy: Transition and Continuity Justice “To the Degree Possible”: The Rettig Report, Patricio Aylwin Azócar Surveillance Within and Without: The Custody of the Eyes, Diamela Eltit Legislating Gender Equality? Voices from Congress and Civil Society Gender and Sexuality in Transition The Credit-Card Citizen, Tomás Moulián “Chile’s Greatest Addition to the Spanish Language”: Huevón, John Brennan and Alvaro Taboada “I Never Looked for Power,” Augusto Pinochet Ugarte Historians Critique Pinochet’s “Anti-History,” Eleven Chilean Historians The Mapuche Nation and the Chilean Nation, Elicura Chihuailaf Growth with Equity, Alejandro Foxley So Conservative and Yet So Modern? The Politics of Concertación, Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt The Catholic Church Today, Antonio Delfau, S. J. “To Never Again Live It, To Never Again Deny It”: The Valech Report on Torture, Ricardo Lagos The Chilean Army after Pinochet, Juan Emilio Cheyre Espinosa La Señora Presidenta, Michelle Bachelet The Bicentennial Generation Selected Readings Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources Index