As we enter September and quickly move to what is known in the U.S. as “Hispanic Heritage Month”, many Latin American counties celebrate their independence days, especially countries in South America. As the mother of two ChileRicans, one of them a MapucheRican and having lived in Chile in one of my incarnations, this 45 minute documentary really struck me. The Spanish (as in from Spain and in Spanish- with no English subtitles) looks at the Mapuche in Chile, with a specific focus on recent political repression.

I was moved and angered by the film as it discussed how, paralleling the treatment of indigenous nations in the U.S., colonial treaties were broken, new treaties were made, and then those were broken as well. I was particularly struck with how the new land ownership decisions made under the Pinochet dictatorshop were being enforced with violence against Mapuche communities.

If you speak Spanish and have 45 minutes to spare, it really is worth watching, considering the context of the upcoming bicentennial of Chile.

“Los Olvidados”, El Pueblo Mapuche, Una Historia de Resistencia from Nuestro Canto on Vimeo.

Via / Oposición a Piñera