Lingva Prismo

Political Status

The Mapuche sustained their position as an autonomous nation for a long time, what with their own cultural identity and language, distinct history and social structure and their unique possession of such cultural and spiritual values.

After more than 350 years of successfully having defended themselves against enemy attacks they were successively forced to surrender themselves first to the Spanish and later to the newly established countries Chile and Argentina. Since the 19th Century they have constantly been fighting for recognition and the granting of the most basic rights.

Today the Mapuche live on Chilean and Argentinean soil although despite their large numbers and the fact that a large percentage of the population today share those same ancestors their official status and recognition as yet remains unacknowledged. Their original territory has been occupied and reallocated and the Mapuche have been relocated to reservations.

Chile has not as yet ratified the International Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This Convention attempts to guarantee the provision of world-wide basic rights to indigenous and tribal peoples and to encourage their cultural, religious, political and professional autonomy, as well as participation in decision making.

Consequently the Mapuche, striving continuously for recognition, are experiencing oppression, violence, as well as other difficulties to a greater or lesser extent.

There is a law enforced in Chile which forbids „bizarre names“ from being used, enabling the public servants to deny the right of registration of Mapuche children with Mapudungun names.

The use of Mapudungen is not officially recognised in both Chile and Argentina and the language is not offered as an option in schools. There are still a large number of Mapudungen speakers, although more and more children are being brought up with Spanish as their mother tongue. With this the language is either a second language or not spoken at all.

As Mapudungen does not have a long tradition in written form the literacy rate for those whose first language is Mapudungen is under 1%. The majority of Mapuche at this present time are bilingual, additionally with Spanish. The literacy rate of Mapudungen as a second language after Spanish is 21%, whilst for Spanish itself 75% are literate.

To prevent the language from being forgotten altogether a variety of Mapuche organisations in Chile are attempting to formulate a uniform Alphabet.