The Pehuenche, one of the eight territorial identities of the Mapuche ethnic group – the largest in Chile – derive their name directly from the monkey puzzle trees. In fact, Pehuén is the tree’s Mapudungun name. Officially, then, they are the people of the araucaria.
The region, not particularly famous among international tourists, has actually played a fundamental role in the history of the country, and its people are the fearless pre-Columbian protagonists of its tales.
Untamed and respected by the Inca, the Mapuche people lived for years in pacific cohabitation with the Spanish, from whom they gained appreciation after colonisation. The land south of the Bio Bio river was established as the frontier between the two ‘nations’. Their spirit of independence, strength and moral conduct have always been a source of inspiration for the people of Chile, a reference to which has even ended up in the first Chilean anthem.
The 1.5 million Mapuche that today live in Chile, and the 300,000 of them currently living in the Argentinian Patagonia, are structured into a broadly horizontal and decentralised society, always nourishing the ideal of the Wallmapu, a nation of nations. Their idea of utopia, in fact, is to build a world where many worlds cohabit peacefully – because talking about ‘nations’ is just reductive in the Mapuche context.
In the last 150 years, though, the land on which they have been living became disputed and their ancient agreement was denied, until very recently.