Paper short abstract:

Panarife is an interdisciplinary project seeking to make visible Mapuche migration to Santiago and the history of the indigenous syndicalism of Mapuche bakers within the capital city. A video clip of this site-specific theatre piece will be shown and Olivia Casagrande will share reflections on it.

Paper long abstract:

Panarife is an interdisciplinary project in which historical analysis and site specific theatre have worked together in order to make visible the memories and processes of Mapuche migration in Santiago, specifically the history of the indigenous syndicalism of the Mapuche bakers within the capital city.

Mapuche migration has been produced by territorial dispossession (with the creation of the 'reducciones') taken forward by the Chilean State, a process that explains the contemporary reality and diasporic condition of the Mapuche people. The host city, Santiago de Chile, as the metropolis of the colonial State from where the dispossession of the Mapuche lands was planned, has a cultural physiognomy that extols the history of the national elite, erasing the transits of other sectors of urban population.

During the 20th century, in Santiago de Chile the Mapuche baker trade unionism sought to resist the challenges and violence that Mapuche migrants had to face in the city, such as extremely difficult labour conditions and racism. Pan-unionism is thus part of the Mapuche political and organizational history that fought against the multiple effects of Chilean colonialism, among them, migratory uprooting, racialized jobs and discrimination.

In articulating historical analysis with site-specific theatre, Panarife seeks to unveil the tensions between different urban imaginaries of the city, desacralizing national monuments and allowing underground memories of the city to emerge. A video clip of this site-specific theatre piece will be shown and Olivia Casagrande will share reflections on it.