Abstract

Chile's ‘Indigenous Peoples Legislation’ goes back to Colonial time, when the Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown sought to ensure access to Indian souls and labour. This chapter offers an analysis of the processes that led to changes in Chile's Indigenous Peoples Legislation, which finally granted legal recognition to the Chilean indigenous population. Focusing on the Aymara of Arica, the ethnographic analysis reveals how a dominant group has tried to impose itself as the core of the newly born state, by formally denying the ethnic heterogeneity of the population. The chapter analyses the Aymara's leaders' struggle for the assertion of their Indian identity, by looking at their participation in the political processes that eventually led to the 1993 Indigenous law. Finally, it examines the consequences of the implementation of the law for present-day Aymara leadership in North Chile.