Long regarded as an ethnic group extinct since the 16th century, the Diaguita of Chile re-emerged as an indigenous people in the early 2000s in the midst of their struggle against extractivism. Although they did not „exist”Ÿ 15 years ago in legal terms and were socially invisible, they are now the third most important indigenous group in Chile, after the Mapuche and the Aymara. This paper analyses the combined roles of a Canadian mining company (Barrick Gold, Pascua Lama project) and the Chilean state in the process of this group”Ÿs re-emergence in the Huasco Alto region of northern Chile. In particular, it shows how the social responsibility programs of the mining company (CSR), set up to support “the ethnic revitalization” of the Diaguita, contribute both to divide local indigenous communities and to justify a culturalized and depoliticized indigenous identity, compatible with mining interests and the state's project to conciliate neoliberal and multiculturalist policies.
Considerados extintos en el siglo XVI, los Diaguitas de Chile (re)emergieron como pueblo indígena a principios de la década del 2000 en un contexto de lucha contra el extractivismo. Si bien no "existían" hace 15 años en términos legales y eran socialmente invisibles, son hoy día el tercer grupo indígena más importante de Chile, después de los Mapuches y los Aymaras. Este articulo analiza los roles combinados de una empresa minera canadiense (Barrick Gold, proyecto Pascua Lama) y del Estado chileno en el proceso de (re)emergencia indígena de este grupo en el Huasco Alto, al norte de Chile. En particular muestra cómo los programas de responsabilidad social (RSC) de la empresa minera, creados para apoyar la “revitalización étnica” de los Diaguitas, han contribuido tanto a dividir a las comunidades indígenas locales como a justificar una identidad indígena culturalizada y despolitizada, compatible con los intereses mineros y el proyecto del Estado de conciliar la perpetuación de una economía neoliberal con el desarrollo de políticas multiculturales
Long regarded as an ethnic group extinct since the 16th century, the Diaguita of Chile re-emerged as an indigenous people in the early 2000s in the midst of their struggle against extractivism. Although they did not „exist”Ÿ 15 years ago in legal terms and were socially invisible, they are now the third most important indigenous group in Chile, after the Mapuche and the Aymara. This paper analyses the combined roles of a Canadian mining company (Barrick Gold, Pascua Lama project) and the Chilean state in the process of this group”Ÿs re-emergence in the Huasco Alto region of northern Chile. In particular, it shows how the social responsibility programs of the mining company (CSR), set up to support “the ethnic revitalization” of the Diaguita, contribute both to divide local indigenous communities and to justify a culturalized and depoliticized indigenous identity, compatible with mining interests and the state's project to conciliate neoliberal and multiculturalist policies.