After I did the journalism internship in Santiago, I went to a town in the south of Chile to be an apprentice at the town’s newspaper, El Austral de Temuco. I learned a lot about our native Mapuches in that town, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I realized how unjustly they had been treated and how little the government understood how to help them. Even today the situation of land and housing for Mapuches, the original owners of vast regions in Chile, is really precarious and controversial.

At a certain point, during the 1960’s, the Mapuches were given wooden houses. Up to then they had lived in “rucas”, their traditional houses.

The “ruca” was built, by the entire community, with excellent and firm posts of well known strong wood that served to frame it. It had rafters and beams to hold the roof. The side walls were made mainly out of branches and straw. A “ruca” had between 1200 and 1500 square feet and were round or oval.

Inside, the “kitchen” was in the middle of the “ruca” so the cauldron above the fire would warm the whole place. An opening in the roof let the smoke out and was a natural way to exchange air between the interior and exterior. Since the “ruca” had no windows, the loom was located near the door for natural light. Using this big loom, the women would knit the most beautiful and warm blankets, skirts, and any kind of garments for their families. On one side of the “ruca” were the sleeping facilities with the cradles or “chihuas” for the babies hung directly over the parents bed so they could rock them without having to get up during the cold nights.

The “chihuas” were built with strips of lamb’s skin woven on a round or oval wicker frame. The frame had at least 3 cords to hang it from the beams of the “ruca”.

On the other side of the kitchen or “kütral” was the compartment for the animals. There the sheep, pigs, chickens and any other small animals could spend the night under cover, protected from predators, weather and thieves.

When the Mapuches were given new houses, they used them to keep the animals on the first floor and used the upper floor, if the house had one, for sleeping. However, they built an outside “ruca” for the kitchen and used the wood of the windows and doors to make fire.

Yes, they were given houses but nobody thought about their traditions like the whole community getting together in a very special event to build the “ruca” for a new couple, for instance. The government did not bother telling the Mapuches how to use the houses. In a few years, they were back in their “rucas” and used what was left of the houses just for storage and the big animals.