Abstract
Abstract Four chronicles written by Alberto Blest Gana between April and May 1862 in the newspaper La voz de Chile, months before the publication of his novel Mariluán, shed light on the close relationship between his production as chronicler and writer. Among the various faits divers discussed in the columns, the issue of a Mapuche delegation’s arrival in Santiago to hold a parlamento with the government about border disputes arises. The oscillating attitude of the chronicler in the face of otherness and his prejudiced comments, which are at the same time full of doubts and perplexities, serve as an incentive for his composing a utopian fiction. This article aims to examine the connections in the relationship between Blest Gana chronicler and novelist to expand the reading possibilities of Mariluán.
Highlights
Four chronicles written by Alberto Blest Gana between April and May 1862 in the newspaper La voz de Chile, months before the publication of his novel Mariluán, shed light on the close relationship between his production as chronicler and writer
This essay will analyse the visit from the Mapuche delegation in Santiago through four of Blest Gana’s chronicles. These describe the author’s oscillating stance in the face of otherness which we find integrated into his novel Mariluán, written only months afterward
Blest Gana would publish his novel where, with a different tone and treatment, but still in an oscillating way, he imagined the possibility of an interracial love affair and where the acculturated Mapuche would be described without any prejudice: “su cara era simpática y elegantes sus maneras” [his face was nice and his manners were elegant] (Mariluán 5)
Summary
The talks that preceded the encuentro had been mediated by Bernardino Pradel, an inhabitant of the border who spoke Mapudungun and who had participated in the indigenous uprisings of 1859 against the Montt government. He was acting as an interpreter and, in a first private meeting with the president, he disclosed the claims of those he represented:. From April to July 1862, Blest Gana dedicated four chronicles to this episode in his weekly La voz de Chile column, “Conversación del Sábado” [Saturday Conversation] They are of enormous interest because they help us to explore and understand the writer’s position on la cuestión indígena [the indigenous issue] more clearly. They allow us to rethink the place that the novel Mariluán, published in eleven instalments between October and November of that same year, occupies in the same newspaper
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