Indigenising the city together: ethnic place production in Santiago de Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article examines the process of space appropriation and resignification by Indigenous migrant groups in cities. As a result of the repeated use of an urban space over time for cultural activities perceived as emblematic of a common identity, Indigenous individuals confer meanings onto space based on a social construction of their homeland, collectively re-signifying the space, and transforming it into what is presented as a symbolically-based ‘ethnic place’. Building on the literature of place identity and original empirical information gathered through ethnographic fieldwork in Santiago de Chile, the article discusses three different paths followed by the Mapuche to gain spaces and produce their own ethnic places in the city, namely, institutional approach, illegal land occupation and symbolic space appropriation. By doing this, the Mapuche are giving new meanings to their identity while shaping the conception of belonging to what constitutes or not the current Indigenous territory.