Abstract
In the current global scenario, in which mobility has been strongly impacted, it is relevant to highlight certain mobility experiences of Indigenous Latin American peoples, in which new cultural and geographical elements justify revisiting this phenomenon. In this context, the mobility of the Aymara ethnic group offers an opportunity for such a second look. Although the subject has been approached from the perspectives of internal migration processes and physical movement, as in other Latin American cases, studies have omitted some important aspects for its analysis, such as the practices, meanings, and political implications associated with mobility. Based on the new mobility paradigm, this article seeks to strengthen the perspective on mobility by researching rural-urban mobility practices and their meaning regarding the experiences of Aymara people who migrated from the rural municipality of Putre to settle in the city of Arica from the 1950s. At the same time, it is shown that these Aymara mobility practices imply spatiotemporal dynamics that are key for the construction of place, and allow for a widening of base elements that should be considered in the new mobility paradigm. This research is based on five years of ethnography, including mobile accompaniment and semi-structured interviews. This methodological approach has allowed researchers to explore how elements related to physical and symbolic mobility have constantly constructed relational spaces within the Arica and Parinacota region over time. This shows that mobility does not only refer to physical movement, but to politics, emotions, culture, and memory as well. From these results, the article examines and discusses key elements related to physical and symbolic mobility, and their implications in political and intercultural terms.
Highlights
UC Center for Local Development, Institute of Urban and Regional Studies & Campus Villarrica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Villarrica 4930000, Chile
We have considered Cresswell’s [18] definition of mobility, which points towards the intertwining of three aspects: physical movement, in terms of movement between one point and another; representations that allude to meanings that are constituted through narratives associated with mobility; and mobility practices, which represent simultaneously a sense of specific, daily practices such as walking, and a more theoretical sense of social elements, in which such experiences are framed
Arica and Parinacota is the region with the highest percentage of the resident population identifying as belonging to an Indigenous group: 36% of the population identifies as belonging to some Indigenous group, in which the Aymara ethnicity predominates at 75.3%
Summary
Mobility has taken on renewed relevance through the growing body of work of different disciplines and areas of research, such as geography, sociology, anthropology, and archeology, among others. 208) profess a similar view on this point, indicating “travel has been for the social sciences seen as a black box, a neutral set of technologies and processes” As such, this new focus widens the perspective of mobility, including various aspects such as experiences, practices, modes, and elements that are in movement, which in turn transit through various scales from the body on up to the entire world [31]. We have considered Cresswell’s [18] definition of mobility, which points towards the intertwining of three aspects: physical movement, in terms of movement between one point and another; representations that allude to meanings that are constituted through narratives associated with mobility; and mobility practices, which represent simultaneously a sense of specific, daily practices such as walking, and a more theoretical sense of social elements, in which such experiences are framed Related to these aspects, Cresswell mentions different forms of mobility (driving, flying walking, etc.), which “have a physical reality, they are encoded culturally and socially, and they are experienced through practice” [18] Cresswell mentions different forms of mobility (driving, flying walking, etc.), which “have a physical reality, they are encoded culturally and socially, and they are experienced through practice” [18] (p. 20)
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