Self-Translation as a Taypi ch'ixi: Discontent and Resistance in Four Mapuche Poets

Abstract

Self-translation is a widespread practice in the literary production of Latin American indigenous authors. We propose to understand such a procedure as a space of resistance and discontent with the (post)colonial situation. In this sense, the concept of the taypi ch’ixi by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui allows for the un-derstanding of subjectivity and cultural identity in a dialectic without synthesis between opposing forces that complement and antagonize. In a movement of permanent tension, cultural and linguistic borders articulate “the autochthonous with the alien in subversive and mutually contaminating ways” (Rivera Cusi-canqui), thus creating an intermediate place, a taypi ch’ixi, where celebration and misery converge, where creative productivity and the pain of colonization interact. We consider that Mapuche bilingual poetry—written in Mapudungun and Spanish—is an example of such a taypi ch’ixi in which the texts or “ver-sions” are weaved together by contradictions without dissolution. The concept will be confronted with texts authored by four contemporary Mapuche poets with diverse sociolinguistic trajectories: Adriana Paredes Pinda, Liliana Ancalao, Maria Teresa Panchillo, and Rayen Kvyeh. We will delve into essays, interviews, annexes to anthologies, prologues, and bilingual poems in order to ‘listen’ to the authors’ reflections on their double register writing and to experience the mutu-ally subversive interactions of the languages involved.