Mapuche land 2015

In the mid to late 1800's the traditional land of the Mapuche First Nation in central Chile, lost their land to latifundistas when Chile conquered Araucania. The Mapuche population dropped from a few million to less than 25 000 in one generation, due to famine and displacement. President Bachelet, in her second term, promised to return some of the ancestral lands to their original owners. Juan Andres Cheuque is one of those communities. A large portion of land shared communally by twenty families, ex-miners and servants have been able to reclaim their ancestral rural lives. I had the good fortune to spend a week with Pachita and Gabriel Antilao and their spanking new homestead, built by hand with sweat and love, in their traditional land within sight of the Lonquimay Volcano. These photos were taken in December 2015. Since our visit there, tension has erupted between communities and large scale GMO eucalyptus plantations, which divert water away from communities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcwUAyFX9y0&feature=share