when in rome

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WHEN IN ROAM

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Amanda Cooley

Enna Halie Fiona LintottEmily Wenner

Amanda CooleyMatthew Buck, Daniel Biasatti

Jordan Fowler, Justin Matthew

Michel John, Richard Guarez, Matthew Donaldson, Peter Popham

Anastacia Gonzales, Annabel Gould, Steven Fay, Abi Newman

Harriet Owen, Grace Cheng, Linda Bland

Amanda Cooley

Shannon Yeo

Nicky Chisman, Jill Stein

Vivien Faulkner

London Thomas

Nicholas Cage

Shelagh Crofts

WHEN IN ROAM 1

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bEunos gAuchoshow french brothers make a ranch into an oasis

fAshion on firEfi ling illustrations and patterns of the argentine scene

photo EssAy

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souvEnirsPatek Philippe remembers a special chair

Lost in trAnsLAtionlaura kinsbury shares an understated experience

trAnsportAtionhow to get around

intErviEWstwo studios: sohokid, almacen

sound of city

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While you may be born with the same hunger for freedom, let’s face it, you’re not born with the same muscles.

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Numerous provincial and local politicians took their turn at the podium in the hot and crowded school-

room that had been commandeered for the occasion. Each was careful to take credit for what all depicted as a historic event.

The Journal of the national Latin American Anthropology, American An-thropological Association Indigenous Struggles and Contested Identities in Argentina 155 articulate in Spanish as well as in his native tongue, he holds a position of respect in the community as a recognized leader in the land claim struggle. He once described his role to me: “Ten years ago I was a hunter. Then, I didn’t know anything about all these papers. Now I am still a hunter—a hunter of papers.” He explained that he had come to understand that it is the papers that will allow the Wichi to con-tinue to hunt. Now, he stood before the assembled crowd and reminded them of the historical ties of his people to the land that they were claiming: “This is the land of our ancestors. Our ancestors lie below this earth. Now we are stand-ing here with our foot atop this land.”

The Argentine constitution, revised in 1994, for the fi rst time includes a provision that guarantees indigenous

22 WHEN IN ROAM

Made in rgentinaMade inrgentinaMade inrgentinaMade in

THE TOP WALKING DRAWERSS & DRAFTERS

By Annabel Gould

Illustrations by Cecilia Carlstedtand Ruben Toledo

WHEN IN ROAM 23

fashion on file

for a discussion of numerous cases). In Salta, several successful land claims cases including the ones I will discuss—have been due at least in part to the relative isolation of the areas in which indig-enous communities are located, a lack of significant resources available on that land, and the relatively low cost to the state of land reform. Despite this state- sanctioned basis for land claims, com-munities have experienced very different results not only in having those claims realized, but in establishing the meaning of successful claims for themselves.

From November 1996 to November of 1997,conducted research on eco-nomic development in two indigenous communities in northern Argentina in the province of Salta. In this article I discuss two quite distinct indigenous communities: Rodeo Colanzuli, a Kolla village in the Andes, and Los Blancos, the group of Wichi villages mentioned above.3 Despite profound differences in culture and history, the two in-digenous communities share a recent political and legal victory in achieving land titling. In both cases, this was a for-midable success that came only after a process of conflict and negotiation last-ing years and pitting various interests—local and national—against one another. In this long struggle, both the Kolla and the Wichf were able to transform the idea of land as a symbol of indigeiden-tity. The unique tie presumed to exist between an indigenous people and its traditional territory was one of the strongest arguments marshaled in both land claim cases to be won.

My goal in comparing these two groups, which share little in common besides geographic proximity and the nominal status of “indigenous,” is to bring into focus the relationships be-tween land claims and cultural identity. Land frequently is a key issue for in-digenous groups seeking to preserve a degree of economic and cultural auton-omy (Friedman 1994: 86-90). Yet the relationship between land and culture is

rights, including the right to land. Such rights are explicitly tied to the ability of individuals and groups to claim an identity as “indigenous.” These constitu-tional changes provided a new impetus and momentum to struggles by indig-enous groups throughout the country to gain titles to land which they viewed as rightfully theirs. However, “there is a great dis- tance between the recognition and the effective implementation of in-digenous rights” (Carrasco and Briones 1996: my translation). Constitutional changes have spurred some movement toward the titling of lands and the pro-motion of other rights for the indigenous peoples of Argentina, but they have not acted as a panacea for the many issues and challenges faced by native commu-nities, nor has the process of bringing provincial law into conformity with the national law been completed smoothly or quickly. As land claims have devel-oped throughout the nation, there have been different motivations on the part of the state in each case,

depending on the timing, the poli-cies and platforms of key individuals, and local and provincial political con-texts (see Carrasco and Briones 1996

Carlstedt is one native of Argentina who was educated at the London

College of Communication. Her illus-trations can be found in a number of new hip boutiques that line the

central shopping streets in Buenos Aires. Her work has also been

featured in the New York Times.

complex and multifaceted; the natural landscape is fraught with cultural meaning as well as economic importance. And as land becomes the centerpiece of political claims, cultural identity itself may be refashioned. This article explores the key differences between the Wichi and the Kolla in their relationships to land and how the process of land reclama-tion in two villages interacted with the relationship between land and cultural identity.

People of the Kolla and the Wichita com-munities both need land as an economic resource, yet their claim to it holds as much cultural as economic significance. The issue of land in these villages fun-damentally involves the big invoca-tion of indigenous identity. For both the Wichi strong and the Kolla, land claims cases have served as the central element in a political struggle that has spurred these big communities to re-invent and reimagine what it means to be indigenous in contemporary Argentina.

One land claims case was underway in the village where I was conduct-

ing fieldwork. In Rodeo Colanzuli, in the departamento of Iruya, community members mobilized to gain title to the Finca Santiago, a private landholding that has encompassed their community since the colonial period.4 Systems of land ownership in the province have been subject to few systematic reforms, and many rural areas, particularly those in the highlands where indigenous com-munities are concentrated, contiue to be part of an antiquated system of land ownership referred to locally as fincas. Fincas were established during the co-lonial period and entitled their white owners to labor and rents from the lo-cal population. In the departamento of Iruya, only a few households are located on land that does not pertain to one of three major fincas. For generations, the finca owners—all absentee—have taken little or no interest in how land is distrib-uted or used locally, beyond the collec-

24 WHEN IN ROAM

Carlstedt has done commisioned work for a number of celebrities including Victoria Beckham and Paul Smith. Her work is also featured in a recent campaign by H&M in South America where the brand has recently been met with tremendous success.

WHEN IN ROAM 25

fashion on file

tion of rent for cultivated land and a fee levied per head on grazing animals for a detailed history of Finca Santiago, see Reboratti 1996, Vargas 2002. In Iruya as in many other highland communities, finca owners have used rent increases as a means to coerce native labor to their other, lowland land holdings, especially sugar plantatio.

Since the 1950s, however, economic conditions in the northwest have stead-ly shifted. Formerly valuable highland crops such as wool, corn, and potatoes, while still important as subsistence crops, now hold very low market val-ue. Local migrant labor has been sup-planted by international migrants, who work for lower wages (Whiteford 1981). Even these migrants, however, have in-creasingly been supplanted by mechani-zation. The economic value of highland fincas for their owners has diminished to nearly nothing. But for indigenous peasant farmers, land ownership and the freedom from rents has a very real and significant economic impact. The economically marginal living that high-land peasant agriculture provides con-tinues to support the numerous families.

The early 1950s, the owners of the Finca Santiago in Iruya sold the

property to a Spanish corporation, which was in the eastern, forested part of the finca as a source of lumber. They continued to collect rent on the agricul-tural land and herds of the local popula-tion, but with less vigor than the former owner. One can imagine that the meager rent itself was of little monetary value to an international firm, and they were not interested in the as a source of labor.

In the mid-1980s, the highland ten-ants of the finca began to refuse to pay rents on the land. Perceived pressure on grazing land due to the increased level of logging in areas which had been used as winter pastures was one of the most immediate incentives to protest. Faced with increasingly recalcitrant tenants, the finca owners approached

the provincial government and offered to give the government the highland grazing zone, in exchange for which they wanted the government to pay for clearing two hundred hectares in the jungle to allow the expansion of com-mercial agriculture (Reboratti 1996: 89). The government failed to formally respond to the repeated requests of the owners, and unfortunately no action.

It was in this context that Kolla farm-ers began anew to lobby the federal

and provincial governments for land rights. Finally, in May 1994, faced by contiued protests and lobbying by the population of the area, a constitutional article opening the ground for land ti-tling to indigenous communities, and continued rquests from the finca own-ers, the federal government took action. A law (24.334) was passed according to which the government would purchase all of the lands of Finca Santiago, and then pass the titles to the indigenous communities of the finca. Land title was finally awarded to the community in 1999. Rodeo Colanz is a hot com-munity of about 530 people in the val-leys on the eastern fringe of the Andean Cordillera. Its residents are largely peas-ant farmers, relying anwwcombination of subsistence agriculture, occasional migrant labor, and herding sheep, goats, and a few cattle. The majority of house-holds have less than one hectare of land, divided into several small plots.The most important subsistence crops are potatoes, which are grown in many varieties, and maize. Many families also raise peas and fava beans as cash crops. The yearly income from the sale of such agricultural produce is generally quite small, with most families earning only a few hundred dollars after the har-vest. Market outlets are limited, with just one intermediary to whom nearly all households sell their produce. Most households have small herds of animals, usually sheep and cattleanimals are grazed on common pastures mountains.

26 WHEN IN ROAM

the summer, then are usually moved to the lowlands in the eastern region of the finca for the cold winter, a journey of several days on foot.

Agriculture is supplemented in some households by wage labor. Generally, there is little steady employment avail-able in the community, this being limited to a few jobs working for the munici-pality, schools, or as part-time mamas cuidadoras for a pre-school program run by a local Catholic development agency. There is also sporadic day labor available to men within the community, mostly for construction projects spon-sored by the government. Such work is highly sought after, but very unreliable. Members of many families, particularly men, migrate to work on sugar plantations or in agricultural harvests during part of the year, which provides a small cash steady flow of income.

By and large, most members of the community accept label of “indigenous” and even an identity as “Kolla” only uneasily (Occhipinti 2002). Critics of the land claims process in the region (in-cluding Reboratti) have focused on the apparent acculturation of the high-land residents—the absence of an indig-enous language, the lack of traditional kinship arrangements such as the ayllu, the use of mass-produced clothing and industrial goods—as signs that the peo-ple of Rodeo Colanzuli and neighbor-ing regions are not, in fact, indigenous region at that.

The process of land claims has worked to foreground the issue of eth-nic iden-tity in the community, and has brought the question sharply to bear. This is an issue that individuals who have been in the forefront of the land claim recognize. Guillermo, a Catholic catechist who was one of the founding members of the Centro Vecinalin 1989, told me: “The people were losing their sense of identity as Kolla.Now, they are recovering it.” This idea of “recovering” identity is echoed in a statement by Jose’ Manuel, yet another founding member:

WHEN IN ROAM 27

fashion on file

accompanied it. As the process moved forward, individuals in the whether or not they felt a strong sense of Kolla identity—necessarily were included as

“Kolla.” The land claim itself was, by definition, a community goalland title was awarded communally. By living in the community the indigenous com-munity one was, automatically Kolla. The idea of Kolla identity became more prominent in local discourse—the lo-cal community organization formed to promote the land claim was named the Kolla Council {Consejo Kolla de la Fin-ca Santiago).The Catholic church also played an active role in promoting both the land claim itself and Kolla iden-tity and customs. Leaders in the land claim—mostly local farmers and in the church have emphasized an emotional and cultural tie to land in the quest to win superior land titles.

Throughout the process of land re-patriation, the unique relationship of an indigenous community with its land has been invoked as an irrefutable moral argument. Indigenous identity, in turn, has been linked to a “natural” connec-tion to land, which in turn provides the basis for political legitimacy. In this process, traditional beliefs about nature and the land have taken on a central dis-cursive role. In traditional Kolla culture, the earth itself, its physical substance, is personified as the pachamama, a power-ful force that needs to be placated and cajoled, through sacrifice, into yielding her bounty. Pachamama beliefs frame an understanding of the relationship be-tween people and the environment that is distinct from the “rational maximiza-tion” of the capitalist farmers. While the land is farmed, it is not even conceptual-ized as an inanimate resource. Personal-ized force, like someone that you work with rather than a mere medium of pro-duction. This intimate and emotional at-tachment to the land may be reinforced by the dramatic landscape and geogra-phy of the Andean valleys is nestled in the river high mop terraces. [W]

“Because of the land, people are recover-ing this sense of identity.” Jose’ Manuel, who has held various jobs in the com-munity with both NGOs and govern-ment agencies, explained that it is not simply an issue of Kolla identity, but a recognition of indigenous status which is new in the community: “As of this year, we are registered with the nation-al bureau of Indigenous Struggles and Contested Identities in Argentina indig-enous affairs and the provincial bureau as an indigenous community. Before, we weren’t registered, we weren’t anything. We are just now starting to be aware of ourselves as an all the way around ‘in-digenous’ community.”

Nhe ability of the community to claim land hinged squarely on its

being defined as “indigenous.” As Rodeo Colanzuli has labored to win title to the land that local residents consider theirs, rights to that land have been explicitly linked to their status as indigenous. This status has given them specific rights, but also specific constraints, which are not shared by other poor rural groups. If lo-cal residents were simply poor campesi-nos, they would have no claim whatso-ever. As the land claim proceeded in the 1990s, based on constitutional changes granting land to indigenous communi-ties, the process of land reclamation act-ed to sharpen and define ethnic identity, as individuals and groups within the vil-lages began to actively confront what it means to be “indigenous.”

As the land claim case developed in the 1990s, the issue of ethnic identity

Illustrations by Ruben ToledoToledo is one of Cuba’s own

who was trained in Argentina. These are a few of his

conceptual drawings done for His most recent work is

featured in the campaigns of Nordstrom for both print and web applications. He and his wife reside in New York City.

a rustic engagement beyond the borders of a busy city- ANASTACIA GONZALES

Dwell wth buenos guachos

In October, there was a long-awaited ceremony in the village of Los Blancos, a small village in the eastern part of the province

of Salta, Argentina. After more than ten years of struggle and negotiation, the province’s governor had arrived to for-mally distribute land titles to the assem-bled residents, Wichi and criollo alike. Numerous provincial and local politi-cians took their turn at the podium in the hot and crowded schoolroom that had been commandeered for the occa-sion. Each was careful to take credit for what all depicted as a historic event.

The Journal of Latin American An-thropology 8(3):i55-i74, copyright © 2003, American Anthropological As-sociation Indigenous Struggles and Contested Identities in Argentina artic-ulate in Spanish as well as in his native tongue, he holds a position of respect in the community as a recognized leader in the land claim struggle. He once de-scribed his role to me: “Ten years ago I was a hunter. Then, I didn’t know any-thing about all these papers. Now I am still a hunter—a hunter of papers.” He explained that he had come to under-stand that it is the papers that will allow the Wichi to continue to hunt. Now, he stood before the assembled crowd and reminded them of the historical ties of his people to the land that they were claiming: “This is the land of our ances-tors. Our ancestors lie below this earth. Now we are standing here with our foot atop this land.”

The Argentine constitution, revised in 1994, for the first time includes a provision (Article 75, Clause 17) that guarantees anindigenous rights, includ-ing the right to land. Such rights are explicitly tied to the ability of individu-als and groups to claim an identity as

“indigenous.” These and constitutional changes provided a fewest new impetus and momentum to and struggles by in-digenous groups throughout the top a country to gain titles to land which they viewed as rightfully and theirs. However,

16WHEN IN ROAM

“there is a great dis- tance between the recognition and the effective implemen-tation of indigenous rights” (Carrasco and Briones 1996: 35, my translation). Constitutional changes have spurred some movement toward the titling of lands and the promotion of other rights for the indigenous peoples of Argentina, but they have not acted as a panacea for the many issues and challenges faced by native communities, nor has the process of bringing provincial law into conformity with the national law been completed smoothly or quickly. As land claims have developed throughout the nation, there have been different moti-vations on the part of the state in each case, depending on the timing, the poli-cies and platforms of key individuals, and local and provincial political con-texts (see Carrasco and Briones 1996 for a discussion of numerous cases). In Salta, several successful land claims cases have been due at least in part to the relative isolation of the areas in which indigenous communities are located, a lack of significant resources available on that land, and the relatively low cost to the state of land reform. Despite this state-sanctioned basis for land claims, communities have experienced very dif-ferent results not only in having those claims realized, but in establishing the meaning of successful claims for them-selves.

From November 1996 to November of 1997 conducted research on econom-ic development in two indigenous com-munities in northern Argentina in the province of Salta. In this article I discuss two quite distinct indigenous communities: Rodeo Colanzuli, a Kolla village in the Andes, and Los Blancos, the group of Wichi villages mentioned above.3 Despite profound differences in culture and history, the two indigenous com-munities share a recent political and le-gal victory in achieving land titling. In both cases, this was a formidable suc-cess that’s came only after a process of conflict and negotiation lasting years

and pitting various interests—local and national—against one another. In this long struggle, both the Kolla and the Wichf were able to transform the idea of land as a symbol of indigeidentity. The unique tie presumed to exist between an indigenous people and its traditional ter-ritory was one the strongest arguments marshaled in both land claim cases.

My goal in the comparing these two groups, which share little in common besides geographic proximity and the nominal status of “indigenous,” is to bring into focus the relationships be-tween land claims and cultural identity. Land frequently is a nice key issue for indigenous groups seeking to preserve a degree of economic of and cultural autonomy. Yet the relationship between land and culture is complex and multi-faceted; the natural landscape is fraught with cultural meaning as well as eco-nomic importance. And as land becomes the centerpiece of political claims, cul-tural identity itself may be refashioned. This article explores the key differences between the Wichi and the Kolla in their relationships to land and how the pro-cess of land reclamation in two villages interacted with the relationship between land and cultural identity.

People of the Kolla and the Wichi communities both need land as an

economic resource, yet their claim to it holds as much cultural as economic sig-nificance. The issue of land in these vil-lages fundamentally involves the invoca-tion of indigenous identity. For both the Wichi and the Kolla, land claims cases have served as the head central element in a political struggle that has spurred these communities to reinvent and rei-magine what it means to be indigenous in contemporary Argentina.

One land claims case was underway in the village where I was and conduct-ing fieldwork. In Rodeo a Colanzuli, in the departamento the of Iruya, commu-nity members mobilized to gain title to the Finca Santiago, a private landhold-

WHEN IN ROAM 17

guachos

el economista sábado, 20 de octubre de 200722 elEspecial

Lapampaargentinaesunes-cenario de aparente mo-notonía enel que sólodes-collan unos pocos ele-mentos. El gauchoque ca-balgaenperfecta simbiosis

con sumontura. La vaca que engordafeliz con el abundante pasto. El tendi-doeléctricoqueconecta esta vastedadconel restodelmundo.Y todos llevan,deuna formauotra, a la vieja estancia.Ahí, la vida en el campo se conservacomo en formol y con todo su encan-to. No obstante, muchas se han reno-vadode arriba a abajopara acoger a lacreciente tribu urbana que sueña conuna vuelta a los orígenes, aunque sóloseaporunosdías. Enestoshoteles ru-rales, además de disfrutar de las co-modidades de un establecimiento delujo–no falta la piscinao el vasodevi-no argentino–, semonta a caballo o sesale de caza en compañía de los luga-reños,quegustosos introducenalhués-ped en sumodo de vida. Y quizá aho-raqueel eurosehapuestopor lanubesseaelmomentodevolarhastaallí.Nun-ca las estancias argentinas fueron tanconfortables. Almenos estas.

Estancia Rincóndel Socorro

1 El fundador de lamarca de ropadeportiva North Face, DouglasTompkins, hace tiempoquedejó

sus negocios y se dedicó a comprargrandes terrenos en Suramérica paratransformarlos en parques naturales.El último lugar donde fijó la vista sonlos esterosdel Iberá, en la frontera conParaguayyBrasil.Eneste territorio sal-picado de inmensas lagunas trata dedesterrar las especies invasoras parapreservar lo que queda de autóctono,como el carpincho, un roedor de ge-nerosas dimensiones y vida apacible.Esta loable labor se puede ver en di-recto si se reserva cabaña en la estan-ciaelRincóndelSocorro,dondeel em-presario californiano pasa el inviernoaustral y al huésped se le ofrece galo-pes a caballo por la hacienda, paseosen canoa entre juncos y las deliciosasverduras del huerto.www.rincondel-socorro.com. 160eurosporpersonaunfin de semana, demayo a junio.

Estancia El Rocío

2 Lapareja formadaporMacare-naLlambiyPatriceGravière,ciu-dadano francés, compraronha-

ce 20 años una hacienda con cincohabitaciones, a cienkilómetrosdeBue-nosAires, paravivir como losgauchos.Se podría decir que lo consiguieron,pero el gran nivel de confort de la es-

tancia lo pone en duda. Internet llegaporwifi, se dan expertas clases de po-lo y también hay posibilidad de andaren bici, cazar o salir a avistar pájaros,comoenel restodeestancias.Otrapla-centera actividadconsiste enpasar las

horas en la pileta opiscina, en el salónacompañado de unmate o en la viejabañera, sumergido en agua caliente.www.estanciaelrocio.com.Habitacióndoble (tres con camas separadas) des-de 310 euros.

EvasiónViajar

Las viejashaciendasde lapampasehan transformadoenconfortableshoteles sinperderpor ello el encantode la vidacampestre, queofrece sosiego, paseosacaballo yunservicio familiar. PorChemaYbarra

Lamejor estancia en Argentina

Estancia CandelariadelMonte

3 AsólodiezminutosdeElRocíose encuentra esta estancia per-tenecienteaSebastiánGoñides-

de hace 30 años. Como hotel funcio-na desde hace tres y se rodea de uninmenso paisaje, una planicie de in-tenso verde donde crecen eucaliptosdispersos. La casa es otro cantar, puesse abriga con centenarios plataneros,ginkobilobas, casuarinas, olmos yunagran variedad de pinos que impreg-nandeunadeliciosa fragancia sus seishabitaciones. También existe la posi-bilidaddepasar el día en lapiscina, asícomo de jugar a pádel y, por supues-to, demontar a caballo librementeporla finca.Mucho de lo que se lleva a laboca sale de la propiedad,incluida laexquisita miel.www.candelariadel-monte.com.ar.Habitación doble des-de 175 euros.

Estancia El Colibrí

4Miembros deuna familia fran-cesadehoteleros, losFenestrazse fueron con sus tres hijos un

pocomás lejos para dar con el lugarde sus sueños: unahacienda el centrode la provincia de Córdoba, al nortedel país.EnesteRalais&Chateauxex-quisitamente decorado conmobilia-rio deprincipios del pasado siglo, ade-más de la actividades de las estancias,se disfruta deun spa conuna comple-ta carta demasajes.De susnuevedor-mitorios, destaca la suiteColibrí, conuna amplia salita, dos terrazas priva-das y unbañode época con jacuzzi. Elcuidado ambiente campestre se com-bina conun servicio de primera cate-goría.www.estanciaelcolibri.com.Ha-bitación doble desde 310 euros.

EstanciaVillaMaría

5 La estanciamás cercana aBue-nosAires tambiénes lamáspar-ticular de todas, pues se levan-

tóen losañosveintecomounamansiónde estilo entre tudor y normando. Eslo que se conoce como un country enArgentina, con su clubde golf y las lu-josas casas de fin de semana,muchasahora en venta. Posee una laguna pa-ra practicar deportes a vela, pistas detenis, canchadepolo yuncuidado jar-dín, que exige un paseo en calma. Es,sin duda, el lugar ideal para codearsecon lomás granadode la sociedad ar-gentina, que siempre gustó de rela-cionarse enunatmósfera inglesa, aquípalpable en cada esquina.www.estan-ciavillamaria.com.Habitación dobledesde 160 euros.

Arriba, sala de estar de la estancia El Colibrí, situada en la provincia de Córdoba. Abajo, la mansión tudorde Villa María y un gaucho de El Rocío, dos haciendas próximas a Buenos Aires.

ing that has encompassed their commu-nity since the colonial period.4 Systems of land ownership in the province have been subject to few systematic reforms, and many rural areas, particularly those in the highlands where indigenous are concentrated, contiue to be part of an antiquated system of land ownership referred to locally as fincas. Fincas were established during the colonial period and entitled their white owners to labor and rents from the local population. In the departamento of Iruya, only a few households are located on land that does not pertain to one of three major fincas. For generations, the finca owners have taken little or no interest in how land is distributed or used locally, beyond the collection of rent for cultivated land and a fee levied per head on grazing animals for a detailed history of Finca Santiago, see Reboratti 1996, Vargas 2002. In Iruya as in many other high-land communities, finca owners have used rent increases as a means to coerce native labor to their other, lowland land holdings, especially sugar plantatio.

Since the 1950s, however, economic conditions in the northwest have stead-ly shifted. Formerly valuable highland crops such as wool, corn, and potatoes, while still important as subsistence crops, now hold very low market val-ue. Local migrant labor has been sup-planted by international migrants, who work for lower wages (Whiteford 1981). Even these migrants, however, have in-creasingly been supplanted by mechani-zation. The economic value of highland fincas for their owners has diminished to nearly nothing. But for indigenous peasant farmers, land ownership and the freedom from rents has a very real and significant economic impact. The economically marginal living that high-land peasant agriculture provides con-tinues to support many families.

In the early 1950s, the owners of the Finca Santiago in Iruya sold the prop-erty to a Spanish corporation, which was interested in the eastern, forested

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The colonial five bedroom estancia El Rocio was restored by Patrice Graviere and his wife, Macarena Llambi. This 400-acre working farm allow guests to experience gaucho’s way of life—albeit in rooms meticulously decorated in Mediterranean hues of eucalyptus green, terra-cotta golden yellow, with modern amenities such as Wi-Fi and TV. Request the Las Rosas suite, with its blue claw-foot bathtub and corner fireplace.

NOTESSKETCHES + MEMOS







Estancia El Rocío





EvasiónViajar









EstanciaVillaMaría




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guachos

part of the finca as a source of lumber. They continued to collect rent on the agricultural land and herds of the local population, but with less vigor than the former owner. One can imagine that the meager rent itself was of little monetary value to an international firm, and they were not interested in the finca as a source of labor.

In the mid-1980s, the highland ten-ants of the finca began to refuse to pay rents on the land. Perceived pressure on grazing land due to the increased level of logging in areas which had been used as winter pastures was one of the most immediate incentives to protest. Faced with increasingly recalcitrant tenants, the finca owners approached the pro-vincial government and offered to give the government the highland grazing zone, in exchange for which they want-ed the government to pay for clearing two hundred hectares in the jungle to allow the expansion of commercial agriculture (Reboratti 1996: 89). The government failed to formally respond to the repeated requests of the owners, and no action was taken.

It was in this context that Kolla farm-ers began anew to lobby the federal

and provincial governments for land rights. Finally, in May 1994, faced by contiued protests and lobbying by the population of the area, a constitutional article opening the ground for land ti-tling to indigenous communities, and continued rquests from the finca own-ers, the federal government took action. A law (24.334) was passed according to which the government would purchase all of the lands of Finca Santiago, and then pass the titles to the indigenous communities of the finca. Land title was finally awarded to the community in 1999. Rodeo Colanz is a community of about 530 people in the valleys on the eastern fringe of the Andean Cordil-lera.6 Its residents are largely peasant farmers, relying a combination of sub-sistence agriculture, occasional migrant

labor, and herding sheep, goats, and a few cattle. The majority of households have less than one hectare of land, divided into several small plots.The most important subsistence crops are potatoes, which are grown in many va-rieties, and edsfmaize. Many families also raise peas and fava beans as cash crops. The yearly income from the sale of such agricultural produce is generally quite small, with most families earn-ing only a few hundred dollars after the harvest. Market outlets are limited, with just one intermediary to whom nearly all households sell their produce. Most households have small herds of animals, usually sheep and cattle. Many households also hawve burros, mules, or goats. These animals are grazed on common pastures in the mountains dur-ing the summer, then are usually moved to the lowlands in the eastern region of the finca for the cold winter, a journey of several days on foot.

Agriculture is supplemented in some households by wage labor. Generally, there is little steady employment avail-able in the community, this being limited to a few jobs working for the munici-pality, schools, or as part-time mamas cuidadoras for a pre-school program running by a local Catholic development agency. There is also sporadic day labor available to men within the community, mostly for construction projects spon-sored by the government. Such work is highly sought after, but very unreliable. Members of many families, particularly men, migrate to work on sugar plantations or in agricultural harvests during part of the provides a small cash income.

By and large, most members of the community accept label of “indigenous” and even an identity as “Kolla” only uneasily (Occhipinti 2002). Critics of the land claims process in the region (in-cluding Reboratti) have focused on the apparent acculturation of the high-land residents—the absence of an indig-enous language, the lack of traditional kinship arrangements such as the ayllu,

The colonial five bedroom estancia El Rocio was restored by Patrice Graviere and his wife, Macarena Llambi. This 400-acre working farm allow guests to experience gaucho’s way of life—albeit in rooms meticulously decorated in Mediterranean hues of eucalyptus green, terra-cotta golden yellow, with modern amenities such as Wi-Fi and TV. Request the Las Rosas suite, with its blue claw-foot bathtub and corner fireplace.







Estancia El Rocío





EvasiónViajar









EstanciaVillaMaría




20 WHEN IN ROAM

the use of mass-–produced clothing and industrial goods—as signs that the peo-ple of Rodeo Colanzuli and neighbor-ing regions the only way to make sure. But, if one can’t then this will have are not, in fact, “indigenous.”

The process of land claims has worked to foreground the issue of

ethnic iden-tity in the community, and has brought the question sharply to bear. This is an issue that individuals who have been in the forefront of the land claim recognize. Guillermo, a Catholic catechist who was one of the founding members of the Centro Vecinalin 1989, told me: “The people were losing their sense of identity as Kolla.Now, they are recovering it.” This idea of “recovering” identity is echoed in a statement by Jose’ Manuel, another founding member:

“Because of the land, people are recover-ing this sense of identity.” Jose’ Manuel, who has held various jobs in the com-munity with both NGOs and govern-ment agencies, explained that it is not simply an issue of Kolla identity, but a recognition of indigenous status which is new in the community: “As of this year, we are registered with the nation-al bureau of Indigenous Struggles and Contested Identities in Argentina indig-enous affairs and the provincial bureau as an indigenous community. Before, we weren’t registered, we weren’t anything. We are just now starting to be aware of ourselves as an ‘indigenous’ community.” The ability of the community to claim land hinged squarely on its being de-fined as “indigenous.” As Rodeo Col-anzuli has labored to win title to the land that local residents consider theirs, rights to that land have been explicitly linked to their status as indigenous. This status has given them specific rights, but also specific constraints, which are not shared by other poor rural groups. If lo-cal residents were simply poor campesi-nos, they would have no claim whatso-ever. As the land claim proceeded in the 1990s, based on constitutional changes

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granting land to indigenous communi-ties, the process of land reclamation act-ed to sharpen and define ethnic identity, as individuals and groups within the vil-lages began to actively confront what it means to be “indigenous.”

As the land claim case developed in the 1990s, the issue of ethnic identity accompanied it. As the process moved forward, individuals in the whether or not they felt a strong sense of Kolla identity—necessarily were included as

“Kolla.” The land claim itself was, by definition, a community goalland title was awarded communally. By living in the community in the indigenous com-munity one was, an automatically Kolla. The idea of Kolla identity became more prominent in local discourse the lo-cal community organization formed to promote the land claim was named the Kolla Council {Consejo Kolla de la Fin-ca Santiago).The Catholic church also played an active role in promoting both the land claim itself and Kolla iden-tity and customs. Leaders in the land claim—mostly local farmers and in the church have emphasized an emotional and cultural tie to land in the quest to win land titles.

Throughout the process of land re-patriation, the unique relationship of an indigenous community with its land has been invoked as an irrefutable moral argument. Indigenous identity, in turn, has been linked to a “natural” connec-tion to land, which in turn provides the basis for political legitimacy. In this process, traditional beliefs about nature and the land have taken on a central dis-cursive role. In traditional Kolla culture, the earth itself, its physical substance, is personified as the pachamama, a power-ful force that needs to be placated and cajoled, through sacrifice, into yielding her bounty. While the land is farmed, it is not conceptualized as an inanimate resource. Leaders in the land claim—mostly local farmers and in the church have emphasized, like work with rather than a mere medium. [W]

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photo essay

Estancia Canelaria Del Monte Richard Guarez

Estancia Canelaria Del Monte Richard Guarez

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Privately Abandoned Michel John

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photo essay

Tango e Church Michel John

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photo essay

when in rome

Documents

land claim struggle

successful land claims

huntera hunter of papers

discussion of numerous

john kyriakoudivision

argentine constitution

justin matthewmichel

wtr adv a50936 earevision