European settlers in Chile | DW Documentary

[Music] Eero Konya boasts some of the most stunning natural beauty in Chile the region has been called the Chilean Switzerland not just for the mountains but also because of the 22,000 Swiss immigrants who arrived here in the late 19th century February is harvest season in Chile a vote look Singh and his brother Harold run Santa Rosa a farm covering some 60 hectares of land the two men are proud of their property and of what their forefathers built up but the land they call home is also being claimed by their neighbors members of them up with you some of the indigenous people work on the look singers fields as farmhands during the harvest they're paid by quantity and not very much other Mapuche insist the land belongs to them and not the men of Swiss descent we've always had good relations with our neighbors our family have been living in this region since 1908 more than a hundred years that we built up a sound relationship good TV at home and that's how I've known it since I was a boy and that's why it's so difficult for us to understand how it could come to this yes we are 215 we sought us of dimke calmness [Applause] working on the farm has become dangerous since 2009 Santa Rosa has been subjected to repeated attacks sighs Brenda sighs distill my sometimes it's a fire sometimes they put bits of iron in the fields direct the machines the sabotage has caused huge economic damage to the family who now fear for their livelihoods the look singers used to have two hundred and twenty dairy cows today the cow heads are empty the brothers had to sell all their cattle after an arson attack in 2015 that left the dairy in ruins if you have a business and it's destroyed and you have nothing left all you've ever bank debts you have to start all over again and say what am I going to do now my parents are still alive and my father refuses to sell so that's how things are going to stay a theme sort of lightning but the look singers are very much on a back foot their parents have already moved away from the farm out of fear of further attacks neither able nor Herold feel it's safe to move in a vultures us damage from the most recent attack in they fired shots in this direction Gasol the assailants also had canisters of gasoline with them with the intention of burning the house to the ground [Music] [Applause] the vas comes from the regional capital Tomoko [Applause] [Music] once a week the trial family go shopping in the city for items they are unable to produce back home on the farm the trucker's are among them our butcher families fighting to have the land returned to them as the oldest son Kwan bears responsibility for the family he's 26 and as a geology student the dispute between the trial councilman look singers has been going on for almost 20 years first it was over water rights and then land one studies limit the amount of time he has to work on the farm his family is extremely poor and the 10 hectares of land yield too little to really survive on they make him sell their own handicrafts to earn a little extra money the fight over the land is a fight for their future and one conducted with a little mercy colonias Torino Cobra Sara Erin Padre this land belongs to our ancestors so really it's ours by right but I am against threatening our families and resorting to violence but the phone it on clothes to get a lady's a lot of my boots I disapprove of that see other con but destroying the machinery that is wrecking our land this is a reaction to state violence a second era when I meant the potato village okay in a volatile [Music] our own Kunia is the breadbasket of Chile thanks also to the settlers in the 19th century they were invited to come by the government Germans Italians French and 22,000 Swiss who turned wild pastures into arable land the look singers were among the first settlers to arrive today the family owned a number of farms and enjoy considerable wealth our family gatherings in particular it's clear that the former immigrants have grown into a closely knit clan the younger generation tend to converse in Spanish while their older relatives speak reasonable German although they have lost the Swiss dialect except for the odd word or phrase but they still feel an affiliation to the old country during the gathering they share old family photos documenting their ancestors arrival in the new world [Music] this was the family's very first house here which they built themselves the Aconcagua the ship that brought the first look singers to Chile on a month-long voyage the contract with the Chilean government granting 40 hectares of land to each cetera and the founding patriarch sebastian looks ago he left switzerland with his family a few years earlier to escape poverty the family originally came from ng in the canton of Glarus and soon had a thriving enterprise in Chile they bought additional land and a second generation then moved to the area around him this is the first plot my grandfather bought it Adam look singer and the look singer brothers then bought up more land 1300 hectares the wives would complain that all the money was spent on new land instead of the house as the look singers and many other set of families became wealthier the Mapuche became poorer now they are demanding the return of the land that was taken from them land that the settlers have been farming for the last 140 years are they proud of their history of course we didn't get anything for free if anyone's responsible for what's happening now it's the state it was the state that colonized the area the Mapuche were resettled to smaller plots of land while the rest was auctioned off [Music] but now the look singers find themselves at the heart of the conflict for haka and dirt a conflict that turned deadly in 2013 his parents were the victims of an attack in a very house where the family has gathered today the emergency call was recorded by police arrived at the house a little later on the way there I could already see that it was on fire it had started in the kitchen I think I only just missed the attackers in pocono me no no can think on trauma college and I went looking for my mom she called me a few minutes earlier we spent a whole night searching for the next morning we found out that two bodies had been discovered in the house it had already burned to the ground contrary to what we had hoped they turned out to be the remains of my parents [Music] Jorge andreas and his brothers have since rebuilt the house but nobody lives there now the family use it to host gatherings it's also a signal to the perpetrators within beneath when you can come and burn everything down you can kill us but you will never achieve your goal they will act the authorities arrested three Micucci in connection with the attack one of them was Jose Drakkar the father of want Rocco in the initial trial he was acquitted but after the government launched an appeal he was sentenced to 18 years in jail Jose fled before he could be imprisoned as a son seeit their father is the victim of political machinations you know minty silicon oil sanaka nine people were indicted all of them people who are potential leaders for others they have the knowledge and ability to make successful land claims against the state authority over the land in question is controlled by the settlers and the look singers are a prominent example that's why they wanted these people in jail the people they blamed for the murder of the couple were the people fighting for the rights of the mapuche their father Jose was indeed one of the leading figures in the land dispute for decades he'd been at odds with Jorge look singer what's also true is that the evidence presented by the police and the first trial was rejected on the grounds of suspected manipulation in the eyes of Jose's children the trial amounted to a conspiracy against their father [Music] [Applause] [Music] for the Mapuche in general closet Rakhal is seen as a martyr in the fight for their people's rights [Music] josé's defense lawyer has come to see the family as always on foot defending them appacha is hardly a lucrative assignment following the verdict by the country's highest court there's little Pablo Ortega can do for the chalk house his only recourse is to appeal to the inter-american Court for Human Rights where he sees far better prospects for his client the authorities he tells us used what was called anti-terrorism legislation introduced by the Pinochet dictatorship the laws imposed severe restrictions on legal defense and Ortega says they constitute a clear violation of international norms effectively morally and ethically the anti-terrorism legislation was used by Pinochet to arrest protesters campaigning for social rights and now this very same law is being applied in the conflict with the Mapuche I said locked in Syria they're using the same law and the same criteria introduced by Pinochet to take action against them a butcher community but that's not all says the lawyer he accuses the authorities of ensuring a politically influenced verdict determined by pressure from the so called settlers and a lot ofin DITA Yasu Nieto's tan the descendants of the big landowners are represented at all levels of society in the courts the police and the administration they only see things from their viewpoint the Mapuche have no chance against them the odds don't seem to be in their favor Pablo Ortega sees it as a fight against a judicial system that favors the rights of the ruling class he certainly Yin is in a similar situation her husband Lewis striker was also sentenced to 18 years in jail and has now likewise a fugitive her family is among those who have challenged Jorge look singer for nine years they fought a conflict with him over land now Lisa is living on a piece of land that used to be look singers but Lee said once more yeah um tomorrow chicken ot Madeira and there are still a lot of my pooch a families you have no land our people struggle is not over and that is why the truck Elms were found guilty it's purely political especially in the case of Lewis because he tried to claim back the land of another look singer it's about us as a community we have the right to a life in dignity the settlers should go back to their own countries they're not from here but we are Lissette is not seeking personal gain what she wants is to undo a historical injustice she's proud of her Mapuche identity she dresses in traditional attire and roast sweet according to old customs he said there's her own share of suffering such as raising her children without their father for her violence is a legitimate means to resolve the conflict if you want to drive the settlers away you have to hit him where it hurts and that's economic power that's why people started burning down the crops and killing their cattle but don't forget that the violence began with the state against the Mapuche a people it was the state that brought the centers here the state started the war with the pacification of arrow Konya and forcing us to live in small areas pacification as the euphemistic term used to describe that chapter in history for the Mapuche it meant occupation and subjugation the chilean state seized 90% of the semi nomads territory and confined them to reservations the loss of land also meant losing their way of life the Mapuche were unable to cope with their changed circumstances the land given to them by the state was of poor quality and in contrast to the settlers they received no support our once prosperous people the Mapuche a sank into poverty yes it will mob whatever what do the Mapuche people do in this situation they turned to self defense and that strategy of self defense includes political violence as we call it litical violence centers on boycotts by boycotts we mean actions directed against the settlers economic power against industrial forestry and mining against all enterprises that exploit our resources in centuries past the Mapuche successfully defended themselves against the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors a set sees herself in that same tradition [Music] Jorge andreas look singer has this farm a few kilometers away he's been planting young vines which is why he's drilling for water a precious resource for his house and for the grapes his farmers also guarded by police day and night he's been living with a threat from the Mapuche for decades and is familiar with their demands for more land that's in the board ISA the poverty among the Mapuche here in the countryside is clear to see you have to put yourself in their shoes but I cannot accept resorting to violence when they burn down farms our entire harvests and when they murder people in doing so they avenge injustice with injustice he cites the lay in Lahaina as a major reason for the violence it's a law regulating the return of land to the Mapuche and the state's attempt at compensation for a historical debt but some say the law is ill-conceived Bambino company law encourages violence it supports land purchases precisely when there is a conflict conflicts have been consciously stirred up in recent years the piranhas and Creole conflict it enables the process of land restitution to be accelerated and at the same time those who behave lawfully no disadvantage [Music] here another field has been raised by fire by February when the summer comes to a close in a southern hemisphere the local landscape is parched fires occur regularly at this time of year one act of carelessness is enough to trigger spontaneous combustion arson is another course the wheat fields of Hector urban have fallen prey to fire on repeated occasions in this case the flames spread at an alarming pace the farmers family were able to stop the inferno just short of their homes Evod look singer heard reports of the attack and has come to see the damage suffered by his fellow farmer and friend this is the yield from an entire year bread as if we didn't need this that's all that's left of the harvest the ovens have had eight arson attacks this year alone losing a total of 46 hectares of wheat under the circumstances it's difficult to understand whether family don't just give up you know we have no other choice it's that or nothing we have nowhere else to go this land is all we have and to move somewhere else we'd have to sell it but nobody would buy it as one of the families caught up in this conflict we feel betrayed by the Chilean state the state looked abroad to Switzerland Germany France and Italy to recruit people to work here and make the nation great souvenir akka agrovoc Araceli grande tonnison Tomiko the region's capital and financial center the Central Market features many Mapuche from the region who come here to sell their products it's also where the various communities come together German settlers Swiss settlers and indigenous Mapuche if there's one thing they agree on its that the state has misled its people and ultimately is to blame for the conflict it's never made a serious effort to harmonize relations between the different groups instead it has played them off against each other only to now leave them alone in their struggle [Music] the look singers are far from the only victims of the violence the attacks are now directed against various institutions of society Ava takes us to multi-grammy on the local business association multi-grammy all wants to see peace for the region and peace here means the state taking tougher action la muerte let the murder the assassination of the look singer Makai is in their home is the result of unrestrained violence muna in Ponyville I would all bop your lentil absolute them in the state is incapable of punishing groups who are extremely well known from the police to the intelligence agencies and the judges it is incapable of issuing sentences that will put the perpetrators away once and for all Medicus us shows us how rapidly the number of attacks has increased over the last year the dispute over land she says poses a threat to Chilean society as a whole she therefore supports the use of the anti-terror law dating back to the time of the Pinochet dictatorship enough is enough now we have nothing to do with Pinochet but the law can ensure security in the 21st century it provides for information gathering that can be used to prevent radical groups from attacking their fellow citizens the authority stand accused of using Pinochet's memes to suppress them approaching and using the indigenous law to reward violence their failed to get to the root of the problem torn between different political interest groups Chile seems further away than ever from finding a solution David look cigar takes us along to a women's group who wants to raise awareness nationwide for their problems from farm attacks to violence against their children and having to live in constant fear hello the group numbers 400 members this woman is a farmer with German roots she agrees to talk to us if we don't use her name she's used to the group being dismissed as right-wing but for her it's a personal issue you may see this many kinder I want my children to grow up in peace I don't want them to have to move away this is their home city I'm not here she's recorded all the attacks and a calendar [Music] it's Group A here we the Maharis pull our kanya have seen how the media do not report on these incidents so people in santiago have no idea about them so we asked ourselves what we could do to visualize the problem for people that's why we've been compiling a calendar since January 2016 taken together the results are shocking every month there are more days with attacks than with none of course this is an attack on your property on your lives depending on the circumstances but still the question remains can you appreciate whether Mapuche say we want the land back that was once taken from us I did understand it at first but now they have so many tracts of land and they've received so much help and they do nothing with it it's unproductive land now I'm a farmer and when I see that all they grow are mullah and pika-pika then I don't understand it so stage this nation the accusation that the Mapuche are lazy and unproductive is a common one among settlers but what the settlers see is laziness is for the indigenous people simply living at one with nature the maintenance of the raw material it's about the mapuches relationship with the earth and about balance we give the earth time to recover we don't go around transforming the forests rivers lakes and coastal landscapes we respect nature as it is because we know that other animals also need it as a habitat animal Ikki given vehicle a tiara unlike the Christians yet the Mapuche do not subjugate the earth for their own needs they see it in its entirety and themselves as part of it for them Nature has a soul saving espacio lost alone in there is a place where the Lian live they're the guardians of the earth their spirits our ancestors are also needed [Music] you have to establish a profound relationship with the earth you have to recognize deep inside who than the N are without them we would lose our connection to nature there are a lot of the end more than there are people we humans only have short lives than the end live forever the three of them head off to a place when the N reside to ask their permission they complain to the nhien that they have been falsely blamed for the death of the look singers as a gift for the spirits they sprinkle flour into the water which is simply the police of will and realism in north for the Mapuche nature has always been paradise we don't want to build great buildings the buildings of nature are more important than the buildings of people this is why unlike the Aztecs and Mayans the Mapuche do not have great buildings colonization pushed us away from nature when we regain our habitat we will find our way back to plants to our faith our language and spirituality [Music] this is a sacred place for them a natural and untouched forest [Music] here they find countless plants and herbs with properties and uses that Emma and Maria are well-acquainted with population if you get sick the guardian of the forest tells you in a dream which remedy you need because you are a map uchi a part of the earth then we search for the remedy and when we find it we dedicate a prayer to it [Music] [Applause] kuan takes us alone to see Jose Adele he's the longer a traditional chief of the mapuche community he's also a professor of history at the Catholic University of tamuca Goodell is convinced that the Mapuche have to rediscover their identity and pride in order to secure their right direction yellow question but we lost all our rights the right to education the right to medical care the right to dignity it won't stop until we rediscover our Mapuche roots the Mapuche have had everything taken from them among those doing the taking with the look singers when they first settled in the region not losing it if they were feeling lucky when up the old man Conrad look singer had a grocery store he saw that people were hungry and sold them food for them to live on but the people couldn't afford to pay and got deeper and deeper into debt yeah with this one look singer then arrived with the police he took away their animals all their possessions and eventually their land as well you have to look at how many hectares they started out with and how many they have today you can quench their thirst and out during the family gathering we confronted Jorge look singer with this account none of that is true I'd Nick none of it if you look in here you'll see everything that look singers got from the state was paid for you never bought land belonging to the Mapuche nits no not a single square meter from the Mapuche it was all from private owners so from private farmers whatever the truth is the past has always dogged the look singers and has made them a primary target for attacks as the younger generation can also testify I'm worried about going out on the street because it's dangerous someone might hurt me and when these issues come up at my university I'm afraid to speak my mind because it's too dangerous express an opinion but gets arrested the leaders fears Jorge Andres his daughter Joyce had to have police protection when she went to high school but she's determined to stay put I love this land if I have children I want them to be able to live here too but the others have had enough the ink is not gonna thicken em all the conflict is something we've been living with since the age of five we're sick of it they're well educated and have little interest in farming their parents struggle is a futile one in the eyes of the next generation the situation for the Mapuche is a different one [Music] they say an opportunity to take their fate into their own hands as they do at the rapper mackelway festival there are no commercial sponsors involved and no police we also need the Dzhokhar family here Kwan and his siblings have jobs at the festival earning money needed for the appeal they're planning at the inter-american Court of Human Rights they want their father back when someone is sentenced to so many years in jail it's as if they died the father is missing in the family he is missed by the children's missed in the house and in the fields it's hard and we know he's innocent the Mapuche feel criminalized by state it discriminates against them they feel marginalized and want their own autonomous society away from the main stage as a gathering of political activists they discuss various issues life in the community politics and new forms of the fight for liberation it's a parliament a platform for discussions and exchanges of opinion and opinion making the people talked about their experiences in the liberation struggle and voiced their opinions on the current situation I think it's important and that we should do it in the future too to win more people to the cause first we discuss matters with each other and then act that's the right way it's an event that brings together festivities with political activism and Quan himself will soon be taken to the stage the guilty verdicts for Hosea Lewis have a wider impact than just on a two count family he says he calls the sentences an attack on the entire my [ __ ] people it was an unjust verdict in the Luke singer trial makai against our brothers the trial cows bear on the run from the racist Chilean government but we will continue to fight for our freedom for autonomy and self-determination we're fighting for independence from the state that has oppressed us for so long we want freedom for our country and freedom for Luis and Jose trial coat N days after the public appeal by Juan and his siblings the police found and arrested Jose tracker and Luis choco [Music] Italian states policy towards them appreciate remains contradictory neither the left nor the right seem to have a viable resolution to offer as the battle for the land continues

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 478,890

Rating: 4.6779084 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2020, documentary, Chile, indigenous people, Mapuche, land grab, oppression, minorities, land grabbing, settlers, free documentary, pinochet

Id: 2Ln075wPcII

Length: 42min 31sec (2551 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 25 2020