Pawkar Raymi, an affirmation of the ethnic identity in migration: case of kichwa-otavalo immigrants in Santiago de Chile

Abstract

This paper establishes a theoretical and empirical analysis about the meanings that are developed in the “Pawkar Raymi”, a festivity of the migrating indigenous kichwa-otavalo in the city of Santiago de Chile. A rupture within the everydayness can be seen, allowing festive, ludic and interactive processes to occur, where processes of ethnic identity reinterpretation and sense of belonging to a community occur; outlining issues that most of the time are not evident within the community of origin because they respond to new elements in a globalised society. The approach comes from an anthropological conceptual analysis and from social psychology, from the testimonies obtained, working with first hand sources in order to understand the processes of ethnic identity affirmation of the kichwa-otavalo