Aucas en la ciudad de Santiago. La rebelión mapuche de 1723 y el miedo al «otro» en Chile central

Abstract

Within the context of the so-called indigenous rebellion in 1723, this article reconstructs the actions carried out to suppress an alleged rebel attack on the city of Santiago in October of that year, an attack which never occurred, but nevertheless brought to jail over one hundred Indians, inhabitants of the nearby city areas, and most of whom were immigrants who had come from the border of the river Biobio or from within the Araucania. This process is studied from the perspective of fear of the «other» who was in this case an indigenous migrant carrying language, customs and religion all of which were mostly incomprehensible to the hispanocriollos of central Chile, thereby making them immediately to appear suspicious and be referred to as «Auca», or rebel.