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Professor Maria Catrileo was born in Boroa, an Indian reservation close
to the city of Imperial in Southern Chile. She went to High School
in Temuco and then she graduated as a teacher of English from the Universidad
de Chile in Santiago. In 1971 she obtained a Fulbright Fellowship and a
grant from the State Department of Education in Texas in order to do graduate
work at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she received an M.A.
in linguistics. She is currently working as a professor of Sociolinguistics,
Mapuche Linguistics and Intercultural Communication for the undergraduate
and graduate programs in the Department of Linguistics and Literature at
the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia.
She is the author of many articles and books about the phonology, grammar,
and lexicon of Mapuche or Mapudungun (the language of the major Indian
group of Chile), as well as didactic materials which will be used in the
new curricula being designed for Chilean students, especially for those
areas with high Indian concentrations. Her Diccionario Lingüístico-Etnográfico
de la Lengua Mapuche written in Spanish, English, and Mapudungun (from
the word mapu, which means 'land,' and dungun, which means 'speech,' "the
speech of the land") is known worldwide as a reference and source for didactic
materials which includes linguistic and ethnographic information for scholars
and students interested in the field.
In addition, Catrileo was elected president of the Sociedad Chilena
de Lingüística (SOCHIL) for the period between 1991-1993. In
this position she held a number of academic sessions devoted to research
and application of linguistic knowledge to the teaching of languages, as
well as Indian education. Along this line, she edited and co-authored a
collection of articles about bilingual education in the Mapuche community
in a manual called Educación bilingüe-bicultural published
by Universidad de la Frontera and SOCHIL in Temuco, Chile.
She has also led team work in multicultural studies and projects designed
for Mapuche children, including teacher training workshops, community involvement
and curriculum. The three publications which are part of this work include
Breve historia de Llongahue, Breve historia de Coihueco and Breve historia
de Isla Huapi. Apart from producing support materials for students in general,
these books make an important contribution to Indian knowledge recovery,
while simultaneously augmenting self-esteem within the Indian communities
in general.
Professor Catrileo has been invited to Humboldt State University for
the 1999 Spring Semester to teach two courses:
Spanish 435 Applied Linguistics
Spanish 480 Introduction to Mapuche Literature
Academic Lectures:
Professor Catrileo is prepared to present the following academic lectures
in English to all audiences. Lectures are one hour long with time for questions.
For invitation and details contact Professor Rosamel S. Benavides:
1) Contemporary
Mapuche Society: A Case Study for Cultural Resistance:
The Mapuche people have been able to survive and keep the basic components
of their culture by creating defenses against outsiders through a type
of interaction that involves both contact and change. The Mapuche have
managed to continue living on the basis of simple farming practices, trying
to help each other in their daily routines. Many of them still live on
reservations which do not offer enough land to support the increasing number
of families. Nonetheless, this native group has designed new survival strategies
that point to a strong desire to preserve their natural milieu and to revive
the old customs and rituals, even in the larger cities such as Santiago,
where a considerable number of Mapuche people live. There has been a marked
tendency toward learning Mapudungun, the native language, and educational
authorities have encouraged teaching the native language and culture
in the school curriculum.
It is true that many youngsters favor the idea of migration from
their communities, but, at the same time, they and their parents and families
are conscious of the importance of the survival of the Mapuche people on
earth. Many adults know that their children and youth, mainly influenced
by the avalanche of foreign images in the mass media, leave their native
land trying to achieve a better material life. Nevertheless, at the same
time, they deeply hope that their youngsters will come back to continue
the old traditional way of life, as true inheritors of the cherished mapu
or native land.
2) Mapuche Indian Literature:
Mapuche literature includes work done by the conquerors and colonizers
from the beginning of the interethnic contact between Indians and Europeans.
Early records include tales, songs and nütram or conversations
held in order to pass on the oral traditions to the next generations. One
of the best known works of the past was done by a famous Spanish poet,
Alonso de Ercilla, who was brought by the colonizers to write an account
of the conquest and war against the Mapuche people. His epic poem, La Araucana,
narrates the historical deeds of a long war fought between the conquerors
and the original owners of the land.
Other writings of the past include the grammars, dictionaries and bible
translations done by priests in order to christianize the Indians. At the
end of the century, a German linguist named Rodolfo Lenz began scientific
work on the Mapuche language and folklore. He gathered a collection of
tales and ethnographic materials and transcribed them into phonetic notation.
This valuable work, published in Estudios araucanos, has been the foundation
for many of the latest studies on the Mapuche language and culture.
In the first part of the 20th century, the biography of the longko,
Pascual Coña, transcribed into Mapudungun and Spanish by Father
Moesbach, is the greatest work within the testimonial genre of Mapuche
literature. Coña tells about his past cultural experience, including
childhood; up bringing; rituals; flora and fauna; Mapuche medicine and
much more. In the second half of the 20th century, many Mapuche writers
have emerged, producing all types of written work, including riddles, short
life histories, daily life experiences, tales and poems.
The best known contemporary writers are Elicura Chihuailaf and Leonel
Lienlaf whose poems have been translated into a number of languages. Many
other writers are also trying to make their work known . Chihuailaf, Lienlaf,
Huenún and Huinao are four poets included in an anthology that was
edited by Cecilia Vicuña in 1998 and which has been published in
Spanish, Mapudungun and English. The Mapuche literary production is also
a symbol of the resistance and cultural endurance of the Mapuche people.
3) Mapuche Religious Beliefs:
Today, in spite of the fact that they have introduced new beliefs into
the life of the community, the Mapuche people continue to maintain the
fundamentals of their rituals. Many of the people have begun to follow
the Catholic or Protestant beliefs, and Catholicism, especially, has allowed
its Mapuche followers to also go back to the native ceremonies, respecting
and observing every stage of the worship. Two main rituals have endured
throughout time: the ngillatun and the machitun. The first one consists
of solemn actions carried out generally around a wooden totem in order
to restore the sacred values carried away by day-to-day activities and
domestic concerns. The second ceremonial is a ritual in which the machi
healer applies all his or her traditional knowledge in order to restore
the health balance of the diseased person by making use of herbal medicine.
4) Intercultural Bilingual Education: The
Mapuche Experience:
The Mapuche sociopolitical groups in Chile have tried to make intercultural,
bilingual education a goal to be pursued in years to come. The Chilean
government is trying to implement pilot projects in several areas with
high concentrations of Indians in order to explore the viability of this
type of education for indigenous groups.
Within the above framework, Catrileo and other colleagues at the Universidad
Austral de Chile in Valdivia have implemented an ad-hoc curriculum sponsored
by the Ministerio de Educación, in three rural schools of the X
Region of Chile. This pilot project has included community assessment and
involvement, teacher commitment and students' views.
After three years of serious work, the team has come to important conclusions
about the present cultural and linguistic profile of the Mapuche communities
in this area, conclusions about the school administration and teachers'
perspective concerning intercultural issues, and conclusions about the
aspirations and goals of school-age children.
5) Grammatical Features of the Mapuche Language
Today:
The Mapuche language, called Mapudungun, belongs to the Andean family
of Indian Languages in South America. Its central system of phonology and
grammar has remained intact throughout the centuries. The Spanish interference
has produced variations in the pronunciation and structural patterns in
only one of its dialects. Professor Catrileo's lecture covers the phonology,
grammar and vocabulary of the language. Also, a contrastive analysis between
Spanish, English and Mapudungun may be used to better demonstrate the unique
features of this Indian language.
After May 15, 1999, Professor Catrileo can be contacted in Chile at: mcatrile@valdivia.uca.uach.cl
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