Gobierno and "Republica": Ibero-American political vocabulary in Ranquel Chiefs' letters during the second half of nineteenth century

In times of struggle for the consolidation of the National State in Argentina, the native Chiefs kept tense relations with the criollo; as already demonstrated by extensive historiography. Attentive political interlocutors, the indigenous peoples used a broad political vocabulary of Ibero-American origin. Our objective is to examine, following J. G. A. Pocock's proposals, how they appropriated speeches, how they used languages with a different origin, and how they used the Spanish language to revert the meanings of power and their effects, by appropriating and using them as instruments of politics. The analysis is centered on the reading of the letters by Ranquel Chiefs, in search for the effects of the act of writing politically. The texts are related to the circumstances of the moment and to the action of other agents -military, civil and ecclesiastical- that used the same language. Typical concepts of the Western political vocabulary -particularly the Ibero-American one- originally strange to the native cultures, began to permeate the letters, being consciously and actively employed as instrument for political struggle, negotiation and resistance to the violent speeches and practices of the State. "Gobierno" and "Republica", used by Ranquel Chiefs, explained their understanding and participation in politics, and also their own reading of the white people's ways of living, negotiating and organizing.