Food as a Cultural Practice among the Mapuche in Santiago de Chile

This article highlights the role of food as an essential tool for immigrant Mapuche families to reinforce their ethnic identity and pass it on to the younger generations in Santiago de Chile. Food and food-related practices were a topic that many Mapuche referred to when they were invited to talk about their culture and life in Santiago; this simultaneously revealed their relation to others' (Chileans) and their connectedness to their ancestral lands in the Araucania region in the south. Staying attuned and connected to the south through Mapuche food strengthens feelings of cultural continuity and belonging, such that Mapuche ethnic identity does not surrender to the city, but rather is re-created in a new environment.