Ethnic identities and indigenous territories in the writings of Luis de la Cruz (1806). Among pehuenches, huilliches, llanistas, ranquelinos and pampas

Abstract

This article deals with Luis de la Cruz’ perception of indigenous territories and identities –individual as well as collective– during his journey through the mountain ranges, Northern Patagonia and the Pampas in 1806, based upon his own perceptions and the testimonies of his pehuenche informants.The personal itineraries of his indigenous mates reveal incessant and flexible interethnic contacts in a vast region where people circulated across ethnic boundaries, adopting new identities and creating bonds that overcame group enmities. The centripetal forces of trade and kinship were counterbalanced by the centrifugal dynamics of war, leading to the emergence of new ethnic identities in a process strongly influenced by colonial manipulations.