Reconstructing memories to produce legal evidences: The case of the Mapuche lof (‘communities’) of Cerro León, Chubut (Argentina)

Abstract

Since 2011, the Mapuche communities Cañio and Ñiripil of Cerro León, Buenos Aires Chico small village, in the Chubut province, have been embroiled in a territorial conflict. The municipality of El Maitén promoted, with state economic resources, a mega-tourism ski project in their territories, with the communities subsequently initiating a court case to stop the municipal project. In this context, the lack of community titles has made them “subjects without proof”, and it was from this point that they decided to reconstruct evidence by restoring collective memories. The objective of this article is to characterize the work of restoring the memories of these communities, focusing on the particularity of these processes in the face of the need to develop evidence within a legal case in the context of a conflict.