A new constitution could give indigenous Chileans more say

BRENDA GUTIéRREZ, a 50-year-old shellfish gatherer, knew she was a Chango for as long as she can remember. When she was growing up in a fishing village in northern Chile, her parents always called her Changuita (little Chango girl). Her schoolmates, alas, called her “smelly” and “dirty” because of her indigenous roots.

Such discrimination turned her into an activist. She lobbied for the Chilean state to recognise her people, an indigenous group whose culture is supposedly extinct. “We exist and are alive,” she says. In October last year, the Changos won recognition. And an election next month for a convention to change Chile’s old constitution could boost them further.

The Chango—a colonial-era term which has stuck—are descended from nomads who inhabited South America’s west coast over 10,000 years ago. Despite their culture having supposedly vanished, 4,725 Chileans defined themselves as Chango in a 2017 census, in the “other” category. Many still work as hardscrabble nautical types, as their ancestors did (they were known for sea-lion skin rafts). Some still use ancient tools such as the chinguillo, a net fibre bag to carry fish, and the chope, an iron file to scrape molluscs off rocks.  

One reason why people mistakenly...