“Indigenous people do not belong to the left,” was one of several powerful phrases that Claudia Unicahuain Quinan uttered during our virtual conversation.

Since 2020, she is the national vice-president of the indigenous peoples of the Chilean party Renovación Nacional. Very confident and happy, she tells me that there are 1,550 affiliated indigenous militants. Claudia belongs to the Mapuche people on her father’s side and Huilliche on her mother’s side, noting that the latter is not recognized by the Law on Indigenous Peoples, and uses the opportunity to emphasize that Chile is the only country in the region with legislation for indigenous peoples. She understands that being a politician is difficult, even more so being an autochthonous woman, and even more so being a member of a right-wing party. On the one hand, he had to break with stereotypes within his party, and in Chilean society in general, since there is a tacit connection between the indigenous population and the left, the same in Ecuador and in Latin America in general.

Racism

Then she had to set up a program that represented the interests of the indigenous population and that was implemented and recognized by the Chilean right. In this sense, he comments on his work on the bill on the recognition of the presence of Chilean indigenous peoples through the holiday, which was approved during the government of former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera; collaborated in the creation of 17 seats reserved for the indigenous population in the Constituent Assembly; a bill on mother tongues and another on permanent reserved seats in the national congress, they are currently working on a project to recognize traditional games and sports.

Elections, departmental governments and the indigenous movement

With full confidence from his experience, he affirms: “The right can represent indigenous interests”, and its advantage is that it does so through dialogue, it does not try to impose a plan by force.

Claudia considers it necessary to call the violent actions by their right name and to condemn the terrorist actions carried out by the Chilean left. She herself mentions that she was persecuted and threatened by the left-wing Mapuche, to the extent that she should have had legal protection.

“Indigenous people do not belong to the left”… is one of the powerful phrases that Claudia Unicahuain Quinan uttered…

She is an ardent defender of ILO Convention 169, and emphasizes the principle of self-determination, which cannot be collective, it is individual: “I cannot determine someone else’s identity”, each of us, indigenous peoples, must choose our religion, recognize our identity and our political vision, and Convention 169 defends us, confirms Claudius.

As an autochthonous rightist, she points out that she has to defend her political vision from the worldview. With great enthusiasm, she tells me that political events, if they are in the territory of indigenous peoples, start with a ceremony for each city, then sing the national anthem and finally the party anthem, “the right must respect our culture,” she says, but that won’t happen unless we indigenous people participate and push this agenda in this sector.Finally, it makes me think about the values ​​within indigenous communities: family, life, religion, work, saving and trade. (OR)