Is Chile a multicultural country? Mestizos and indigenous people in front of the mirror of the lexicon
Authors
-
María Natalia Castillo-Fadić
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2595-7568
Download
Abstract
This study focuses on the representation of multiculturalism in Chilean Spanish, based on the hypothesis that the predominant culture points towards the illusion of an unmixed reality. To do so, the surface realizations of the variables mestizo and indigenous, as well as those of the hyponyms of each of them, were extracted from the Corpus Básico del Español de Chile © (Castillo Fadić 2012). Based on a lexicostatistical analysis, the aim was to specify the frequency, dispersion and use indices of each variable and variant, establish relationships between lexical units and worlds and account for the representation of cultural diversity in the country. As a result, lower frequency and use was observed for the variable mestizo (F=2, U=0), rather than for the variable indigenous (F=89, U=67.82). In addition, mestizo was restricted only to Essay. The variable indigenous, meanwhile, although present in all worlds, is more frequent in Essay and Technical-Scientific world, and is especially realized through its variant indian. Regarding the hyponyms of mestizo, we find mestizo with a restricted meaning, mulato and zambo; mestizo is the most frequent variable (F=4) and the most used (U=1.08), although all three are statistically marginal; in addition to its low frequency, if the realizations of the general variable mestizo are grouped with those of its hyponyms, only occurrences in Essay (58%) and in literary works (42%) are found; finally, in contrast to the tendency to prefer lexical units with greater semantic breadth (cf. Castillo Fadić 2021a), the specific denominations of mestizo present a higher percentage of occurrences (83%) rather than its general denomination (17%). Regarding the hyponyms of indigenous, only eleven native peoples appear lexically represented: alacalufe, atacameño, aymara, chango, chono, inca, mapuche, ona, quechua, pascuense and yagán; among them, the Mapuche variable predominates widely, with 65% of the total appearances of a specific people; its preferred variant, Mapuche, is highly used. Regarding the achievements by world, if we group the results obtained from the semantically general variable indigenous with the specific variables relative to each particular native people, the indigenous is especially thematized in literary works (29%), Technical-Scientific (27%) and Essay (25%). On the other hand, the names of specific native peoples are presented in the Press more frequently and with greater variety (seven out of eleven peoples), followed by Technical-Scientific, which only thematizes two peoples. The hypothesis is confirmed, and it is concluded that, although the mestizo population of Chile is considerably larger than the indigenous population, the linguistic representation of mestizo is considerably smaller than that of indigenous and is made invisible not only due to low frequency, but also because it is restricted to specific worlds.Keywords:
Mestizo , Indigenous , Lexicon , Chilean spanishReferences
Berríos del Solar, S. 2016. El ADN de los chilenos y sus orígenes genéticos. Editorial Universitaria.
Castillo Fadić, M. N. 2012. Corpus Básico del Español de Chile ©.
______ 2020. Corpus Básico del Español de Chile ©: metodología de procesamiento y análisis. Lexis 44(2): 483-523.
______ 2021a. Léxico básico del español de Chile. Liberalia Ediciones.
______ 2021b. Corpus Básico del Español de Chile ©: metodología de obtención, revisión y constitución definitiva. En A. San Martín, D. Rojas y S. Chávez (Eds.) Anejo N°3 del Boletín de Filología, Estudios en homenaje a Alfredo Matus Olivier, pp. 219-252. Universidad de Chile.
Centro de Estudios de Opinión Ciudadana de la Universidad de Talca [CEOUC U-TALCA]. 2018. Prejuicio y discriminación racial en Chile. http://www.cenem.utalca.cl/docs/publicaciones/Prejuicio_y_discriminacion_racial_en_Chile.pdf
Chávez Fajardo, S. 2023. Cuando el español entra en un espacio en disputa. Acerca de las lenguas habladas en Chile. En F. M. Dovetto, M. Di Salvo, S. Musto y N. Peñín Fernández (Eds.) Teoria linguistica, pratica linguistica e pratica politica. Un approccio storiografico. Quaderni del CIRSIL 15: 103-117. https://cirsil.it/
ChileGenómico. 2019. Datos genómicos. https://www.chilegenomico.cl/datos-genomicos/Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos. 2017. Discriminación racial en Chile: más blancos y menos sucios, así nos percibimos. https://www.indh.cl/discriminacion-racialchile-mas-blancos-menos-sucios-asi-nos-percibimos/
Instituto Nacional de Estadística INE-Chile. 2002. Hojas Informativas, Estadísticas Sociales, Pueblos Indígenas en Chile, Censo 2002. https://www.ine.gob.cl/docs/defaultsource/etnias/publicaciones-y-anuarios/estadisticas-sociales-pueblos-indigenas-en-chilecenso-2002/estadísticas-sociales-pueblos-indígenas-en-chile-censo-2002.pdf
______ 2017. 2ª Entrega Resultados definitivos Censo 2017. https://www.ine.gob.cl/docs/default-source/censo-de-poblacion-y-vivienda/publicaciones-y-anuarios/2017/publicación-de-resultados/presentacion_de_la_segunda_entrega_de_resultados_censo2017.pdf
Lagos, C. 2006. Mapudungun en Santiago de Chile: vitalidad, lealtad y actitudes lingüísticas. Lenguas Modernas, 31: 97-126.
López Morales, H. 2004. Sociolingüística. 3.ª ed. Gredos.
Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Familia. 2017. Encuesta de Caracterización Socioeconómica Nacional (CASEN). https://observatorio.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/encuesta-casen-2017
______ 2021. El Pueblo Selknam no está extinto y debe ser incluido en la Ley 19.253. https://asuntosindigenas.ministeriodesarrollosocial.gob.cl/el-pueblo-selknam-no-esta-extinto-ydebe-ser-incluido-en-la-ley-19253
Ministerio de Planificación y Cooperación. 1993. Ley 19253. Establece normas sobre protección, fomento y desarrollo de los indígenas, y crea la Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena. https://bcn.cl/3g52v
Montes, C. 2018. La mitad de los chilenos dice que no tiene ancestros indígenas. La Tercera (29 de enero de 2018), https://www.latercera.com/tendencias/noticia/la-mitad-los-chilenosdice-no-ancestros-indigenas/50951/
Moreno Fernández, F. 2024. Language Demography. Routledge.
Organización de las Naciones Unidas [ONU]. 2007. Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas. https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_es.pdf
Stambuk, P. 2007. El zarpe final. Memorias de los últimos yaganes. Lom Editores / Pehuén.
Waldman Mitnick, G. 2004. Chile: indígenas y mestizos negados. Política y Cultura 21: 97-110. https://polcul.xoc.uam.mx/index.php/polcul/article/view/934cf
Twitter