MAPUCHE MIGRATION AND MOBILITY TO ARGENTINIAN PATAGONIA

This article offers background information on the migration and mobility of peasants and Mapuche people from the Araucania, Los Rios and Los Lagos regions to the Argentinian Patagonia, especially to Neuquen and Rio Negro, during the second half of the 20(th) century. This event is part of a larger process of spatial redistribution that includes central Chile, Magallanes and the Patagonia region across the Andes. We describe this economic migration as well as the changes that have taken place because of the oscillation of economies and the relations between Chile and Argentina, or because of the persistence and transformation of kinship and community social nets between the areas of origin and destination. This idea is related to the regional integration pattern that the Mapuche people have created in the modern era as well as to the translocated relationships that keep favoring mobility between its rural, urban and semi urban components.