NEW HOPE IN CHILE

Violence erupts in the streets of Santiago, Chile, as protesters march for the rights of the Mapuche population. A lone figure armed with a small Mapuche flag is driven to the ground when the national police—the Carabineros—fire a water cannon.

The disintegrating effects of marginalization have pushed the Mapuche, Chile’s largest Indigenous population, to the brink of despair.

Until now, Chile has been the only South American country to exclude Indigenous people from its constitution. As of press time, Dr. Elisa Loncón, a member of the Mapuche community, is presiding over a constitutional convention to create a plurinational document for all citizens.

For centuries, the disinherited have existed without official recognition, resulting in abject poverty, loss of language, culture and family for nearly 9% of Chileans—approximately two million people—who self-identify as Indigenous.

Given this history, imagine how surprised residents of a small Mapuche village known as Buchahueico were when a group of enologists from VSPT Wine Group, a