Iguazu Falls – from Brazil and Argentina

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First view of Iguazu Falls - Brazil

First view of Iguazu Falls – Brazil

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Iguazu Falls – from Brazil and Argentina

If you are anywhere near the Misiones province of north-east Argentina then it’s a ‘must’ to go and see the Iguazu Falls. Superlatives abound when they have been described in the past – but they don’t disappoint. They fall within the border between Brazil and Argentina (with the majority in Argentina) and if possible you should try to see the falls from both sides. You are only watching water flow but you won’t get bored as around the corner it’s doing it in a different and often more spectacular manner.

If possible I would suggest you try to see the falls from the Brazilian side first in order to get a panoramic view of them and then (the next day) visit the National Park in Argentina where you can get close up in a way that’s impossible in Brazil. (The Practical Details involved in visiting the two sides are at the end of the post.)

There are so many people visiting both parks in the summer that any animals you might see are only the ones that have become used to humans as a source (either willingly or unwittingly) of free food. The coati (from my experience) have become more bold and aggressive and despite all the signs about not feeding them they will literally snatch food from out of the hands of the unwary. I don’t know if some of the more forward might not be culled at various times of the year – otherwise the ‘wild’ population would become totally dependent upon scraps from tourists. But some of the birds, and especially the butterflies (on my visit), were amazing.

To see any of the other, larger mammals you would have to be there first thing in the morning before the arrival of the crowds or (if possible) pick you time to visit when it’s the low season.

The Brazilian Side

You are much more constrained in the Brazilian National Park than when you visit the falls in Argentina – unless you take one of the many not-so-cheap add-on tours that are on sale. You have to queue and get on a bus getting off close to the pink Hotel das Cataratas – ignore the first two stops which are just for the extra tours.

From there you join a path which follows the banks of the river as it gets closer to the outflow from the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat). The videos below will, I hope, give some idea of what you would see.

In the next video you will be able to see groups of people standing on a platform right over the water. This walkway is part of the Upper Trail you can take and gives you an idea of the different experience awaiting you on a visit to the Argentinian National Park, from Puerto Iguazu.

Go on a crowded Sunday in January, as I did, and you will be fighting to get a view with the people wanting to take selfies. Just behind the rising plume of spray you can see people on the walkway heading to the Garganta del Diablo in Argentina.

One of the amazing things about Iguazu is that you have the huge waterfalls and countless other smaller, yet in any other context significant, falls wherever you look.

This is the closest you get the falls on the Brazilian side. You’re looking up at the Garganta del Diablo and getting wet.

It’s a true fight to get space at the end of the walkway. You see nothing, as the spray is so intense, but it will give you a feeling of the force of the water – and the noise.

 

The Argentinian Side

Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

Parque Nacional Iguazu – Argentina

Considering that if you could only go to one side of the falls you would want to choose the Argentinian the experience of entering the Parque Nacional Iguazú from Puerto Iguazú is much more pleasant and relaxed. This is obvious as soon as you get off the bus.

Here there is no huge esplanade that is capable of taking queues of hundreds for the ticket office and then the bus. Here it is quiet and what you would expect on entering a national park as opposed to a Disney-style theme park. Here the crowds soon disappear into the various ways that people can enjoy the surroundings.

Yes, there are bottlenecks at the two railway stations that take those who don’t want to walk to the closest land point to the Garganta del Diablo and possible bottlenecks along the walkway itself but nothing as compared to the other side of the river. You see much more, have an experience of walking in a jungle environment, albeit along constructed walkways, and get a better impression of the scale of the place you are in. And it’s cheaper to visit – in fact all the National Parks in Argentina are cheaper than they are in neighbouring Chile and Brazil. Added to that you can get a printed plan of the park from the Visitor’s Centre (see above).

Garganta del Diablo

To get to the main attraction it’s possible to take the small narrow gauge railway the 2.5 kilometres from Cataratas Station or you can walk it in a little over half an hour. The route is easy enough to find, you just walk beside the railway track. The walk means you don’t have to fight to get on the train and as it only runs every half an hour you can walk it in the time it takes to wait for the next one. From the Garganta Station it’s another 15 minute walk, more or less, (depending upon the crowds) to the platform that looks into the Devil’s Throat.

Views of the ‘minor’ falls

As can be seen from the previous videos the Garganta del Diablo is not the only waterfall at Iguzu and in order to get a close view of some of the others a quite intricate, but relatively subtle, system of walkways has been created to allow people to get close to the water before it thunders down yet another precipice. Often hidden by the undergrowth these walkways make the park accessible without being too intrusive. Obviously there are times when these walkways come out into the open (especially the one to the Garganta del Diablo as it crosses the open river) but much of the time the heavy vegetation hides most of the structure – at least the second system since the falls were made accessible to the public.

There are two main trails, the Upper and the Lower.

The Upper Trail

And a bit further along:

(I didn’t notice the Great White Egret at the very end of the clip until I reviewed what I had filmed later on – a pity that.)

The Lower Trail

And a final Iguazu Falls video.

 

Practical details

Cataratas do Iguaçu (The Brazilian Viewpoint)

If you can at all help it DON’T visit the Cataratas do Iguaçu in January, and especially not on a Sunday, as I did. Unless you are very strategic the queues can be horrendous. The suggestions made below are based on someone being based in Puerto de Iguazu (Argentina) who wishes to see the falls from Brazil.

Nothing is really difficult here it just means that with a little forethought (which I lacked having arrived after dark and didn’t think to check departure details until the following day) and planning a lot of the stress and frustration can be taken out of the trip.

Take the first bus from Puerto de Iguazu bus station at 07.30. The local (as opposed to the long distance) buses leave from over the green metal bridge on the right hand side of the bus station as you enter it from Avenida Cordoba.

At the bottom of the ramp there’s the ticket booth of the Rio Uruguay bus company, who run one of the regular routes to both the falls on the Brazilian and Argentinian side. Get your ticket before you try to get on the bus – the driver will take cash but it speeds things up if you already have a ticket. The fare is AR$ 130 each way. Get a return, (ida y vuelta).

The buses leave on the half hour, every hour from both ends of the journey and take just under an hour – taking into account the border formalities. (If you take the 07.30 bus from the Puerto you will arrive just under 30 minutes after the ticket office has opened and it should be very quiet.)

When the bus arrives at the Argentinian immigration ALL passengers have to get off and go through the well staffed and efficient (although somewhat cramped) passport hall. You will get an exit stamp in your passport. Get back on the bus and everyone should be in and out in less than 10 minutes.

The bus then goes to the Brazilian immigration and customs. Here everyone BUT Argentinian citizens have to get off and go through the entry process. (Argentinians (and presumably Brazilians) wanting to visit the neighbouring country for less than 24 hours don’t have to get stamps in their passports – the reason for them getting off and having their identity cards checked on leaving Argentina is to make sure there’s nothing untoward). People leaving Argentina to start a trip in Brazil are unlikely to have their luggage checked – although don’t bank on it. Every so often there might be a bit of a purge.)

Get back on the bus and, again, this process should be over in 10 minutes. It’s about 15 more minutes to the Visitors’ Centre. (My driver seemed to want to get people to buy tickets for the Parque das Aves, just outside the entrance to the falls. My information is that it’s not really worth it, especially for indigenous breeds. And it delays you getting to your main objective.)

Once at the Visitors’ Centre there are two ways to get your tickets.

The first, and the quickest in most circumstances, is from the self-service ticket machines that are just to the left of the bus stop. There you will find about 6 blue machines. Fairly straightforward if you have a Visa or Mastercard Debit/Credit Card. You’re snookered if your card is not – mine wasn’t, when I just assumed it was, and wasted time standing in one long queue when I should have been wasting my time standing in an even bigger queue.

The second is the general ticket windows. They will accept Brazilian Rials, Argentinian Pesos or US Dollars. To confuse things even more the ticket cost me, more or less, the equivalent of £18.00 (or AR$ 862). Strangely I was asked for my passport and it was actually photographed and stored on the computer system. Why that was necessary is beyond me. Perhaps if the waterfall was to go missing during the day they had a list of suspects.

(The number of times our personal details are being recorded is phenomenal. Eat your heart out Stasi. What you did was nothing as compared to modern states – those vassal states, such as Argentina and the UK, sending all this information to the Department for Homeland Security in the USA. A visit to a waterfall obviously counting as a terrorist training activity.)

Once bought you have to queue at the embarkation gate to get on a bus to take you into the National Park. If early in the morning this should be a breeze – also after about 14.00.

There are two stops before you arrive at the large Hotel das Cataratas. Those stops are for extra excursions not included in the park entrance fee – and if you had paid for them you would probably have been taken to the area in your own bus. You get of the bus at the huge hotel and there’s a trail that starts dropping down from the road about a 100 metres after the bus stop, where you immediately get an idea of the extent of the falls.

This route will take you along a path which reveals more of what is on offer, eventually coming down close to the river where there’s a pedestrian bridge taking you quite a way into the river and a view, and feel, of the spray created by the biggest fall, the Garganta del Diablo. If you go that far you will get wet.

From that low point you can either take the lift up to the road level or walk back a short distance and take the route marked as ‘Exit’ which brings you to the same place. The queues to come back will move a lot faster as there seems to be a limit on the numbers of people arriving, especially when it is very busy, so as not to create huge log jams of people at the various viewpoints. Once you have finished the aim is to get you out as quickly as possible.

I didn’t test out any of the food and drink places at the visitors’ centre – or at the end of the trail by the return bus stop.

Once out of the park the bus back to Puerto de Iguazu leaves from where you got off. Although Argentinians are into queuing normally even they will leave their culture behind at this bus stop. At least 50% of the passengers will be foreigners with no tradition of queuing and everyone knows that it’s not a matter of getting on the bus it’s a matter of getting seat.

The process through immigration is the same as coming. Argentinians stay on the bus at the Brazil immigration (and take the seats of those who have to get off if they didn’t have one in the first place) and it’s an even bigger scrum at the Argentinian immigration as their identity cards are checked quicker than foreign passports. Then either with or without a seat you head back to Puerto de Iguazu. Normally all it has cost you over and above the park entrance fees is a lost page in your passport.

Cataratas del Iguazú (the Argentinian viewpoint)

The bus leaves from the same place as for the trip to the Brazilian Falls and the bus is operated by the same company. (There are other companies that make these trips but Rio Uruguay was the one I used.) The cost is AR$ 130 each way, and as above get a return – although the Argentinian Park being quieter there would be no problem in getting a ticket in the office by the bus stop at the park entrance.

Nominally the buses run every half hour, on the hour and half hour but in January the frequency was increased to every 20 minutes and they were doubling up of buses at the busy time around 09.00-10.00. Obviously the earlier the bus the less crowded will be the park when you arrive. The journey takes about 45 minutes.

The ticket windows (only 3 or 4 of them) are just back from the bus stop and the queues are nothing like they are in Brazil – that was crazy. Entrance for a foreign national adult is AR$ 700 – about £14.00.

Once with ticket just walk through the automated barriers and you can go where you want. The Visitors Centre is about 400m into the park on the right hand side where you can pick up a paper plan. My recommendation is – whatever time you arrive – that you head for the Garganta del Diablo first, either by the train or by walking. It is THE area to see and you don’t want to leave yourself short of time.

After the Garganta del Diablo head back to the Cataratas Station and pick up the path that leads to the two walkways – the red one on the map which is the Upper Circuit and the blue one which is the Lower Circuit. Both are worth the effort. 

There are a number of eating and drinking places around the area of the Central Rail Station towards the entrance.

Buses back to Puerto de Iguazu are timetabled the same as leaving the town but in the height of the season more will be made available. The company seems to be able to predict when it needs extra buses as they weren’t just responding at the last minute in the bus station. They know from experience how much time the majority of people will stay in the park and will schedule the buses accordingly.

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The shrine of La Difunta Correa – the deceased Correa

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La Difunta Correa

La Difunta Correa

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The shrine of La Difunta Correa – the deceased Correa

A few days ago I made my first pilgrimage to a pagan shrine. (At least it wasn’t Christian one.) I didn’t do on my knees or by stripping the skin off my back with a metal flay – the like of which I saw in a priest’s cell in Sicily – but on a regular bus from San Juan to a small village known as Vallecito, about 65 kms away and taking just over an hour.

The story of the Difunta Correa is as strange and unbelievable as any produced by the mainstream religions. Her name was Deolinda Correa and she was married to a conscript in the war of Independence against the Spanish crown. She heard that he was sick (how that was possible for a poor conscript and his wife is a mystery to me) and she decided (for bizarre reasons) to head to the war zone to give him succour.

She was also nursing her baby and went through the desert area through the present day province of San Juan with limited provisions. A little bit irresponsible and irrational but it is from such situations that miracles are born.

Why she went out into the desert so ill prepared is another mystery and (according to some versions of the story) no one was prepared to give her water as she made her progress and died of heat exhaustion. A few days after her death (how many is not specified) she was found by a group of gauchos (Argentinian cowboys) and they were surprised to find that her baby was still feeding from her dead breast – what happened to that baby is also not specified. This was in 1840 when people were more stupid and susceptible to suggestion about so-called ‘miracles’ but many still believe this twaddle well into the 21st century – so really no less stupid and susceptible.

I’m not a medical expert but I assume that the process of a mother being able to breast feed her baby is a two way contract. The baby suckles and something in the mother’s metabolism permits the release of milk from the mammary glands. I can’t see even the most desperate and hungry baby being able to suck out the nutrition to survive even if it had the sucking power of a Dyson on speed. Or perhaps, the hidden part of the story, this baby was an offspring of Lestat and was, in fact, a vampire.

Whatever the reality ‘La Difunta Correa’ became a people’s ‘saint’.

Now here I’m going to make a few wild assumptions.

From what I have read about young Deolinda she really became an icon for the poor just over 40 years ago – that coincides with the beginning of the military dictatorship in Argentina – which only collapsed due to the failure in the liberation of the Malvinas from the imperialist British. This means to say that for more than a hundred years she was merely a folk tale that fed the limited imagination of the desperate.

During the period of the dictatorship the Catholic Church, both in Rome and at a local level in Argentina, would have supported the military in their campaign against left wing, socialist and communist groups within the country who were seeking to make the life of the majority better at the expense of the rich.

In such circumstances the choice of a ‘popular’ heroine, such a Deolinda Correa, could have been seen as a pacific act of defiance to the military dictatorship and the official, State religion. By the time the military had ceased to hold (openly) political and economic power the cult of ‘La Difunta Correa’ had already produced its own momentum. From that time there was no going back and the mythology and importance of the death of a poor, young peasant woman (if she ever existed) could only grow in importance.

She became the ‘pagan’ patron ‘saint’ of travellers (eat your heart out Saint Christopher) and the shrine just grew and grew.

Today it’s worth a visit for the view it provides about what Argentinian people think about their existence. The phenomenon of ‘La Difunta Correa’ is not just one for the area (San Juan province) in which she is supposed to have died and little red shrines, normally a small dolls house with bottles of water surrounding them (often with red flags flying), can be seen the length and breadth of the country alongside roads, both major and minor. (I’ve seen I don’t know how many of these shrines but always on a speeding bus and so don’t have a photo to help the understanding of the phenomenon.)

At the top of the shrine in Vallecito there’s a place where people can light candles, just as if it were a Catholic shrine, and although on my visit there were only a few people there are certain times of the year – one of them coinciding with the ‘Day of the Dead’ (November 1st) – when thousands of people are in the small village. The stench from the burning of the cheap candles must be intense and the pollution it is causing is clear for all to see.

Around the shrine of the La Difunta Correa

Around the shrine of the La Difunta Correa

It would also be interesting to know the attitude of the Catholic Church to this phenomenon. Yes, it’s not on the level of Lourdes in France but there’s a serious undercurrent that challenges the official religion. At the same time I’m almost certain that those who go to visit ‘La Difunta’ are also quite ‘religious’ in the official sense. There were crucifixes in abundance at the shrine and the statues were touched and venerated in the same way I’ve seen people approach statues in various churches and Cathedrals throughout Argentina. However, at present, the church probably has nothing to fear from the poor girl and her child.

What I did find interesting about her image is the fact that she is wearing a bright red dress, red on women being an anathema to Catholics – with the Magdalena always being depicted with red hair (and often with red painted toe nails) to indicate that she was a ‘fallen woman’, i.e. a prostitute. Whereas Deolinda wears her red shroud with pride.

There was also a few examples of the sexualisation of the dead girl as some of the statues had her with her left leg bent at the knee and therefore the raising of her dress.

La Difunta Correa

La Difunta Correa

I’ll let the picture gallery at the end tell its own story but before that I want to make a number of points.

Although not praying, and asking favours, from the establishment’s God all the relics that have been left by I don’t know how many thousands of people in the last 40 years demonstrate that still many people believe in a force outside of themselves for their successes – no one goes to Vallecito to register their failures.

And this is problematic.

The more that people look to external factors, influences on their lives, the less they look to themselves and those around them for the solution to the problems of society.

For example, in the Museum area there is a ‘Salon de estudiantes’ – ‘Students Room’ – where the ‘faithful’ have left copies of their diplomas, etc. If it becomes universally accepted that some sort of ‘divine’ intervention is needed to succeed in exams then why should anyone study? More importantly, those who fail can always blame their lack of dedication to that deity for their failures.

La Difunta Correa - 'Students' Room'

La Difunta Correa – ‘Students’ Room’

In another women have ‘donated’ their wedding dresses (what use do they have for it a second time, anyway) in thanks for finding someone to marry them. But that doesn’t reduce the divorce rate which is increasing, even in Argentina.

But the main problem with this way of thinking is that people don’t take responsibility for their own actions, or inaction. They will either play the victim or argue that they were helpless against an overwhelming force. Or the lack of support from a dead peasant woman.

And this just feeds the victim status that many claim in present day societies. They are incapable of changing things as there is some overwhelming force against them which makes any change impossible, that there’s no point in doing anything as nothing is achievable.

As is always the case at these ‘shrines’ there are a multitude of souvenir shops selling tat. Just so I could ensure I would survive my journey I bought a little statuette of the dead woman and her child as well as a fridge magnet (to add to my collection of the worse taste fridge magnets in the world). I did that before a beer as I waited for the bus back to San Juan. It was after a certain level of alcohol I wondered why I had been so daft – not the other way round.

If I do survive then perhaps I will have to return to Vallecito and leave an offering of thanks.

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Indigenous representation in public art – murals and mosaics – Ushuaia

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Fin del Mundo Museum Mural - Ushuaia

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural – Ushuaia

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Indigenous representation in public art – murals and mosaics

The artistic approach towards the indigenous people is not limited to their representation in monuments or their presence in various churches in both Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia. They are also depicted in murals and mosaics in various cities of the south. In some areas non-white, non-European extraction faces are painted on many walls but they don’t, in themselves, really tell a story. Here I want to concentrate on two locations where a story is being told, one a series of painted murals and the other a mosaic telling the story of Patagonia.

Murals outside ‘Fin del Mundo’ Museum, Ushuaia, Argentina

The ‘Fin del Mundo’ – ‘End of the World’ Museum – is in what used to be the Banco de la Nacion building on the road that runs along by the sea shore in the most southerly town in the world, Ushuaia in Argentina. I was surprised by how little information was provided in the museum of the story of the indigenous tribes in this area, primarily the Selk’nam and the Yámana. (For a better presentation of the story of the indigenous peoples in Patagonia the small municipal museums in Puerto Natales, Chile, and Bariloche, Argentina are infinitely superior.)

Outside, in a small garden where some old pieces of carts and an old cannon are on display, a series of murals were painted in 2013 that aim to tell the story of the area from the arrival of the first Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century up to the building of the large prison in the early 20th century (which I won’t be looking at here but which is at the top of this post.)

What I intend to do here is to look at those murals (5 out of 6) which directly reference the people who had lived in the region for many generations but whose lives were eventually turned up side down by the arrival of the Europeans.

There was no explanation of each picture so I have had to make a number of assumptions.

The First sighting of a Spanish Galleon

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural - Ushuaia

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural – Ushuaia

This image ‘shows’ a native village going about their daily life, making a canoe, collecting wood and general everyday tasks. This gets interrupted by one of the men sighting a Spanish full masted galleon and giving the warning to the rest. As is normal they have no clothes (apart from a simple loin cloth).

On the shore is a beached whale which a couple of men are in the process of cutting up. I’m not sure how accurate this might be. The Yánama would have taken advantage of an accidental beaching of whales – or the mass suicide – as they had no tradition of actually hunting them. I would have thought that impossible from the small canoes they used – and which can be seen being built in the mural.

The abduction of Yanama women by the Spanish

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural - Ushuaia

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural – Ushuaia

This is a strange picture with an unlikely juxtaposition of images. The main story is about the recent aftermath of a battle between the Patagonians and the Spanish who have arrived mainly – according to this picture – to kidnap the women to use them for their sexual pleasure. On the right hand side lies a dead Patagonian and on the left a dead Spanish soldier – the victims of the struggle.

In the background there are more Spaniards arriving from the galleon and in the top right hand corner there are a couple of canoes with a single individual in each.

Strangely on the mid right hand side a couple of men are beating some seals to death. Although it surely happened you wouldn’t have had a community of either of the Ushuaia tribes right next to a seal colony – the seals are today, and probably have been for time immemorial, out on the rocky, uninhabited and uninhabitable islands of what is now called the Beagle Channel.

The difference of the dress of the two opposing forces is made even clearer here as the Spaniards are wearing armour and have swords and guns as opposed to the simple spears of the Patagonians.

HMS Ocean

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural - Ushuaia

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural – Ushuaia

The next in the series moves a couple of centuries into the future and here we see an interaction between a couple of canoes full of Patagonians and a rowing boat full with Englishmen from the Royal Navy ship HMS Ocean. I can’t work out what the history is here. I’ve checked and can find no record of any Royal Navy Ship with the name Ocean being involved in any way whatsoever with the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego.

The image seems to represent the survivors of a shipwreck being attacked – or at least harassed – by a group of Fueguinos. Whatever the case the local people are seen as being hostile to the Europeans who have survived a disaster but instead of being helped they are being placed in an even more dangerous and life-threatening situation. Without historical context this gives the impression that the local people were naturally aggressive and unreasonable in their relations with ‘innocent’ sailors – as if the British Royal Navy was a charitable organisation rather than an instrument for the expansion of the British Empire.

Survivors of a shipwreck

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural - Ushuaia

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural – Ushuaia

This has an even stranger combination of images and here I don’t know why the single indigenous person has been brought into the picture. The image depicts a ship wreck somewhere in the area. There’s no real landmarks to say where it is definitely but although ships might have gone down in the Beagle Channel I would have thought that the problems and dangers would have been greater further out towards the Atlantic.

However, due to the strong winds (referenced by the scarf and hair of the red haired woman in the top right) a ship has been run aground. It has been damaged but not in such a manner that the people cannot get off on to dry land. There are a number of confusing images here which seems to juxtapose a series of events that would have happened over a period of time but which are shown taking place concurrently.

Two men are seemingly trying to anchor the ship to the land, a task I would have thought would challenge even the most adept super hero. At the same time another male is stacking savaged valuables from the vessel on dry land. In the background is another ship which confuses me. There is smoke rising up from the bow area as if it were on fire. From that ship a boat is coming to shore where the main group is already. Are they coming as rescuers or are they also shipwrecked?

Whatever the confusion that is created in the picture or in my mind when thinking about it what I want to direct attention to here is the image of the single (yet again) naked Patagonian who is crouched down and is warming his hands over a small fire. This fire is also being used to dry clothing and a pair of shoes. Beside and behind him are two whites, a male and a female, the woman looking as if she has just seen a ghost and the man looking as if he has just fallen asleep.

I honestly don’t understand why the Patagonian male is there. I don’t understand anything in the picture but his presence even more. Why was he on the ship? Why is he still naked at a time that the indigenous people were being forced to abandon their own traditional form of dress for that used by the European invaders?

My point here is that we have, yet again, a reinforcement of the difference between the European settlers and the people who were there before they decided to arrive and take all the land.

The European Patagonian idyll

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural - Ushuaia

Fin del Mundo Museum Mural – Ushuaia

The final picture in this series I want to present is one that doesn’t have any indigenous presence at all but , in context, says a lot about how the settlers saw, and still see, themselves. This is a domestic image inside one of the so-called ‘settler/pioneer’ homes. It comes straight out of ‘The Waltons’ or ‘Little House on the Prairie’.

It’s an image of total harmony. The family is happy, comfortable and living a good life at the level of the expectations and capabilities of the time. The mother is brushing her daughter’s hair – the girl studying at the kitchen table, her books in front of her. The dutiful son is bringing in an armful of firewood he has just collected – he is wearing outdoor clothes. The father, with whom the son has been collecting wood, carries a large log over his left shoulder and in his right hand he carries an axe. In the background the grandmother is knitting.

There’s a large, blazing stove on the left and on the right an equally modern, cast iron cooking range. A large ham hangs from the wall, together with pots and pans from the ‘old country’. A cat and dog, not working animals but pets, sit and sleep on the floor next to a toy cart. They are all well dressed and shod. They are warm, healthy and content. Through the window can be seen a steamship and there’s a snow capped mountain in the distance. The scene is placed in the region of Ushuaia but here, in this comfortable scene, there is no room for the indigenous people.

This is what they didn’t achieve. This is why they have been marginalised, worked to death, killed for their resistance and the reason why they had to make way for ‘progress’.

The traditional way of life has been destroyed to make place for bourgeois mundanity. The traditions and way of life of the indigenous people have now become a quaint thing of the past. They have lost their land, their dignity, their culture, their future.

They have had to make way for the European future.

This series was produced by a group of local artists in 2013 and I’m surprised that they still seem to be perpetuating the stereotypes into the 21st century.

Or is it me that just doesn’t get?

Mosaic at school on Avenida Cristobal Colon, Punta Arenas, Chile

Mosaic - School - Av Crisotbal Colon - Punta Arenas

Mosaic – School – Av Crisotbal Colon – Punta Arenas

Although you come across quite a lot of murals – rather than graffiti – in the towns throughout both Argentinian and Chilean Tierra del Fuego I only came across one public mosaic and that was on the wall of a school which was by the waterside in the Chilean town of Punta Arenas.

This mosaic is an amalgam of many of the objects, animals, mythology and history of the southern part of the South American continent. When it comes to the indigenous people there are only a couple of times where they appear but, yet again, it’s in the same manner as we have seen elsewhere.

Has anyone ever asked the remaining members of these persecuted groups what they think of this manner of representing or depicting their culture? Do they care? Or have they been so defeated and marginalised that have accepted the inevitable?

Anyway, to the mosaic.

Mosaic - Punta Arenas

Mosaic – Punta Arenas

It will come as no surprise that ‘naked with a bow and arrow’ is also on this mosaic. There’s one figure standing and one figure kneeling, both just about to let loose their arrows.

Mosaic - School - Av Crisotbal Colon - Punta Arenas

Mosaic – School – Av Crisotbal Colon – Punta Arenas

The other indigenous representation is in the two figures from the Selk’nam culture. This was all part of the initiation ceremony (called the Hain) for young men before they were accepted into the group as adults and was used as a method to bind the group to itself, creating a home for the initiate in which he would always be welcome. Naked (this time as it was part of an introduction into the group) the initiates would paint their bodies in a set and traditional pattern and would wear a mask. It was only when they removed their masks that they became adults.

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