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BOOK REVIEWS
| WHEN A FLOWER IS REBORN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A MAPUCHE FEMINIST, ROSA ISOLDE REUQUE PAILLALEF. By Florencia E. Mallon. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. 363 pp. Hardbound $59.95; Softbound $19.95.
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"I'm going to tell you a little about my life, you see, so that we can get to know each other better."
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| — Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef |
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In 1996 Florencia Mallon met Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef at Cafe Raices in Temuco, Chile. Inspired by Isolde's intellectual work and activism, Mallon conducted a series of interviews that focused on Isolde's experiences as a leader of the Mapuche indigenous movement. This oral history took close to five years to complete. It was time well spent because Mallon has crafted a complex, rich, and deeply interesting testimonio of Isolde's life and role in the Chilean Mapuche movement. A testimonio Mallon defines as a life story based on "solidarity or collaboration between a subaltern voice and an intellectual mediator." For her, the fundamental purpose "is to recover the experiences of ordinary people, subaltern in terms of their access to social or political power"(24). |
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Using the testimonio as the basis, Mallon employs a method that is part dialogue from the transcript, part narrative, and part reflection and analysis. Mallon offers her own reflections in a way that does not detract from Isolde's story and does disclose the power of the narrator in telling the story. In doing so, Mallon said, "I've begun to think of a testimonio more as play, as a text written to be performed or recorded in a performance, rather than as a strictly textual narrative"(17). Mallon provides the necessary context to Isolde's story by centering the relationship between herself and Mallon—a relationship that is, regardless of its mutuality, defined by certain power dynamic between narrator and interviewer. |
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In providing a political, economic, social, and cultural context for the life, there is always a chance that the narrative might either become lost or subsumed under larger political events and economic situations. If you do not provide a context, there is a possibility of rendering the subject as uninfluenced and unaffected by the world around them. Mallon strikes a balance. We are not overwhelmed by her opinion of Isolde or of events in Chile. Moreover, Mallon resists the temptation to tell us what Isolde is feeling or experiencing via her own perspective, her reading of the subject's actions and words. More importantly, Mallon does not make Isolde's story her story. Yet, at the same time, she admits that the interviewer/writer/transcriber is in a position of power, that the act of presenting the narrator's words involves at least "some form of invention, transformation; I have no choice but to take responsibility for that"(18). In taking responsibility for the performative aspect of testimonios—that is, exposing the potential power of the interviewer to redirect dialogue to emphasize her experiences over those of the subject—Mallon reveals her position as researcher, transcriber, and writer—in effect a producer of knowledge. |
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Mallon's decision to expose herself as a producer of text via oral history sets the stage for her extensive analysis of Isolde's life. Mallon does an exceptionally good job of showing how Isolde not only reacts and responds to those in the community who question and challenge her feminist politics, but also how she resists and later reconfigures the Mapuche indigenous political agenda to include feminism as one of its main tenets. This process is critical for understanding not only Isolde's growth as a political activist, but also as an intellectual of the movement. |
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We are introduced to the impact of long-standing land issues in Chile, to the Pinochet government's counter-campaign against the Mapuche, the intra- and inter-conflicts among the Mapuche, and the role of the press in reinforcing unequal power relations. At the same time, we also learn about Isolde's life as daughter, wife, and activist. By focusing on Isolde's commitment to women's rights, Mallon shows the reader that women experienced wide-spread discrimination and exclusion not only in Chilean society, but also within the movements designed to liberate them. In her discussion of the formation of the Mapuche organization on September 24, 1991, Isolde explains why the organization was founded: "Our objective was and is to dignify women. We were born precisely because Mapuche women were not given prominent roles in any Mapuche organization"(224). |
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For Isolde there are several factors that contribute to the inequality. One of them is the belief that boys are more deserving of an education than girls. According to Isolde this widely-held practice has had long-term consequences in the type of jobs, leadership positions, and roles women have been allowed to have. Another factor is the sexual abuse and mistreatment of women. "The male leaders in our movement thought nothing of disrespecting and making fun of their own Mapuche sisters. What I mean is that they went to bed with the women, taking advantage of their status as leaders. Many of the women ended up pregnant and the men never assumed their responsibilities as fathers. So when men criticize women in the movement, I believe their criticisms have no moral authority" (228). The question of spiritual authority is also an important point in Isolde's feminist position. She argues that when it comes to cultural and spiritual authority, there remain deep contradictions. "Though women are in charge of all traditional Mapuche ceremonial activities," she said, they are not "fully appreciated"(228). |
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Isolde's feminist perspective concerning authority is only one of a number of points in this oral history so rich with details regarding the contentious past relationship between the Mapuche and the Pinochet government, the role of nongovernmental organizations, and the global restructuring of political involvement and work. Mallon's study serves as one model for understanding the multiple and critical uses of oral history and testimonio in crafting important scholarly work. |
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| Nancy Raquel Mirabal |
| San Francisco State University |
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