Patagonia with an approximate area of 800,000 sq.km, the Patagonia region includes the southern cone of South America (shared between Chile and Argentina). In the Chilean part, it begins south of the city of Puerto Montt. In Argentina, it begins south of the Colorado River. Patagonia ends in Tierra del Fuego, where Cape Horn is located. Patagonia has about 1-2 people per square kilometer, which is why it is one of the least inhabited regions in the world.
Patagonia Argentina is divided into three regions: Patagonia de los Andes (mountainous), Central Patagonia (dominated by "La Pampa"), and Atlantic Patagonia (coastal). Chilean Patagonia is divided into northern Patagonia, in the Aysén region, and southern Patagonia, in the Magallanes region. Chilean Patagonia is mountainous with a rugged coastline with fjords, channels and infinite islands. Patagonia also has the Northern and Southern Ice Fields. The Northern Ice Field has a length of almost 200 kilometers and charges an area of 4,200 square kilometers. The Southern Ice Field has a length of more than 350 kilometers and an area of 13,000 square kilometers. These ice fields follow the Andes at an average height of 1500 meters. Located mainly in Chile, some arms reach Argentina. http://thepatagonianfoundation.org/s_geography.php |
Historical Patagonia.
For a long time it has been believed that Patagonia, because it was not populated by Spaniards, was not discovered and explored by them. This was partly due to the climatic conditions of the Magellanic territory. However, the region to which we refer was subject to multiple explorations. But what happened illustrates a little what was the meaning of the Spanish presence in America.
The Hispanic settlements were established on the important routes of international trade. The continent, inland, continued to be held by indigenous communities. And so it was with the homeland of the Patagonians until the end of the 19th century. The system of international law promoted by Spain in America allowed to conserve most of the indigenous population and to maintain the territory almost complete and free of foreign penetration for almost 350 years, even though the Patagonians were also infected with measles, smallpox and the flu, like other American peoples.
The natives that the sailors of Magallanes called ''patagones'' (because they measured an average of 1.75 m of height the men being able to measure 2 m or more, when the average of the Europeans of the time was of 1.60 m) were Known by the Mapuche as tehuelches. They called themselves Aonikenk, but they were not a homogeneous people but culturally and linguistically differentiated. They spoke several languages belonging to the linguistic trunk tshonk, chon, or chono, hence chónek is the people who speak it. Their camps were called aike and the Spaniards and criollos knew them as ''tolderías''. Their ancestors arrived in Patagonia 9,000 years ago.
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The aonikenk knew well the topography of the region and knew how to orientate themselves by the stars and the flight of the birds; they were the great subjects that taught the children along with the hunting. They had a numbering system, a chronology and knowledge of astronomy on the Milky Way and the Southern Cross as well as a mythology associated with celestial and atmospheric phenomena, such as lightning, winds and storms in the sea. The supreme creative deity (but who does not intervene in the world) was Kòoch or Kènos and the supreme hero El-lal or Elal.
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They were hunters of rheas and guanacos. When introducing the horses and the European dog in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they adopted them, but also the pampas and mapuches.
In 1740 an alliance of pampas and Mapuche peoples advanced from the north and west as a wedge over Patagonia and since then, pampas and mapuches continued occupying the region and modifying, by acculturation, the aonikenk. Currently, most of the Aonikenk settlements and their descendants are located in the Province of Santa Cruz, in Argentina, although most of them no longer speak their native language, but Mapudungun (the language of the Mapuches) and Castilian. At present there are some 1,500 people in Argentina who preserve the Aonikenk culture and are direct descendants of the town that 9,000 discovered Patagonia. |
On November 3, 1869, Casimiro Biguá, who was Cacique Aonikenk from the territory between the Strait of Magellan and the Negro River, decided, together with five chiefs of various clans, to incorporate his people to the Argentine Republic. In a symbolic way they raised the Argentine flag, in the valley of Genoa, in Chubut (Argentina). This place was declared a historical monument in 1998.
However, in 1879, after the "Campaign of the Desert", in principle waged against the Mapuches (who acted with the support of Chilean militias and used Remington rifles) but also as part of the consolidation process of the oligarchic State of the time, defender of the interests of large landowners and British capital, the territory of the aonikenk was reduced to its minimum expression. |
Patagonian legend,
The reason why the Patagonians perished in front of Europeans.
In this video an old woman tells, in her language, the sin committed by the wolves, ancestors of humanity, and from which, we stopped being immortal and became mortal.
The reason why the Patagonians perished in front of Europeans.
In this video an old woman tells, in her language, the sin committed by the wolves, ancestors of humanity, and from which, we stopped being immortal and became mortal.
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"Formerly the cockroaches spoke and announced the death of the people.
It must be clarified that in the beginning of time people had the shape of animals. This cockroach announced the death of all. He tore the wolf's neck and hid it. If it had not been for what the cockroach did to the wolf, everyone would live forever. But the Wolf did not fulfill the mandate of Élal (God), and at night he went out to crawl. He had told them: "Lie down calmly and I'll go visit you tomorrow." The Wolf ignored and went to look for his wife to have sex with her, after which both died. From then on, people do not live forever. The Wolf was thrown into the sea for having done so much damage to humanity, since the punishment of Élal was equal for all. The cockroach was lost, and although they searched for it, they never found it again. Those people died and others appeared in their place". |
Source: http://indoiberia.blogspot.com/2013/10/reino-de-espana-e-indias-9-exploradores.html