Mythologies of the Diaguita Tribes

The Diaguita tribe are a group of South American indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transverse Valleys that incise semi-arid mountains. Eastern or Argentine Diaguitas lived in the provinces of La Rioja and Catamarca and part of the provinces of Salta, San Juan and Tucumán. The term Diaguita was first applied to peoples and archaeological cultures by Ricardo E. Latcham in the early 20th century. Ancient Diaguitas were not a unified people; the language or dialects used by them seems to have varied from valley to valley and they were politically fragmented into several chiefdoms. Coastal and inland Chilean Diaguitas traded, as evidenced by the archaeological findings of mollusc shells in the upper courses of Andean valleys. According to the 2010 census there are 67,410 self-identified Diaguita descendants in Argentina. In Chile, Diaguitas are the third-most populous indigenous ethnicity after the Aymara and the Mapuche, numbering 88,474 in 2017. The Diaguitas have been recognised as an indigenous people by the Chilean state since 2006. Early Spanish accounts, including Jerónimo de Vivar's Crónica y relación copiosa y verdadera de los reinos de Chile, claim the Diaguitas inhabiting the different Transverse Valleys spoke different languages. Jesuits active in western Argentina also report a large number of languages for the region. Nevertheless, the Chilean Diaguitas scholar Herman Carvajal Lazo claims that they could very well have spoken different dialects instead, which would have differed among each other mainly regarding their lexicon.

Diaguita, Indian peoples of South America, formerly inhabiting northwestern Argentina and the Chilean provinces of Atacama and Coquimbo. The Calchaquí, a northwestern Argentine subgroup of the Diaguita, are the best-documented. Their language affiliation remains uncertain. The Calchaquí were described as warlike, and their stone fortifications located at strategic places in their territory attest to this. They became effective cavalrymen who carried the attack to Spanish towns. They farmed terraced fields, sometimes built irrigation canals, and also kept herds of llama. Their technological skill extended to the loom weaving of llama-wool textiles, which they dyed; basket making; and a rather elaborate ceramic industry. Metallurgy was also known. Religious beliefs involved shamanistic practices for the cure of illness felt to be caused by witchcraft.

Pick up a book on the history of Northwest Argentina and one is likely to find it begins with the arrival of the Spanish, or at least the expansion of the Incan empire southward from Peru. But indigenous tribal peoples have lived in the lush river canyons of this region for over 12,000 years. These were the Pulares who lived in the Chicoana region, the Jamalaos in Sumalao, the Luracataos and Colomes in the Tacuil region, the Hualfin in Angastaco and Tucumanahao. To the south of San Carlos were the Quire-Quire, the Animana, the Chuschagasta, the Cafayate, the Tolombon and the Colalao. In the Yocavil Valley lived the Amaicha, Quilmes, Yocaviles and the Caspinchango. To the south were the settlements of the Abaucanes in Andalgala and Hualfin. Other tribes are the Tinogasta, Palcipas, Pom’an, Capayan and Fiambala all of which contributed to the enrichment of the ethnic spectrum in this region. The ‘Diaguita’, combined by the Spanish invaders under this umbrella name, included many tribes that had united years earlier to defend themselves against the intrusion of the Incas from the North. Despite hundreds of years of invasion and colonization by first the Inca and then the Spanish, the descendants of these original people still live in their ancestral homeland.

The Diaguitas were sedentary agriculturalists dispersed in the transversal valleys of the Andean cordillera (northwest Argentina and north-central Chile) from the mid-first millennium to the sixteenth century. Archaeological studies indicate that Diaguita culture in the region emerged in the transition from transhumant hunting and gathering to complete sedentary agriculture in the second half of the first millennium. Archaeologists detect three distinct periods in the material culture left by the Diaguitas in the following centuries until the mid-fifteenth century, when they were first conquered by the Inca, and then by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. When the Spanish first contacted the Diaguitas, they found evidence of Inca domination in clothing, beliefs, and technology. Archaeological findings suggest also that the Diaguita culture was at its apogee when Inca expansion to the south incorporated the Diaguitas in the mid-fifteenth century. At that time, the Diaguitas occupied the transversal valleys on both sides of the cordillera from present-day Aconcagua to Copiapó, where they grew corn, beans, potatoes, quinoa, squash, and, according to the climate, cotton, in irrigated valleys fertilized with sardine heads or llama and alpaca manure. They herded llama and alpaca for wool and for transport; hunted Guanaco, chinchillas, and fowl; and also fished to supplement their diet. In each settlement consanguineous relations linked all members; communal lands were assigned by the chief to each nuclear family. Within each valley settlements were further organized according to moieties with one half near the coast and the other half near the cordillera. The relative isolation of each of the valleys allowed the development of notable political autonomy, and even different dialects.

The term Diaguita may have come from Quechua or Aymara, as the term exists in both languages, and means hill or mountain. It could also have been created locally, derived from from the now-extinct Kakán language that was used by the pre-Hispanic Diaguita-Calchaquí people of Northwest Argentina. This cannot be confirmed, however, as the only Kakán dictionary—from the Calchaquíes valleys, written in the late 16th century by Catholic priests Alonso de Barzana and Pedro Añasco—has been lost. This document could have been an important point of reference, as the archeological Diaguita culture emerged at least 400 years before the Spanish conquest throughout what is now the Norte Chico of Chile, and had ties of some kind with the contemporary peoples of the Calchaquíes valleys as well as those further south, on the other side of the Andes. Historic documents from the colonial period contain several mentions of “the Diaguitas”, all of which refer to the Elqui Valley in Chile. The earliest of these comes from the first Spaniards to arrive in the land that is now Chile, and who used the name Diaguita to identify the indigenous people inhabiting the Elqui Valley, distinguishing them from the indigenous inhabitants of the other valleys of the Norte Chico, which they generically referred to as indios. In 1549, the Diaguitas are mentioned as participants in an attack on the colonial city of La Serena, and in 1605, there is mention of the “Valley of the Diaguitas” in reference to a sector of the upper Elqui River Valley. In 1612, another document refers to the founding of the “town of the Diaguitas”, while another reference in 1764 names the caciques (chiefs) and other indigenous residents of that same town. In the early decades of the 20th century, ethnologist Ricardo Latcham proposed that the name “Chilean Diaguitas” be used to identify the indigenous inhabitants of the Copiapó, Huasco and Elqui valleys whose surnames ended in “ay”—including Campillay, Huenchicay and Liquitay—and appeared in the parish registries dating from the colonial period. These surnames are known to be of Kakán origin, and appear in the registries of some of the so-called “indian towns” founded by the Spanish in the Norte Chico. In the region of Huasco Alto, especially, there is a long genealogy of such Diaguita surnames in the colonial registries, which date back to the early 17th century. The forced dissolution of these “indian towns” occurred in the early years of the Republic, when the first Chilean government administrations enacted laws in 1823 and 1830 to have them disbanded. At that time, most of the “indian towns” in the Copiapó, Huasco, Elqui, Limarí and Choapa valleys lost part of their land base, which reverted to the State, and had their colonial legal status revoked. Only the old Huasco Alto “indian town” has managed to retain all of its territory up to the present day, because their (collective) owner-residents have been able to demonstrate their historic claim to those ancestral mountain territories. The indigenous community of Taucán de Chalinga, for its part, has confirmed its claim to its territory by pointing to the parish registries of Choapa Alto, which date back to 1691. The surname of Taucán appears in the late colonial period as a family name of residents of the Chalinga “indian town”, which became crucial to the self-identification of these individuals as Diaguitas and allowed them to constitute as an official indigenous community in 2013 under the provisions of Chile’s Indigenous Law 19.253.

Legend has it that it was the Inca leaders of Cuzco who told the Spanish colonizers that there were hidden riches in the south. Dreaming of gold, the Spanish, who had already taken the land and treasures of the native Peruvians, headed south for Chile to expand their colonial empire. Neither the Spaniards nor the leaders of the Incan empire could have imagined the magnitude of Chile’s natural resource fortune—now measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars—or the degree to which getting those riches would disrupt indigenous cultures. This dynamic is still being played out today in the Huasco Valley of northern Chile, which is the traditional home of the Diaguita people. The 700-mile-long Huasco River is fed by glaciers and nourishes the lush vineyards, tropical fruits, avocados, and legumes of the Huasco Valley microclimate. The valley is known for its freshwater shrimp, artisan olive oil, grapes, Pisco (the national liquor), and Pajarete liqueurs. Unfortunately for the Diaguita, the Huasco Valley is also known for its gold, silver, and copper deposits. The river is fed by two tributaries in the valleys of El Carmen and El Tránsito, the second of which is home to the Diaguita. Some locals believe the indigenous peoples imposed taxes on dried fruits to keep the Spanish out of El Tránsito, and others say the Spanish took the “better” valley and left the lesser for the native Diaguita. Today, the families of El Tránsito still have Diaguita indigenous last names such as Campillay and Huanchicay, and those in El Carmen have last names of Spanish descent like Rojas and Marín. Chilean history students have always learned that the Diaguita pueblo, or community, existed only from a.d. 900 to 1500, and the Diaguita name was not spoken in public discourse between the Spaniards’ arrival and 2001, when a fieldwork study was carried out by the Chilean Commission for True History and New Treatment. In the course of that fieldwork, Diaguita descendants told stories of their recent ancestors, and archeologists began to share their artifacts with the local people. In 2002, the residents of the Huasco Valley established the Diaguita Cultural Center. Suspicious outsiders say that the Diaguita identity is being revived just to get indigenous benefits under Chilean law. The Diaguita, however, say that the Diaguita ethnicity has persisted for centuries. Community member Oscar Cubillos Cuello says, “The disappearance of the Diaguita name is the fault of the anthropologists who never came to our land to interview us. The ethnicity has always lived; it is not dead.”

The Diaguitas have celebrated Catholic religious celebrations since colonial times, as this part of the Norte Chico was one of the first to be evangelized in the early colonial period. But the people also continue to hold their ancient nature-based beliefs. Thus, as the people of Huasco Alto celebrate traditional Catholic feast days—such as the Cruz de Mayo in Malaguín, the Virgen de Andacollo in Chollay, the Virgen de la Merced in Pinte and the Virgen del Tránsito in the town of the same name—these local devotional cults are expressed, among other ways, in the ancient indigenous tradition of Chino dances. In some zones of Huasco Alto, traditional forms of governance also remain in place for irrigation systems, including the figures of the celador (water magistrate), who is called the Camayo or Camayoc, a Quechua term that dates back to Inca times. Similarly, until a few decades ago the Husaco Diaguitas still held ancient indigenous celebrations such as the Challa. Hybrid Christian-Indigenous celebrations incorporate traditional figures such as the ancient deity of Yastay—a Kakán figure from the Argentine Calchaquíes valleys that is a guardian spirit of animals and appears as a large guanaco that lives in the mountains. The practices and oral tradition of the Diaguita community of Chalinga, in the Choapa Valley, also blends Hispanic and Indigenous elements. The ancient witches that are believed to inhabit the nearby mountain, Raja de Manquehua, represent ancient indigenous practices that were prohibited (and prosecuted) by the colonial orthodox hierarchy. Recently, some Diaguita communities have adopted State-sponsored festivities focused on indigenous peoples, such as the National Day of Indigenous Peoples, which falls on the winter solstice, when the indigenous New Year is celebrated in the Andean world, with offerings to the Pachamama (Mother Earth). Modern Diaguita funerary rites, for their part, differ little from Western, Catholic ones, with evident traditional Hispanic elements.

Argentina, used to believe that the high Andean peaks and the parched valleys where they live, were protected by the llastay, an ancestral spirit who assumed the form of a huge, white, woolly guanaco, and watched over the wild herds, their pastures and the springs where both men and animals quenched their thirst. However, at some point in the past, the llastay seems to have been forced into hiding, probably shortly after the arrival of miners. For there were many who harboured plans to plunder a treasure trove of natural resources that had remained unspoilt under the watchful eye of the mythical creature. Within the Chilean Diaguita’s territory, silver deposits were discovered and mined at Agua Amarga (1811), Chañarcillo (1832), Tres Puntas (1848) and Capote (1930), while at the same time pirquineros (independent, artisanal miners) flocked to the region to make their fortune digging for valuable minerals. The latest mining “venture” in Diaguita lands has been undertaken by Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. at Pascua-Lama site. This time, however, indigenous communities have broken the silence imposed on them in the past and have come together to raise their voices and speak out against social injustice and environmental devastation. Pascua-Lama is a giant open-pit mining project located at 4,200-5,200 metres up in the Andes, straddling the border between the Chilean province of Huasco (Atacama region) and the Argentine province of San Juan. Initial estimates suggested considerable deposits of 18 million ounces of gold, 731 million ounces of silver and 662 million pounds of copper – 75% of them fall within Chilean territory; specifically, at the upper Huasco river basin, under three “ice fields” (Toro 1, Toro 2 and Esperanza) and several glaciers (Estrecho, Amarillo, Los Amarillos, Guanaco and others). Gold was meant to be extracted by cyanidation, a process associated with health risks, environmental contamination and poisoning, affecting soil and water quality – water that is used for irrigation along the upper Huasco valley, especially in Alto del Carmen (Huasco Alto), located at the confluence of El Tránsito and El Carmen rivers (tributaries to the Huasco river, in the southern reaches of the Atacama Desert). According to Barrick, there is no need to worry: by reading the FAQs about Pascua-Lama on the company’s website you will get the impression that it is only a barren land where nobody lives, a desolate place with sparse vegetation and few wild animals; that the province has hardly any farmers (which should not come as a surprise given that only a small part of the land is arable); and that “ice fields” make a negligible contribution to groundwater and river flow. This information is not just misleading but a false depiction of reality.