Elisa Loncón

Elisa Loncón Antileo (born 23 January 1963) is a Mapuche linguist and indigenous rights activist in Chile. In 2021, Loncón was elected as one of the representatives of the Mapuche people for the Chilean Constitutional Convention. Following in the inauguration of the body, Loncón was elected President of the Constitutional Convention.

Background and early life

Elisa Loncón was born in Lefweluan, a Mapuche community near Traiguén, Araucanía Region. One of Loncón's great-grandfathers fought the Chilean government during the invasion of Araucanía (1861–1883) and was a close ally of chief José Santos Quilapán. Loncón's family was involved in the recovery of land ownership before and during the Chilean land reform (1962–1973). As a consequence land recovery activism, Loncón's maternal grandfather, Ricardo Antileo, spent time in jail during the Pinochet-era military dictatorship. The father of Elisa was a bullock-driver who learned to read at 17. He later learned carpentry and made this his occupation. Her father's developéd his interest in reading and writing by buying a typewriter. Her mother grew food and sold vegetables in the local markets. Loncón recalled that it was her mother, who was fond of poetry, who taught her to read.

Loncón grew up in poverty and food insecurity. Her childhood house was a ruca with dirt floor. In a 2017 interview, Loncón stated that the local Mapuche ceremonial centre in Lefweluan was destroyed in favour of a landfill site, and watched her brothers develop skin infections while playing in the garbage. Loncón says she had a happy childhood playing often with her siblings and cousins. One of her grandmothers, a monolingual Mapuche speaker, went periodically to Traiguén and told her often "about the city". Loncón remembers her father once sold two carts of firewood to buy books for his family. Many of the books in her home were about the history of Chile and philosophy. According to Loncón her father had a vast knowledge of the Mapuche oral tradition of history which she absorbed. Another relative taught her about "animals and birds" from the Mapuche oral tradition. Loncón begun first grade school at Escuela Particular no. 41 de Nahuelhuan at five years age since there was no Kindergarten available and her mother had her three younger siblings to take care of. She stayed at that school until fourth grade.

Her brother Lautaro Loncón is a prominent Mapuche activist and political figure who served as indigenous secretary of the Party for Democracy.

University education and academic career

Loncón originally intended to study history but did not achieve the necessary score in Prueba de Aptitud Académica to enter the program. Instead she choose to study English in the University of La Frontera, one of the ''universidades'' ''tradicionales''. Loncón recalled she was perceived by the staff in university as a "second María Catrileo", since Catrileo was also once a Mapuche who studied English. In university she was part of Ad Mapu's Mapuche language theater group touring Mapuche communities in the region. During Pope John Paul II's visit to Chile in 1987 Loncón, who had graduated by that time, acted as interpreter for VTR.

Aided by her contacts with Chilean exiles in the Netherlands Loncón pursued her postgraduate studies at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. She then continued her studies at the University of Regina in Canada, and at UAM Iztapalapa in Mexico City. Loncón received her Ph.D. from Leiden University in the Netherlands and a doctorate in literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Loncón is a full-time professor at the University of Santiago, focusing her research on the teaching of mapudungun (the Mapuche language) and its persistence in the contemporary context. She has written several books and publications, mainly about innovation and expansion of the lexical resources of the Mapuche language.

Activism and political involvement

While at university in 1983 Loncón joined the wave of protests against the military dictatorship that swept through the country. The rector of the university Heinrich von Baer identified Locón and many other students that participated and threatened to expel them if they took part of any further protests. She was part of the Ad Mapu cultural organization and the Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam (AWNg or ''Consejo de Todas las Tierras'' in Spanish). As part of the AWNg, she participated in the design of the Mapuche flag, the ''Wenufoye''. According to her the flag was designed in the context of the upcoming 500th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus in 1992. As the King of Spain Juan Carlos I planned to visit Chile for the anniversary Loncón recalls: "we were going to say no to the King of Spain for all of what that olonizationmeant to us".

She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021.

Constitutional Convention

In 2021, Loncón was a candidate for the Chilean Constitutional Convention, running to represent the Mapuche of the Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and Maule regions. Loncón received a plurality of votes and was elected.

Constitutional Convention presidential election

Early reports suggested that Machi Francisca Linconao was seen as "the natural candidate" for indigenous members of the Constitutional Convention to support for president of the body. However, Linconao declined to run, instead proposing that Loncón stand for the presidency of the convention during a Winter solstice meeting held in her house in Padre Las Casas.

Loncón agreed to run for the presidency, and was elected on 4 July 2021 after the convention was inaugurated. Loncón received 96 votes in the second round, mainly from the left ( Apruebo Dignidad, The List of the People) and center-left coalitions (part of Constituent Unity).

Pundits have interpreted her victory over Isabel Godoy in the first round as a victory of the Broad Front coalition over the Communist Party, both of whom are part of Apruebo Dignidad. Fellow Mapuche activist and convention member Natividad Llanquileo chose to cast a blank vote instead of supporting Loncón, alleging that Loncón is too closely affiliated with the former Concertación. Loncón pushed back against allegations that her support from the Concertación was a result of her brother Lautaro Loncón's position within the Party for Democracy, which she deemed racist and patriarchal.

Loncón's victory was greeted as a historic victory for Chile's indigenous peoples and received international attention. Communist Party nominee Daniel Jadue was the first 2021 presidential candidate to congratulate Loncón on her victory. Following Loncón's election, President of Chile Sebastián Piñera stated "I wish you wisdom, prudence and strength to guide the Convention towards a new Constitution".

Presidential tenure

Shortly after being elected President of the Constitutional Convention Loncón declared her aim to discuss terms for the release of the Prisoners of the Revolt and indigenous political prisoners. Having denounced harassment and threats Loncón was on 20 July assigned two female escorts of the Carabineros de Chile to provide her with security. Besides direct threats Loncón has also faced persistent criticism and attacks from a group of about 8,000 unique Twitter accounts. Much criticism of her has been identified as part of a larger smear campaign against the Constitutional Convention by voters of the "reject" option in the 2020 Chilean national plebiscite. On July 27 the hashtag "#DestitucionDeElisaLoncon" aiming to promote an impeachment of Loncón became a trending topic in Twitter and was featured in large Chilean media outlets. The originator of the campaign scores as an " echo-chamber" type of account in the Botometer project.

She has been criticized by right-wing members of the Constitutional Convention for her recurrent use of Mapudungun when speaking in the convention.

Loncón has helped to build a "plurinational library" in the Constitutional Convention and brought for that purpose books of Humberto Maturana, Ximena Dávila, Frantz Fanon, Christo Brand, Linda Tuhiwai, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. Loncón brought also the books ''Küme mongen, Suma qamaña, Mo ora riva riva. Ensayos y propuestas para una constitución plurinacional'' and ''Maben ñi Puji'' of multiple authors.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Loncon, Elisa
Mapuche linguists
Linguists of Mapuche
People from Araucanía Region
University of La Frontera alumni
Leiden University alumni
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni
Chilean people of Mapuche descent
Members of the Chilean Constitutional Convention
Mapuche women
1963 births
Independent politicians in Chile
Living people
Mapuche politicians
University of Santiago, Chile faculty
20th-century Mapuche people
21st-century Mapuche people
Mapuche educators
BBC 100 Women