A Firm Handshake at the Apex of the Andes: Argentine–Chilean Relations and Indigenous Resistance in the Southern Andes

This paper examines constructions of national racial identity in the aftermath of the 1881 Argentine-Chilean boundary treaty, highlighting the disconnect between metropolitan discourses in Buenos Aires and Santiago and lived realities in the southern Andean borderlands. The 1881 treaty signaled a tentative end to decades of contentious boundary disputes over Patagonian land, and political elites in Buenos Aires and Santiago used racialized rhetoric to express their hope that the “civilized” nations of Argentina and Chile could put aside old antagonisms and work in tandem to stamp out indigenous “barbarism” in Patagonia and Araucanía. However, fantasies of a coordinated military offensive were hampered by the complex history of interethnic relations and frontier mestizaje in the southern Andes. Even after the signing of the treaty, Indigenous leaders continued to benefit from the historically conflictive relationship between Argentine and Chilean frontier authorities, and they continued to mobilize long-standing alliances with Chilean settlers in order to frustrate Argentine ambitions for territorial control. Ultimately, this paper shows how elite, urban conceptions of national whiteness informed both international diplomacy and settler colonialism, but also highlights the limited applicability of those racial discourses to frontier areas.