Double Columns and Double Consciousness in the Work of Manuel Manquilef

This essay analyzes the works of Mapuche intellectual Manuel Manquilef as examples of a "double consciousness" similar to that of African American intellectual W.E.B. Dubois. His Comentarios del Pueblo Araucano uses the colonial format of the double column in a new way, constituting a transgressive autoethnography of his people. ¡Las tierras de Arauco!, where he denounces the usurpation of his people, can help us better understand the Law of Land Division he brings to Congress. The essay concludes that his autoethnography is more successful as transgression because it creates a kind of "third column" of autonomous commentary about Mapuche history and culture, whereas his position on Mapuche lands gets caught in the contradiction between modernity and internal colonialism that is central to "double consciousness".

Key words: Mapuche, autoethnography, internal colonialism.