We are not afraid!

M. is an old lady, the first time I saw her she was at a protest and, despite the rain, she was walking barefoot.
We met her multiple times during protests or on public occasions in front of the prison in Temuco, where many Mapuche gather to transmit newen (energy) to Mapuche prisoners locked up inside.
I began to get to know her better in a shack, in the middle of a field, at the border of a land in the process of “recuperacion”, of land restitution (an expression used by the Mapuche to tell the phenomenon of restitution and occupation of the lands, taken from them through violence during the “Pacification of Arucania”- a military and political campaign, carried out in Chile between 1861 and 1883, with the aim of conquering and submitting the lands inhabited by the Mapuche).

That day it rained heavily and, in that shack, with dirt floors, a lot of water flowed in. The lonko we were supposed to meet was on his way over, and so she was the one to welcome us in.
Always very curt and mistrustful of meeting us winka (non-Mapuche people), she still softened everything with a smile or a laugh. Between jokes and questions, she told us that her life had not been easy, detained and tortured during the dictatorship, her life had brought her far from the Mapuche lands, she, just like many other women, had been swallowed by the Santiago megalopolis, forced to work as a maid in order to live. Now that she’s old, she decided to return to Walmapu (the Mapuche lands), to finally and fully live her culture and spirituality.
I have been to the shack multiple times, that community received many attacks from the public forces, their presence there means defending the territory, a small lagoon that threatens to dry out, and vigorously vindicates the restitution of the land.
I believe, in the end, that she came to like me, that she perceived our sincere will to be there amongst them, to share a piece of their life and history.
That wooden shack, however, does not exist anymore today, torn down by the workers of the greater landowner, who claims the land stolen by the Mapuche as legally his: one day, protected by police, they came and tore everything down...old lady M. was not present.
The shack was rebuilt a few meters away, and the fight to claim the Rights and land protection continues.
In some videos online, M. is seen standing in front of men armed head to toe: she shouts her reasons, they push her and she falls, but does not give up, gets back on her feet and keeps on staring these young soldiers down with her proud gaze...a gaze full of wrinkles and that yet tells us much.
She shouts: “We are not afraid”!
And it seems like the roles reverse, that it’s the soldiers to be afraid of this small woman.
In another video she and the lonko put themselves in the way of an armored truck to stop its advance, the soldier at the wheel presses on the accelerator and the vehicle speeds forward a few meters, M. backs up, then nearly climbs on the truck but does not step away, continuing to shout the reasons of this people that has not surrendered.
M. is small, the truck is huge, and it kind of looks like that man in Beijing, standing in front of the tank.
“We are not afraid!”