A textile figure depicting a tree (temu, meaning
the tree Temu divaricatum), from a seventeenth-century
Mapuche woman’s belt called ñimintrarüwe
FROM ONE OF THE MOST neglected outposts of the Spanish
Empire,
Chile developed into one of the most prosperous and
democratic
nations in Latin America. Throughout its history, however,
Chile
has depended on great external powers for economic
exchange and
political influence: Spain in the colonial period, Britain
in the
nineteenth century, and the United States in the twentieth
century.
Chile’s dependence is made most evident by