¿Mapuzungun o günün a iajüch? "Valcheta" y su discusión toponímica

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the historical and present representations of the toponym Valcheta”, the name of a town located in the province of Río Negro, Argentina. Our purpose is to examine the toponymic discussion linked to two indigenous languages, Mapuzungun and Günün a iajüch, in an attempt to understand the historical and current classification disputes. Through the analysis of historical documents, we look at this discussion in 19th and 20th-century cartographies found in the Archive of the Provincial Museum “María Inés Kopp”, located in the town of Valcheta, as well as in the Historical Archive of Río Negro in Viedma, and virtual consultations in the National Library Mariano Moreno in Buenos Aires. Also, through ethnographic work in Valcheta with a Mapuche-Tehuelche indigenous community, we investigate the discourses related to toponymic transformations. As a result, this work allowed us to identify how the toponym Valcheta, referenced in different sources, has changed over time regarding the sovereign advances of the Argentine National State. In addition, by understanding that it is a long-lasting process, affected by a struggle of classifications that continues to the present, allowed an understanding of local indigenous meanings. Finally, this historical and anthropological analysis provides the opportunity to reflect on a major problem: the foreignization of the Mapuche people.