Malón, a Word You Don't Want to Hear

 

Today, I want to talk about history, but a specific type of history. I decided to talk about the painting and word, Malón. This word has a vast and long history of meaning, reflecting some of the darkness times of Argentina history.

Malón (from the Mapuche meaning to inflict damage to the enemy or a invasion) is the name given to  raids carried out by Mapuche warriors, who rode horses into Spanish, Chilean and Argentine territories from the 17th to the 19th centuries, as well as to their attacks on other Mapuche clans. This raids where composed of a varied number, sometimes fifty other times thousands.natives Historian Juan Ignacio Molina said that malón was meant to obtain justice:

"The injured family often assumes the right of pursuing the aggressor or his relations, and of punishing them. But it must be acknowledged that they are generally unaccompanied with the effusion of blood, and are confined to pillage alone. This people, notwithstanding their propensity to violence, rarely employ arms in their private quarrels, but decide them with the fist or with the club."

      This attacks weren't assembled or planned, is just consisted on calling near tribes and clans and raid a near city or place with the sole aim of obtaining horses, cattle, provisions, and captives, mostly women. This attacks without formal order did not give the enemy time to organize a defense, and it left behind a devastating mark. In Chile, the Spaniards responded with a system known as La Frontera, consisting on putting a standing army that patrolled the border along the Rivers and cities.In Argentina, where the Mapuche in the 19th century destroyed the southern frontier, the government responded by building wooden outposts and sometimes even fortresses. The city I grow up in, Chacabuco, was first meant to be a type of bunker or fortress, to be able to escape from the natives.

    The painting shown above created by Johann Moritz Rugendas in 1834 is a visual representation of a malón, there many other Paintings of Malone's, but with this one you can see the actual devastation. You can see the women being kidnap, kids crying, natives burning the city and the fight between the natives and Europeans. In it self, the picture is able to represent this period in time were you wouldn't know if you would survive when you heard malón.