The "struggle" and its becoming. Collective politics of indigenous organizations in perspective (Salta province, Argentina)

Abstract

In Salta province, the “struggle for territory” of some indigenous peoples has been canalized by local and regional organizations who recreate historical memories and traditions of resistance. This paper deals with the processes of collective organization of Kolla and Diaguita-CalchaquТ people, located in the Inter-andean Valleys and Valles CalchaquТes respectively, seeking to relieve different modalities and experiences through which a heterogeneous group of actors connects and converges in the “struggle”; as well as the trajectories and social plots in which their dissimilar political projects developed. This work contains three parts: the first is about some common topics regarding historical processes and construction of alterity in the territorialities involved, the second covers the political transformations of both organizations, and the third puts these organizational trajectories into dialogue, pondering convergences and divergences.