PEOPLE II

I wrote some days ago about the population in Argentina. Of course I must remark that I was only referring to that population which had come from Europe. Of course an important part of the Argentinian population has its origins from the people who were already here long ago before the european arrived. There were many different groups of people, different tribes, communities. The incas until 16th century, then other people who followed them and speak quechua among other languages, in the northwest, close to Bolivia, the querandi, guarani and others in the north east, close to the Parana river and Paraguay, the mapuche in the center of the country, central Chile and down to north Patagonia, the tehuelches further south in Patagonia... along with the selk'nam and the hausch. Some were living from agriculture and in fixed settlements ('aike' is a word still used for house or settlement), other were semi-nomadic and hunting guanacos and other animals so moving around seasonnaly, some were warriors like the mapuche others more peaceful. In any case, Patagonia was not 'conquered' until late 19th centurt apparently, because some of these people were fighting back the invaders and protecting their lands. When Magellan arrived in south Patagonia they found local people who were very tall (taller than europeans, about 1.80 m) and had big feet (or big mocassins) and one story goes that is why the place is called Patagonia from the spanish word 'pata'... another story says it was because of the Patagón, some monster in spanish...
But with time and from the late 19th century the populations started to mingle more and nowadays a part of the population is quite mixed between locals and the european settlers of spanish origin. According to Argentinian national statistics there are some 100,000 'indians' here, who live in their communities but it's difficult to say, because the population is mixed.
In any case this area is very sparsely populated - Santa Cruz province alone has only 160,000 inhabitants - that is 1 person per sqkm...
I have seen some books and dictionnaries to learn the mapuche language here, so if you like languages... this one is interesting!
Anyway, the mix is great and one can find some very beautiful people, with beautiful eyes.
Viva la mescla!