A new constitution could give indigenous Chileans more say

BRENDA GUTIéRREZ, a 50-year-old shellfish gatherer, knew she was a Chango for as long as she can remember. When she was growing up in a fishing village in northern Chile, her parents always called her Changuita (little Chango girl). Her schoolmates, alas, called her “smelly” and “dirty” because of her indigenous roots.

Such discrimination turned her into an activist. She lobbied for the Chilean state to recognise her people, an indigenous group whose culture is supposedly extinct. “We exist and are alive,” she says. In October last year, the Changos won recognition. And an election next month for a convention to change Chile’s old constitution could boost them further.