Relaciones de género y movilidades transfronterizas de las bolivianas aymara del Valle de Azapa (Arica y Parinacota, Chile)

Abstract

The article derives from a qualitative case study carried out in 2019, which analyzes the testimonies of 30 Bolivian Aymara women employed mainly in agriculture or in the agricultural trade in the Azapa Valley, in the outskirts of the Chilean city of Arica. It focuses specifically on their stories about gender relations in their families of origin, investigating their impact (or their connection) with the displacements that women undertake in their adult lives. The central objective is to show how gender relations in these family environments helped to shape the processes of female cross-border mobility and how both elements are affected by the multiple inequalities between men and women in the communities of origin of the migrants. The conceptual frameworks applied to this study come from two main theoretical fields. First, to conceptualize gender relations and power inequalities that characterize the family trajectories of our interviewees in their places of origin, we rely on the anthropological reflections of critical feminism on systems of masculine domination. Secondly, we also rely on the extensive anthropological production on gender asymmetries in Aymara social groups, which allow us to complement the previous framework by considering the symbolic and relational dimensions of these societies.

Keywords

• Gender
• aymara
• borders
• female mobilities
• Valle de Azapa