He was tortured in Pinochet’s Chile and found a safe place in Delfzijl with his family. Yet Rafael Railaf Caniu, proud Mapuche, died on the land of his ancestors. The soil he fought for all his life. Because it had to be?
As a boy he hears the sorrow of generations in the songs. The history of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous tribe, is one of oppression. But also of resistance.
Rafael Railaf Caniu was born in 1933 and grew up in harsh conditions. The Mapuche fight for the land of their ancestors. It has been taken from them for centuries. Meter by meter. From the Incas and Spanish settlers to large landowners. Rafael feels the pain of the Mapuche. The harrowing stories of the elderly touch him. He wants to do something. No, he has to do something.
Salvador Allende
Naturally, in the 1960s he was put forward as a spokesperson. Leader of the rebellion. Rafael has the gift of bringing people together. He becomes politically active, demonstrating in the capital Santiago and recruiting votes for the socialist presidential candidate Salvador Allende. It promises better times. Rafael’s strength is to work with all Chileans who share the same core values: justice, equality and a better life for the poor. Of course he also wants the Mapuche to get their land back.
Allende won the election in 1970, but was killed three years later in the coup d’état led by General Augusto Pinochet. Everything is different now. Rafael is immediately hunted. He’s a big fish. Rafael goes into hiding, wanders through the woods and escapes Pinochet’s searching soldiers for a year. Very occasionally in the evening he visits his wife, Rosa del Carmen Zuñiga Isla. She is a real Mapuche just like him.
Caning and electroshock
When Rafael is finally found, he is treated like a dictatorship. Beastly. Rafael is caned and electroshocked in prison. His future dentist in Delfzijl is shocked when he sees Rafael’s battered teeth for the first time.
Rafael has never heard of the Netherlands, let alone Delfzijl, during the torture. That is changing quickly. It is the time of Joop den Uyl. The Netherlands is very concerned about the fate of Pinochet’s political opponents and has offered to take in hundreds of Chilean refugees.
Death list
But Rafael does not want to run. He is a proud Mapuche. Man of the Earth. His earth. When he leaves, he gives up. But he’s on a kill list. Comrades talk to him. From Europe, Rafael can do much more for the fight. And then there are Rosa and their five children: Rosario, Rafael junior, Alicio, Sonia and Maria. This is their chance for a better life.
Rafael dreams about a big bird, high in the sky, above the sea. An uncle says: that dream is a sign, you will live. Now Rafael knows for sure. The plane to the Netherlands is the big bird from his dream. Rafael goes into exile. He will never again be welcome on Chilean soil. We’re good from that, think Pinochet and his friends. Rafael sees Rosa and the kids at the airport. The handcuffs are not released until he floats high above the Andes.
Their new life does not start in Amsterdam or any other big city in 1977. Rosa is horrified by the idea of an apartment house. They first stay temporarily in a refugee shelter in Nunspeet together with a few other Chilean families. The three eldest children – Rosario, Rafael junior and Alicio – are deeply saddened. They are very homesick and miss the mountains, the volcanoes and their mate.
In love with Delfzijl
When the uprooted family is driven through the Netherlands in a bus, looking for a new home, Rosa immediately falls in love when she sees Delfzijl. At least the countryside and the perpetually howling wind remind her of Chile. The family ends up in a nice rented house. There Hector and Antonio, the sixth and seventh child, are born.
Of course they have to get used to their new world. Burnout? What is that? Vegetarian? Who would that be? Rafael and Rosa teach their children the Mapuche traditions, but they are also given the space to build their own lives in the Netherlands. They go to college and fly out.
From Delfzijl, Rafael tirelessly continues to draw attention to the fate of his people. He first collects clothes and then becomes politically active for the Chili Committee, which opposes Pinochet’s dictatorship. Actions, demonstrations, lectures, exhibitions: he pulls out all the stops.
Weiwerd
He hangs out with Rosa in almost everything. Their strength spreads, because they also stand up for the less fortunate in the Netherlands. An old school in Weiwerd is squatted. Rafael, Rosa and their Dutch friends hold flea markets there and later start a thrift store.
Rosa returns to Chile for the first time in 1981. She is not an exile, but a refugee. Rafael himself has to wait until the 1990s, when Pinochet’s military era is finally over. The dictatorship becomes a democracy again. The Mapuche and other refugees are getting some fresh air.
Rafael finally sets foot back on the ground of his ancestors. His almost blind uncle Vicente, with whom he went into hiding in the 1970s, plays the accordion while crying. And Rafael sings. From his heart. Like Mapuche do. Everything has to go. The joy and the sadness.
Royal award
Bread, Rafael will always say, is for sharing. After thirty years in the Netherlands, both Rafael and Rosa both received a royal decoration in 2007 for their tireless volunteer work. They are appointed members of the Order of Orange Nassau by mayor Cees Waal van Delfzijl. The seven children are incredibly proud of their parents. Nadia and Vince, Rafael and Rosa’s first grandchildren, were already born by then.
Rafael has been ailing in recent years with his health. He is regularly hospitalized, but gets back up every time. Until a few weeks ago. Rafael and Rosa are in Chile. Their return flight to the Netherlands is scheduled for February 10. However, it does not come to that. Rafael suffers a cerebral infarction three days before the flight. He is partially paralyzed by the consequences and is no longer able to speak. His children in the Netherlands, who hurriedly board a plane to Chile, are all at his hospital bed.
Does Rafael anticipate his own death? In December he records another powerful video message. For all uprooted Mapuche, wherever they are in the world. “It’s best to all return. This is where our roots lie. Our faith, our land, our trees, our birds, our people. And our Mapuche. We belong to them.”
Hundreds of people at traditional funeral
His eldest daughter Rosario precedes him. She returns to Chile five years ago and goes to live on the land of Rafael and Rosa. Two years ago, Rafael testified in a court case about the so hotly contested ground. The state is being sued: for the exile and the grief inflicted on Rosa, Rafael and their children. The lawyer representing the family was still imprisoned with Rafael.
The eternal battle continues. But without a main combatant. Rafael Railaf Caniu dies on March 4 at the age of 89 in the hospital of Lautaro, a town named after one of the legendary Mapuche captains.
Hundreds of people attend the traditional funeral, which lasts four days. Rosa and the children are very touched. There is singing, dancing and eating. Rafael returns to the Earth of his ancestors. There are many Catholic crosses in the cemetery. But Rafael is the first deceased person since 1920 to lie under a chemimull, a carved wooden statue from the Mapuche tradition. His last wish comes true.
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Time of Life
Dagblad van het Noorden portrays in Time of Life residents of Drenthe and Groningen who have recently died. Suggestions? Mail to:[email protected]
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