Tierra del Fuego, Retratos y Paisajes

EPIC PATAGONIA
As Antonio Pigafetta writes in his account, it was on
November the 1st of 1520 that the ships of Ferdinand
Magellan, after their failure to reach the Antarctic pole,
sailed into the strait that now carries the name of the
Portuguese. This name is in sobering contrast with the
toponymy assigned to many places of the region, which
are depicted into eternity by their harsh conditions
and make us shudder even to this day: Port Famine,
Desolation Island, Gulf of Distress, Last Hope Sound,
Salvation Bay, Desired Cape, Port of Mercy, all names
that evoke the difficulties that the geographical and
climatic conditions forced on the Europeans, as well
as the impression and emotional turmoil they caused
them, and even us today as a result of the weight of the
stories associated with these travelers.
The religious toponymy they used to name other
locations, like Saint Julian, Holy Cross and All Saints,
can also be interpreted – besides the Christian calendar
that influenced them – as a way to alleviate the hardships
and take heart. Moreover, the extreme qualities of
the region, and the risks for navigation during the crossing
of Cape Horn and the failure to navigate through
the channels and the Southern Sea that thwarted the
colonization of a territory that was considered to have
limited resources, gave rise to the mythic city of Ceasars
as a placebo and a way to attract colonists to Patagonia.
Likewise, there was a name of great transcendence
that evokes one of the first legends that caused a strong
impact in the European world and was born with the
arrival of the Spanish ships: “One day, suddenly, we discovered
a man of gigantic size, who, on the shore of the
port (Saint Julian), was dancing, singing and throwing
dust over his head. He was so tall, we didn’t reach further
than his waist”. Thus the myth of the existence of
a tribe of giants was created.
However, although the character of adventure, epic
and drama is perhaps the main legacy of the European
endeavor, we must not forget another of its virtues: it
was the first complete circumnavigation of the globe,
an achievement that was made possible thanks to the
character of its leader. Reaching the proximity of what
Pigafetta called the Arctic Pole in 1520, overcoming all
the challenges imposed by nature and being able to
dominate acts of intemperance caused by the anxiety to
find an interoceanic pass after successive frustrations,
show the conviction of the Europeans, who, despite their
exhaustion and before discovering the oriental entrance
to the strait – in their eyes a true miracle – called it the
Cape of the thousand Virgins, once again reflecting the
state of mind of the main actors of this adventure.
In addition to becoming a fundamental precursor
of so-called globalization, another historical-geographical
milestone of a stimulating phenomenon that is
fully in force, Magellan organized, led and persisted in
a commission that had to face seemingly insurmountable
obstacles, and so he became a universal role model;
an example of superior virtues who made it possible for
the world to be known in its totality and to complete
the planet, thus leading to the creation of the “end of
the world”, that is to say, Tierra del Fuego.
Although Magellan managed to overcome, like
many others later on, the challenges that the extreme
south of America offers, the recount of the harsh geographical
conditions of the region turned it into the
preferred setting of humanity for embarking on the
adventure of expanding the known world, a structural
and permanent element of history. The same can be said
of the collaboration the Europeans received from the
native peoples, as the contact between human groups,
peoples and cultures is one of the constants in the historical
evolution of humanity, even if it happens in a
violent and dramatic manner. So, names like Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego, given by Europeans based on the
cultural expressions of their native peoples, have their
origin in the people who inhabited the region since
time immemorial, in their forms and customs, and
have a worldwide meaning and impact that are also
imperishable and that nurture a permanent curiosity.
A PROUD AND WILD LANDSCAPE
In the instructions received by Robert Fitz-Roy from
the English admiralty for his commission of reconnaissance
and exploration of America’s extreme south,
when referring to Tierra del Fuego and its surrounding
islands and channels, it alludes to tasks that will be verified
in “the most inhospitable region” or in “destituted
regions”, warning the hydrographer that in the oriental
part of the strait there was much more work to be done,
as the coast of Tierra del Fuego from Almirantazgo
Sound to Cape Orange had not been “touched”.
On his way to Tierra del Fuego, after visiting the
islands he calls Falkland (today Malvinas), captain Fitz-
Roy recounts that during the crossing his ship faced
strong winds from the south, furious and repeated
squalls and cold weather, even though it was already
summer. Approaching land through cape Domingo,
it anchored in front of Santa Inés Island, a maneuver
that took a long time; it was hindered not only by a
strong current that flowed towards the coast, but it also
caused a dangerous situation for the ship because of
the risk of running aground on the coast. Thus, with
this brief description, he revealed some of the elements
that always made navigation risky through the region,
which were compounded by bad weather, breakers,
strong rising tide, wind and a high swell.
The description of the coasts of Tierra del Fuego at
the south end of the large island, with high and abrupt
cliffs and wooded mountains that rise from the deep
waters, inspire Fitz-Roy to talk about the “black abyss”
that, he believed, threatened his ship, which was also
subjected to the effects of a heavy sea and strong storm.
His portrait of the sky at sundown, of russet hues and
with clouds passing over the tips of the mountains
in frayed and separate masses and foreboding a gale
confirmed by the barometer, precedes his confession
that his crew was tired and impatient because of the
bad weather in the region, with successive and gigantic
waves, gusts of wind, hail and rain. This scenario led
Fitz-Roy to refer to the sailors that preceded him in the
waters around Cape Horn who, like George Anson in the
18th century, had to face extremely harsh conditions of
navigation in dilapidated vessels, with inefficient crews
and on unknown coasts that, in fact, he was the first
to carefully and systematically explore. The knowledge
acquired of the area made him state that Tierra del
Fuego encompasses all the islands to the south of the
Strait of Magellan, as far as the Diego Ramírez islands; a
territory composed by landscapes that differed according
to their location, be it inland the large island, at
the coast or in the middle of the channels. So, Fitz-Roy
describes an open territory, with a pretty flat terrain,
with occasional hills which he calls mountain ranges
with leveled peaks which he calls steppes, with very few
trees and scarce water.
On the other hand, the northeastern part of Tierra
del Fuego has wooded mountains in the southwestern
island that succeed each other towards the northeastern
region in the form of hills of moderate height,
partially covered by scrubland; in turn, towards the
north there are large leveled areas that are almost free
of woods, but covered with herbage apt for the grazing
of cattle. The western slope of Patagonia, of which
Tierra del Fuego is part, is according to Fitz-Roy the
worst part of the territory as it is a mountain range
that is half sunk in the ocean, barren towards the sea,
impenetrably wooded towards the continent, with
frequent rains that never dry of evaporation before
the next downpour.
As the first person who explored the south end of
America in detail, mapping its coasts for the British
empire, Fitz-Roy’s is a qualified opinion. His crossing
and report is not only reflected in his diary, but
also in measurements, records, charts, observations,
letters and maps that, like those of Tierra del Fuego,
Cape Horn and the Diego Ramírez islands, show the
quality of this work, in which he also took care of
delineating the population he found on his way, tribes
that he generically called fueguinos, who roamed the
windswept plains and the channels around the island,
according to his recount.
For his part, Charles Darwin also referred to
his journey through Tierra del Fuego alternating his
descriptions of the landscape with its inhabitants,
the onas or selknam, thus expressing the impact that
nature and the native peoples caused him. As for the
landscape, he begins his recount referring to the place
where the Beagle anchored, the Bay of Good Success,
which he described as encircled by rounded not very
high mountains, of clayey schist and covered with
thick forest up to the seaside. This vision was enough
for him to write down in his diary that he needed only
one look at the landscape to know that there he would
see completely different things than the ones he had
known until then.
As for the inhabitants, whom he indistinctly calls
natives, savages or fueguinos, his first encounter with
them made him point out that it was the strangest,
most interesting spectacle he had seen in his life, and
concluded that he hadn’t imagined the extent of the difference
that separated what he called the wild man from
civilized man. A reality, besides of his origin, education
and socio-cultural condition, that led him to characterize
the fueguinos as a noble race and abominable savages.
Once he had ventured into the interior of the
island, the naturalist and then enthusiastic geologist
described it as a mountainous land, partly submerged,
stretching over narrow deep valleys and extensive bays.
He also mentioned the enormous forest that spread
from the tops of the mountains to the seaside, covering
the hillsides, except the one to the west. The forest was
followed by a strip of wetlands or peat bogs covered
by plants and above them, the line of perpetual snow.
Heading into the forest, and later on following the
track of a stream, observing on the plains the thick
marshy layer that covers them, Darwin also enumerated
the waterfalls and many fallen tree trunks that
blocked his path through the riverbed, which, however,
would suddenly open up by floods that caused
destruction on the riversides. Going forward through
the severe and ruthless riverside, he writes that he soon
saw all his weariness justified with the magnificence
and beauty of the view he saw, where the bleak depth of
the ravine merged with signs of violence, since, everywhere,
in one and another direction, he saw irregular
masses of rocks and trees, some pulled out and others
still standing, but rotten to the core and about to fall.
This confusing mass of robust trees and dead trees led
Darwin to talk of “these sad solitudes where it seems
like, instead of life, death reigned as sovereign”. Here,
the describes, the wind rules, explaining that on certain
heights there were thick, stocky trees, that twist
in all directions; a landscape, he concluded, of sad and
somber appearance that not even the rays of the sun
could brighten, composed by chains of irregular hills,
masses of snow here and there, deep green-yellow valleys
and sea arms that cut the lands in all directions, all
the time crossed by a very strong, horribly cold wind
and a constantly misty atmosphere.
However, this landscape also had compensations,
like the ones he found after traversing a track opened by
guanacos and reaching a hill, the highest of the area – he
assured – which allowed him to enjoy the surrounding
landscape, because if to the north there was a marshy
ground, to the south he saw an image he characterized
as “proud and wild”, worthy of Tierra del Fuego.
At the south end of America, between the islands
contiguous to Tierra del Fuego, Darwin could see the
Andes mountain range and his first impression was
“These immense masses of snow that never melt and
seem destined to last as long as the world itself presents
a great – what am I saying?– a sublime spectacle.
The mountain’s outline stands out clearly and well
defined”. Together with the material monumentality
of the mountain range, the thing that impressed the
traveler the most were “the geological particularities”
of the territory: “Who would not feel awe to think of the
power that raised these mountains, and even more so of
the countless centuries that had to pass to crush, move
and flatten such considerable parts of these colossal
masses!”. A view that made him exclaim: “What mysterious
greatness in those mountains that rise one after
the other!”. He concludes his account assuring that,
seen from that point, the many channels that are lost in
the lands and between the mountains are covered with
such grim hues that it seems “like they lead outside of
the limits of this world”.
This representation correlates with Darwin’s
reflections regarding those he calls “savages”, the sight
of which made him ask himself: “Where do they come
from? Who could have decided, who forced a tribe of
men to abandon the beautiful regions of the north, to
follow the mountain range, to invent and build canoes
and finally go inhabit one of the most inhospitable lands
of the world?” In doubt of the pertinence of his questions,
seeing the impact the inhabitants of the southern end of
America would have on his scientific approach, he concluded:
“nature, making habit omnipotent and its effect
hereditary, has adapted the fueguinos to the climate and
the productions of their miserable land”.
Though imbued with a 19th century imperial view,
at the end of his voyage, Darwin expresses the realization
that “white man performs a destructive role”
considering that “wherever European man sets foot it
seems death pursues the indigenous peoples”. Regarding
his knowledge of America, Polinesia, South Africa and
Australia, he assures: “We see the same result everywhere”.
A social reality that immediately led him to
conclude, anticipating the mechanism of natural selection:
“Human varieties seem to react to one another in
the same way as the different animal species, where
the strongest always destroys the weakest”. In this way,
Patagonia remains – now as a setting – closely linked to
one of the main scientific theories in existence, making
the evidence it contains into a permanent focal point.
“EXTERMINATION WILL COME”
Until the beginning of the 1880s approximately there
was a peaceful everyday existence among the native
peoples of Tierra del Fuego, as their habitat wasn’t
yet of interest for adventurers or colonists, among
other reasons because there wasn’t any knowledge of
the possibilities offered by this land of extremes. The
gold seekers who arrived from 1881 onwards, and the
livestock companies that arrived since 1883, “initiated
the white settlement” of Tierra del Fuego, as stated by
Mateo Martinic, and the miners were the first to exert
violence against the selknam, depredating them in their
quest to capture women and children.
Thereupon, the practice of livestock exploitation
by the Exploitative Society of Tierra del Fuego, in its
pursuit to impose its terms and facing the population’s
resistance, led to a persecution of the selknam, haush,
yaganes and kawésqar, with massacre and captures
to be deported to the Salesian missions on Dawson
island, where they would be “civilized”, that is to say,
indoctrinated in the Catholic cult and domesticated to
perform wage labor. In those camps, overcrowding and
malnutrition caused diseases that decimated them and
contributed to their extinction.
Historiography has sufficient recounts of the violence
unleashed upon the fueguinos. In the words of
a Selknam survivor reproduced by Anne Chapman in
her book End of a world: The Selknam of Tierra del Fuego
(2002) there is an eloquent expression of their motives:
“To put sheep here, they killed the indians! They did a
cleansing and more, for the pampas they killed more,
to cleanse so there aren’t any indians, so then they put
sheep there. So then they were happy with their sheep,
so they could populate, produce with those sheep,for
their gain, for their product, with those they had their
gains. That is why they killed the Indians”. Likewise,
Alberto Harambour, in the study that prefaces his
book Un viaje a las colonias. Memorias y diario de un
ovejero escocés en Malvinas, Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego
(A journey to the colonies. Memoirs and diary of a Scottish
shepherd in the Falklands, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego)
(1878-1898) (2016), cites Joaquín Bascopé to state that the
authorities were also “agents of violence, that scarcely
differed from private hunters”.
The prediction by John Spears in his book about life
on Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, published in 1895,
had practically been fulfilled at the beginning of the
20th century: “the sheepherder will end up cornering
[the onas] extending his wire fences, and then extermination
will come”. This explains that Mateo Martinic
concludes that “the colonizing occupation of Tierra del
Fuego, admired as successful, had a horrific human cost,
with the almost complete extinction of the noble and
millenary selknam”.
PAINTED BODIES
“Hunter of shadows” was the name Martin Gusinde
assures the selknam gave him. During the four travels
the priest and anthropologist made between 1918 and
1924, he investigated and photographed the ones he
considered “the last remains of the so little appreciated
fueguinos”, when they were very diminished, “leading
a painful existence” as a consequence of the depredation
they had suffered. According to the requirements
of modern ethnology, Gusinde wasn’t satisfied with
a description of the external aspects of the selknam,
but tried to go further and encompass their “cultural
property in its harmonious totality”, also seeking to
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