SPRING 2026 CHARLAS CON CAFÉ

LIKANTATAY: COMMUNITY INTERRUPTED

with Dr. Anita Carrasco, Professor of Anthropology, Luther College

 

Likantatay emerged as a squatter settlement in the arid poverty belt of Calama mining town in the early 1990s. For a decade, the community survived by siphoning sewage water to sustain their crops—a desperate necessity they viewed as a profound humiliation at the hands of the State. In 2018, the National Corporation for Indigenous Development (CONADI) unilaterally redefined eligibility for development programs, excluding indigenous associations and forcing Likantatay into a protracted legal battle to secure their status as a recognized indigenous “community.” Despite meeting all statutory requirements, Likantatay was denied formal recognition by the very institution designed to protect them. Through an analysis of the two-year legal battle that followed, Dr. Carrasco argues that the State employs administrative barriers as a form of “political humiliation” undermining the dignity of indigenous peoples. Likantatay’s predicament is an example of critical environmental justice—not just a fight for resources—but a refusal to accept state-imposed invisibility. Ultimately, their resistance serves as a powerful reminder that dignity and justice are not granted, they are conquered.

 

Anita Carrasco (left); Lila Coloma (right)

 

Friday, March 20, 2026

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Coffee & snacks at 12:30 pm

Marshall 280