#wichi

Luffy grabbing the flower: Thank you

Shachi: Aww, that’s so sweet

Luffy showing Shachi: Look at how cool it looks.

Wire holding a flower: Hey babe look at what I-aw

Something fascinating happened this week in my country that got me thinking I needed to do a post about it because, lord, it needs to be referenced on this blog. The issue I’m about to present can be linked to Naruto’s hell (character and manga as a whole alike), so feel free (as I will) to link the two things together. Now, will be the subject of this post new on Tumblr? No. In my blog? Yes. And that’s the whole point.

What happened: Santiago Maratea is an argentinian influencer that got together with a Foundation and raised money from donations to buy an ambulance and donate it to a Wichi community in the province of Salta (The wichís or wichis are an indigenous ethnic group from the Central Chaco and the Austral Chaco in South America. They live mainly in Argentina and to a lesser extent in Bolivia). He was able to raise enough money to carry out his intentions, and so he bought the ambulance. The main issue? When he arrived to Salta to deliver the ambulance, people of the community questioned the donation, stating that, among other things, they didn’t like the Foundation he was helping. At some point, things got a little bit too violent for his liking, and so he had to be escorted out of the community by the police. (X)

The reason: The Wichi community is ruled by different rules and cultural hierarchies that Santiago Maratea did not understand nor did he bother to learn, there are several Wichis Foundations within the territory in which he appeared and, in the eyes of many people, he transferred the majority of power (a power that seemed to be well balanced in between them) to only one Foundation by giving them the control over the new (and, apparently, only) ambulance in the community.

“The distinctives that the Wichí usually refer to, have to do with their language, their "customs" or cultural norms, their particular relationship with the territory that they traditionally occupy, and also - and this is important - with internal differences between the different subgroups of the Wichí.”

“It is generally said that the name of each group was given by another Wichí, highlighting a particular characteristic -sometimes positive, sometimes negative- that distinguishes and identifies that group. According to John Palmer, so far at least 144 of these “local groups” have been identified with their respective names, and there are surely more (Palmer, 2005: 125; Braunstein, 1990). (...) The separation into local groups in the past was a way of identifying and recognizing oneself within the Wichí world, as well as uniting against others in situations of intergroup conflict. The ideal that all those who live in the same place should be from the same "local group" (united by kinship ties) is frequently expressed, but it’s a fact that is practically impossible given the norms that dictate that it is necessary to marry outside of one's own group of people.” (X)

The Foundation that we are talking about represents a particular local group that shares a common territory with many Wichi groups. Meaning, that the Foundation Santiago Maratea helped represent a small part of the entire Wichi Community that lives in the same territory, so by helping one Foundation, he is putting the rest of the Wichis that don’t belong to that group under the control of said Foundation.

When intervention practices are carried out in organizations or communities, the first step is to listen. Any activist (let me add here that my first chosen word was Militant because in Spanish it does not carry the negative connotation of “violent” that in English apparently does, which is weird, to say the least, and something it should probably be talked about), any anthropologist, any communicator, any teacher knows it. First of all, you listen.

Communities are not homogeneous conglomerates of people waiting for gifts or alms, they have power relations, internal groups, different interests, leaders, etc. To think that on the other side of the world, there is a passive group of people waiting for help is part of ethnocentrism itself. He likely did it out of good intentions to solve a bureaucratic problem that forced people to live without access to transportation to the nearest hospital, but doing something like that without bothering to know the cultural aspects of the entire community is violent and white-centric. 

To expect nothing but gratitude from a subjugated group when intervened/helped by a representative of the community that subjugated them in the first place (white people) is Hollywood-level nonsense. For instance, to believe that a third-world country will welcome with open arms the assistance of USA militia to “restore peace” when such a country was devastated economically by first-world international politics that forced their currencies to lower their value to keep the dollar and euro afloat is only possible in their cinematic productions.

[The Avengers, for instance, is a prime example of this, they teach US citizens that poor countries will not mind their intervention (ignoring the local government's wishes, policies, and laws) because they are the “good guys”. Captain America is the embodiment of their militia and nationalist mindset, Iron Man is literally the man who provided them with advanced equipment to intervene/invade their territory, and Wanda was partially responsible for the destruction of an entire country (but because they ended up liking her and forgiving her, so should everyone else), and so on. Good intentions are the trademark they use over and over again to interfere in affairs that had literally nothing to do with them, but because they just want to do the “right thing" (notice the quotation marks as "the right thing" is subjected to their own standards, ignoring the political, economic and cultural aspects of the place they are about to step in, as Santiago Maratea), then we should forgive them and accept their help, regardless of the results and history with USA’s interventions. Poor countries won’t see Captain America and consider him a friend, he’s literally a threat, I am making sense thus far?]

Naruto is another prime example, he’s the Captain America/Santiago Maratea of the Narutoverse, the representation of the repressor that wants to help the repressed with what he considers they need, without actually listening to what they have to say and, furthermore, without questioning his nation/culture responsibility on the matter. The system ends up untouched because the actions of Konoha against minority groups and/or nations get solely linked to a person rather than the entire nationalist structure. 

And let me add something here for good measure: Being part of a subjugated group does not automatically make you empathetic towards every subjugated group nor does it exclude you from becoming/being an oppressor. Santiago Maratea is a latino and lives in an latinoamerican country which means he -like all of us- is subjugated by economic and cultural politics from first-world countries; but Santiago Maratea is also white, male, and from an upper class, which puts him above the indigenous community he wanted to help because he’s economically and socially above them. In this sense, Naruto is from a subjugated and minoritarian group (there are nine bijuus, so nine jinchurikis at most), yet he became the oppressor when he silenced other minorities to push his narrative.

I have read people commenting on the issue: “Why do they ask for help if afterward, they will complain about it?” And it's one thing to help and another thing to provide alms. The first one implies a relationship where both parties work as equals regardless of one of them being more equipped to provide assistance, while the other puts one of them in a position of moral, economic, and cultural superiority that ultimately ends up reproducing the system that put one above the other in the first place; forcing the subjugated to live off the goodwill of the subjugator.

In that sense, Naruto made minorities absolutely dependent on him. He transformed himself into a necessity because it's not about Konoha in itself but about Naruto in the Hokage’s seat; if he dies, nothing guarantees that minority groups will be safe from future governments because Naruto’s system depends on him and his wishes.

People acknowledged him as he wanted because he forced them to; small nations are bound to watch him because their existence and/or survival depend on him.

The idea of the white boy, the hero, is about control over those he helps and, more importantly, about the acknowledgment that should come for his actions. Good actions must have a reward, and that reward always translates to power: The acknowledgment of those he saves, who then put him on a pedestal and become dependent on him and, in the case of Naruto, the Hokage’s seat and the absolute and very real power that comes with it. 

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 𝓐 𝓜 𝓑 𝓞 𝓢. ♥

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Traduction to English: Do you choose the Wichi or Yodita? :D

Me: (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ 𝓑 𝓞 𝓣 𝓗   𝓞 𝓕   𝓣 𝓗 𝓔 𝓜. ♥

Birthday present for my friend Ajen, of his original characters Aslan Yurak and Wichi.

Dug through my old video files to scrape up my POV from @bluteammedic ‘s :video:

NOHE en Argentina

Ayuda para los niños de pueblos originarios "wichis" en la provincia de Salta.

Somos la única Organización Internacional siempre presente .Conocemos a cada niño y sus necesidades. Algunas imágenes no las podemos publicar pues son sensibles .

Necesitamos de su Donación Urgente