When a Flower is Reborn: The Life and Times of a Mapuche Feminist

When a Flower is Reborn: The Life and Times of a Mapuche Feminist. By Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef. Edited and translated by Florencia E. Mallon. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Pp. 392. Illustrations. Notes. Index. $74.95 cloth; $21.95 paper.

This book offers readers a view of late twentieth-century

Chilean history as seen through the eyes of Rosa Isolde Reuque Paillalef, a Mapuche activist. Her perspective, and that of Mapuche people in general, is conspicuously absent from much of Chilean historiography. When a Flower is Reborn makes abundantly clear, as does historian Henry Reynolds who writes on Australian aborigines, that failure to incorporate the vision of indigenous people into the story inevitably produces a distorted and inaccurate portrait of a nation's history.

When a Flower is Reborn simultaneously provides a rich discussion of Latin American testimonial literature, an engrossing description of Mapuche culture, and a vivid narrative of recent Mapuche political struggles. It is structured as a series of conversations between Mallon and Reuque. The deep friendship and trust that developed between these two women shaped the dialogue they engaged in and explains the intimacy and candor of the interviews. Other members of Reuque's family also join the conversation, offering their own, sometimes contrasting, insights on Mapuche politics and culture. This method allows Reuque to appear in a broader familial context, not as an isolated individual as frequently occurs in testimonial literature.