Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology

J. Community Appl. Soc. Psychol., 19: 473491 (2009)

Published online 31 December 2008 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/casp.996

Emotional Reactions, Coping and Long-term

Consequences of Perceived Discrimination Among
the Mapuche People of Chile
DAVID MELLOR1*, MARIA EUGENIA MERINO2,
JOSE L. SAIZ3 and DANIEL QUILAQUEO2
1

Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

Universidad Catolica de Temuco, Temuco, Chile
3
Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile
2

ABSTRACT
Although a substantial body of research has now documented the negative mental and physical health
impacts of discrimination on various minority/non-dominant groups, little has been reported on the
impacts of such discrimination on indigenous populations. In this study, we investigated the selfreported emotional reactions, coping responses and long-term impacts of discriminatory experiences
among 50 Mapuche adults in Chile. The limited literature suggests that a substantial proportion of the
Chilean majority society is prejudiced and discriminatory towards the indigenous Mapuche population, and that the Mapuche experience discrimination. Interviews with participants indicated that
discrimination was psychologically wounding, and aroused anger, undifferentiated bad feelings,
shame and a sense of powerlessness. Participants responded with self-protective, self-controlled or
confronting actions. Although negative long-term effects were reported, ethnic re-affirmation and
strengthening of bonds within the Mapuche community were positive outcomes that seem to provide
resilience for the participants. This does not discount however, the need for more research assessing
the impacts of discrimination in Chile nor the need for anti-discrimination measures to be
implemented. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Key words: discrimination; impact; Mapuche; Chile

INTRODUCTION
An association between discrimination and negative outcomes has now been well established
through experimental manipulations in laboratory studies and cross-sectional surveys of
various minority groups. These negative outcomes can include both psychological and

* Correspondence to: David Mellor, School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood 3125, Victoria, Australia.
E-mail: mellor@deakin.edu.au

Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accepted 1 September 2008

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physical problems. For example, Branscombe and colleagues (Branscombe, 1998;

Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999; Schmitt, Branscombe, Kobrynowicz, & Owen,
2002) and Dion and colleagues (Dion, Dion, & Pak, 1992; Dion & Earn, 1975; Pak, Dion, &
Dion, 1991) have shown associations between experiences of discrimination and mental
health symptoms such as decreased self-esteem, and increased depression and anxiety.
Landrine and colleagues have demonstrated a link between experiences of discrimination
and increased blood pressure and smoking (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996a, 1996b) and
headaches (Landrine, Klonoff, Gibbs, Manning, & Lund, 1995). Similarly, Krieger (1990)
and Krieger and Sidney (1996) have shown that discrimination is related to increased blood
pressure and hypertension.
These kinds of negative outcomes have been demonstrated in various groups that might
be exposed to discrimination. For example, Kobrynowicz and Branscombe (1997) have
argued that women are likely to suffer depression as a result of experiencing
discrimination, and Klonoff, Landrine, and Campbell (2000) have suggested that higher
rates of depression, anxiety and depressive symptoms amongst women relative to men
relate to sexist experiences. In another population, Diaz, Ayala, Bein, Henne, and Marin
(2001) reported that experiences of social discrimination were strong predictors of
psychological symptoms of distress amongst gay Latino men in Los Angeles, and Huebner
and colleagues (Huebner, Nemeroff, & Davis, 2005; Huebner, Rebchook, & Kegeles,
2004) have similarly shown that the more gay and bi-sexual men experience perceived
discrimination, the more likely they are to report depressive symptoms. This association
persisted after the compounding personality traits of neuroticism and hostility were
accounted for (Huebner et al., 2005).
The greatest research focus in this area, however, has been in the area of the impact of
perceived racial and ethnic discrimination. Paradies (2006a) reviewed 138 studies that have
reported on the relationship between racism and health, with 65% of them having been
published between 2000 and 2004. Although Paradies noted that most of these studies
focussed on African-Americans, there seems to be little doubt that health-related negative
impacts of racism exist across target/victim groups. For example, numerous studies have
reported that perceived racial and ethnic discrimination is linked to blood pressure and
cardiovascular reactivity (see Brondolo, Rieppi, Kelly, & Gerin, 2003, for a review) and
cardiovascular disease (see Wyatt, Williams, Calvin, Henderson, Walker, & Winters, 2003,
for a review). Other studies have linked racial discrimination to emotional problems in
African-American children (e.g. Simons, Murry, McLoyd, Lin, Cutrona, & Conger, 2002),
youth (e.g. Dubois, Burk-Braxton, Swenson, Tevendale, & Hardesty, 2002), adults
(Broman, Mavaddat, & Hsu, 2000) and Southeast Asian refugees in Canada (Noh, Beiser,
Kaspar, Hou, & Rummens, 1999). Other studies (e.g. Shrake & Rhee, 2004) have shown
that perceived racial discrimination is linked to both externalizing problems and
internalizing problems among Korean-American youth, but more strongly with the former.
Again, research has demonstrated that the impact on health of ethnic/racial discrimination
persists after factors that may influence peoples perceptions have been factored out. These
factors include personality (e.g. Broudy et al., 2007), and age, gender, per capita income,
education, employment and social desirability bias (Gee, Spencer, Chen, & Takeuchi,
2007). Other research has shown that degree of ethnic identification can moderate the
relationship between experiences of discrimination and health behaviour outcomes (Chae,
Takeuchi, Barbeau, Bennett, Lindsey, & Krieger, 2008), and that hostility and optimism
interact with a history of experiences of discrimination to determine cardiovascular
reactivity and recovery (Richman, Bennett, Pek, Siegler, & Williams, 2007).
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475

Despite the compelling nature of these findings in relation to experiences of

discrimination and health outcomes, the interpretation of them is somewhat difficult
because across studies there is a lack of conceptual clarity in defining racism, in the
operationalization and measurement of peoples experiences of it, and in clarifying how it
may relate to health outcomes (Paradies, 2006a). Clearly, to understand peoples
experiences of racism, researchers need to rely on self-reports of discriminatory events
which are attributed by the person reporting those events to racist behaviour, and raises
issues of the reliability and validity of such reports. Within the research literature selfreported experiences of racism are sometimes referred to as perceived racism (Krieger,
Smith, Naishadham, Hartman, & Barbeau, 2005). It is important to note that such terms do
not imply that the racism experienced/perceived and then reported by respondents is in any
way imagined, fabricated or illusionary. Rather, they highlight the subjective nature of the
issues under investigation.
Another issue that makes the interpretation of the research in this area difficult is the
compounding impact of the stressors associated with socio-demographic and other
environmental factors that may be detrimental to the wellbeing of minority groups.
However, perceived racial discrimination seems to have an impact on adjustment over and
above any impact of these factors. This was demonstrated by Prelow, Danoff-Burg,
Swenson, and Pulgiano (2004) who reported that when both African-American and
European-American adolescents are exposed to ecological risk (neighbourhood
disadvantage and ecologically salient stressful events), they are more likely to exhibit
delinquency and to experience depression. However, perceived discrimination was a
vulnerability factor for delinquent behaviour only for African-American youth. As
reported above, the impact of discrimination may also persist even after personality factors
are taken into account (Huebner et al., 2005).
Despite these varied findings, little research has reported on the impact of discrimination
on indigenous people. Studies with American-Indians reported that for adolescents,
experiences of perceived discrimination impacted on early onset substance use through
anger and externalizing symptoms (Whitbeck, Hoyt, McMorris, Chen, & Stubben, 2001),
while for adults, perceived discrimination was strongly associated with depressive
symptoms (Whitbeck, McMorris, Hoyt, Stubben, & LaFromboise, 2002). In a study of
312 adult Indigenous Australians, Paradies (2006b) found strong and consistent
associations between self-reported experiences of racism and chronic stress and
depression, self-assessed physical and general mental health status and risk for
cardiovascular disease. In another recent Australian study Larson, Gillies, Howard, and
Coffin (2007) found that indigenous people who reported recent experiences of racially
based treatment that evoked an emotional or physical response had poorer physical and
mental health than those who did not. Finally, in New Zealand, Harris et al. (2006) found
that Maori people experienced discrimination at a rate nearly10 times higher than
European New Zealanders, and that discrimination was associated with diminished selfrated health, lower physical functioning, lower mental health, smoking and cardiovascular
disease.
The focus of the present study was on one of the indigenous populations of Chile, the
Mapuches. Approximately 5% of Chileans identify themselves as indigenous, and of these,
87% are Mapuches (Instituto Nacional de Estadstica, 2005). Mapuches suffer many
disadvantages relative to the rest of the population. For example, they have an average
education of 7.2 years compared to the 9.6 years of non-Mapuche Chilean population.
Eleven per cent of them are illiterate, and 33% are poverty stricken or live under conditions
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D. Mellor et al.

of poverty. Life expectancy is lower for Mapuches than for non-Mapuches. These
disadvantages are greater for the 38% who live in rural areas (Programa de las Naciones
Unidas para el Desarrollo, 2003). In almost 70% of the areas with substantial Mapuche
populations, access to clean water, sewerage, electricity and quality housing is poor
(Sanderson, 2005).
Research has established that non-indigenous people in Chile do discriminate against
Mapuches, and that Mapuche people do experience this discrimination. Several studies
have shown the mainstream attitude towards Mapuches to be distant and suspicious (e.g.
Fundacion Ideas and Universidad de Chile, 1997, 2000, 2003; Merino, Millaman,
Quilaqueo, & Pilleux, 2004; Merino & Pilleux, 2003; Merino & Quilaqueo, 2003; Poblete,
2003; Quilaqueo & Merino, 2003; Saiz, 2004). However, as has been found elsewhere (e.g.
Pedersen, Dudgeon, Watt, & Griffiths, 2006) attitudes held by individual members of the
mainstream society are heterogeneous. For example, in Chile, the older population (41%)
seem to be the most prejudiced, followed by lower socioeconomic groups (35%), people
who support right wing political parties (35%) and people who belong to the Protestant
church (36%) and the Catholic church (26%) (Fundacion Ideas and Universidad de Chile,
2003). Only 8% of university students exhibit prejudice against Mapuches (Saiz, 2004).
However, these studies have only examined direct and open manifestation of rejection
(blatant prejudice), and there is little information on other forms of racism and
discrimination (e.g. discrimination enacted in institutional settings, discriminaton
embedded in the structures of society and cultural discrimination/racism, as decribed
by Jones, 1997).
On the other side of the equation, Tripailaf (1969) reported that Mapuche students
perceived discrimination across the various levels of the educational system, while Cantoni
(1978) reported that 82% of Mapuches interviewed in different cities said they had been
patronized, segregated or harassed because of their indigenous condition. In a similar vein,
a more recent national survey (CERC-Participa, 1999) revealed that almost 90% of
indigenous participants reported discrimination, mainly at work and in interactions with
the law and public administration. Consistent with this, Lopez (2001) found that
Mapuche women belonging to a womens organization in the city of Temuco felt that they
are constantly discriminated against at work by their superiors and their non-Mapuche
colleagues. In the same fashion Mapuche teachers at elementary schools have reported
perceptions of discrimination from their non-Mapuche colleagues and parents of nonMapuche children (Rojas & Sepulveda, 2002). Finally, in a recent study Merino, Mellor,
Saiz, and Quilaqueo (in press) documented a wide range of experiences reported by
Mapuches that they considered to be discriminatory, including verbal abuse, indirect
remarks about race, name calling, and behaviours such as avoiding, ignoring, segregating
and inferiorizing.
Despite the documented presence of prejudice in the mainstream society in Chile, and
the perception of discrimination against them on the part of the Mapuches, there is no
research directly investigating how Mapuche respond to these experiences, or how such
experiences might impact on them. In a UNICEF-sponsored study (UNICEF, 2006) both
Mapuches and non-Mapuches adolescents in three locations (Santiago, Temuco and
Galvarino/Puerto Saavedra) were surveyed about their experiences of discrimination due to
a variety of factors (e.g. where they live, their socioeconomic status, their name and their
ethnic status). Approximately 14% of the Mapuche adolescents felt discriminated against
because they were Mapuche. However, they also felt discriminated against for some other
reasons associated to their indigenous condition such as appearance (19%), name and/or
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Discrimination among the Mapuche people of Chile

477

surname (16%), the way they dress (12%) or their skin colour (11%). This perceived
discrimination was more frequent in urban areas (especially Santiago and Temuco) than in
rural areas. When asked to respond to a single multiple choice question about how they felt
when they experienced discrimination (source not specified), 41% of the Mapuche youth
chose anger, 28% chose vengeful, 27% chose helpless, 26% chose sadness and 20% chose
hatred.
While there is a lack of literature on coping responses on the part of Mapuches when they
experience discrimination, research in other settings may be instructive. Feagin and Sikes
(1994) argued that the repeated experiences of racism leads to the development of a
repertoire of responses, and a number of researchers (e.g. Allport, 1954; Harrell, 1979;
Pettigrew, 1964; Simpson & Yinger, 1985) had previously attempted to categorize these
(see Mellor, 2004 for a summary). More recently, on the basis of the analysis of data
derived from unstructured interviews with 34 Indigenous Australians, Mellor (2004)
proposed a taxonomy made up of three broad approaches used by participants to cope with
their experiences of racism. These approaches serve three broad purposes: defending the
self (by accepting the racism and withdrawing from or avoiding situations, re-interpreting
events to make them less noxious, using social supports, denying of identity, attempting to
achieve to disprove purported inferiority and attempting to make children strong);
controlling the reaction by ignoring the racist aspect of the event, containing the urge to
respond or imagining the response); or of confronting the racism (through teaching/
educating the perpetrator, contesting the racism, asserting ones rights, asserting identity,
taking control, using external supports/authorities to address racism or seeking revenge).
Harrell (2000) differentiated such responses on the basis of whether they were affective or
passive, and Paradies (2006c) review picks up on the adaptive/maladaptive nature of them.
Given that Mapuches have been demonstrated to experience discrimination in a number
of studies, our primary research aims were:
1. to record the types of emotional responses Mapuche are likely to display when they
experience discrimination. On the basis of previous research we expect that the
participants will report negative emotions, including depressive and anxiety symptomatology;
2. to identify the coping styles Mapuche people use to manage their emotional reactions to
the discrimination with which they are confronted;
3. to ascertain if Mapuches attribute any long-term effects to their experiences of
discrimination.

METHOD
Sample
Fifty Mapuche residents of Temuco (25) and Santiago (25) participated in the study. The
sample included 25 males and 25 females, with a mean age of 43.7 years. We purposefully
sampled for equal location, age and gender distributions. Thirteen participants had no
formal schooling or had completed only elementary school, 32 had completed at least their
first year of secondary studies and five had studied at least 1 year at university. The
procedure ESOMAR (Adimark, 2000) was used to establish the socioeconomic status of
participants. ESOMAR measures socioeconomic status taking as basis the educational
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D. Mellor et al.

level and the working category of the head of the family in which a person lives. Eight
participants were of low socioeconomic status, 18 of lower middle class status, 20 of
middle socioeconomic status, two of higher middle class status and two of high
socioeconomic status. The sample was recruited through Mapuche institutions and
organizations, and through a snowballing technique, with the initial participants being
asked to suggest subsequent informants. The inclusion criteria were self-identification as
Mapuche, and being agreeable to participate on a voluntary basis. Participants were paid
approximately $US10 in compensation for their time.

Procedure and materials

Participants engaged in a semi-structured interview which included questions about
experiences considered discriminatory with a focus on five main aspects: the
discriminatory event, its context, the arguments used by the participant to support
the interpretation of the experience as discriminatory, the participants reactions to the
experience and the personal consequences attached to the event. To reduce relative power
relationships influencing the interviews, all interviews were undertaken at the participants
homes by two Mapuche interviewers who received an in-depth training. The training
included working through a detailed manual specifically produced for this study, and
practice interviews under the supervision of the Chilean members of the research team.
Both interviewers had already received some basic training and had had some experience
in interviewing during their professional training as educators. The interviews were
conducted in Spanish, and with participants permission, were audio-taped for later
transcription.

Analyses
The effects of discrimination were assessed through the participants descriptions of the
emotions experienced when they encountered the particular instances of discrimination
they reported, the responses developed and the long-term effects they attributed to the
discriminatory event. After the interviews were transcribed they were subjected to thematic
anlysis in two stages. In the first stage, four postgraduate psychology students read each
interview independently and identified categories for emotional and coping responses, and
consequences attributed to the experiences. The taxonomy that was developed for
Indigenous Australians (Mellor, 2004) provided an initial framework for structuring the
coping responses, but new categories were added, and some categories were not used. They
then went back and coded the transcripts independently according to the taxonomies
developed, and used triangulation to resolve discrepancies. In the second stage, the
research team (the four authors of the present study) reviewed the resulting taxonomy and
the coding for each interview, making modifications by consensus. All transcripts and
coding were entered into NVIVO (version 2, Qualitative Research Solutions), a software
programme that assists in the organizing and analysis of qualitative data. The data from
each category were then retrieved and again reviewed jointly by the four authors to ensure
that the categories were conceptually clear, and that no data had been mis-categorized. This
process led to a refinement of several categories by way of additional subcategories and the
elimination of other subcategories.
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RESULTS
The resulting model incorporated eight major super-ordinate emotional categories
(wounded, anger, undifferentiated disturbance, shame, powerlessness, fear, sadness and
other), three super-ordinate coping responses similar to Mellors (2004) (self-protection,
self-control and confrontation) and psychological and social long-term effects. Figure 1
summarizes the final tree, and in the following, extracts of interviews are used to describe
the categories derived from the data. Notably, all participants reported having experienced
discrimination of one form or another is varying contexts.
Emotional responses
Psychologically wounded. The most dominant emotional response was feeling
psychologically wounded (72% of participants) with responses ranging over a continuum
of six states: feeling belittled, humiliated, degraded, hurt, bitter or traumatized. These
subcategories were differentiated by the degree of intensity explicitly evident through tone or
emphasis, or implicit in the transcripts. Examples of each of these follow. The examples used
have been translated into English, using equivalent colloquial language where appropriate.
Feeling belittled (6% of participants) was coded for reactions that resulted from being
represented or spoken of as unimportant or incapable. It was reported for example by T031
after overhearing her non-Mapuche sisters-in-law gossiping about her incapability of
completing her degree studies because of her being Mapuche. She reported, I felt bad, like
something insignificant.
Feeling humiliated (14% of participants) was the second type of wounded response. It
was used to describe feeling put down made to feel uncomfortable because of some part of
the identity was attacked. For example, T15 reports having suffered constant physical
harassment from her teachers because of her learning difficulties: I felt humiliated. . .I kept
silent because if I confronted them theyd punish me more so I had to accept and humiliate.
A third wounded response was feeling degraded (10% of participants), that is having
ones dignity or value attacked, as for T03 when her classmates at elementary school told
her that she had been sold to a Chilean family by her Mapuche parents in exchange of goods
because she had brown hair. She felt so bad that she even thought that it may have been true,
so she decided to dye her hair black to look like a Mapuche.
Feeling hurt (24% of participants) was the most commonly reported emotional response
to discrimination. For example, T02 stated when I learn that my colleagues discriminate
me. . .for being a Mapuche, that has hurt me a lot. A lot.
Bitterness (4% of participants) is a feeling of strong psychological pain marked by
resentment or cynicism that, for example, S02 reported when she recounted her response to
being punished severely for not having learnt her lessons correctly at a church elementary
school.
Finally, in the category of psychological wounded responses, one participant reported
feeling traumatized as a result of her discriminatory experience. S03 stated that at school,
when her teacher called the roll and named her and her sister by their Mapuche family
name, which sounded similar to the Spanish slang for pee (pipi), her classmates would
laugh out loud and say the sisters pipi, ha! ha! ha! Make pipi! Ha! ha!. She
described the feeling of being traumatized by this behaviour by her peers.
1

Participants were coded as T for Temuco or S for Santiago, and allocated a number in the sequence of interviews.
Thus, T03 was the third participant in Temuco.
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D. Mellor et al.
Perceived Discrimination

EMOTIONS

COPING

Wounded

LONG-TERM

Self-protection

Psychological

Belittled

Reinterpret

Humiliated

Withdraw

Degraded

Accept

Hurt

Demonstrate worth value

Denial of identity

Bitterness

Minimize

Psychological pain

Traumatized

Avoidance

Acceptance of
inferiority

Anger

Positive
Ethnic reaffirmation

Negative

Self-control

Social

Annoyance

Contained response

Irritation

Ignoring

Positive
Reinforce the connections
and community

Indignation
Confrontation
Negative

Anger
Contesting

Change in the life course

Undifferentiated disturbance
Hitting out
Shame
Responding in kind
Powerless

Fear

Sadness

Figure 1.

The effects and responses to perceived discrimination by Mapuche participants.

Anger. A second emotional response category was anger, which ranged along a
continuum of four levels: annoyance (2% of participants), irritation (10% of participants),
indignation (20% of participants) and anger (20% of participants).
Annoyance was a moderate feeling of finding situations bothersome, such as experienced
by T25 when she was discriminated against in public offices and commerce. She declared
that when these events happen, they annoy me, of course, but I overcome them. In the very
moment I am annoyed, but you cannot live with that all your life.
Irritation, a stronger feeling than being annoyed, was experienced by T19 while at
university studying law. She said that when she overheard remarks about the social
incompatibility of the law profession and her ethnic origin, that irritated me strongly.
T12 felt indignant while withdrawing money at a bank because the cashier made long
unusual inquiries to his superiors because he did not believe that T12 might have money
saved in his account. While feeling incensed at the cashiers behaviour T12 persisted and
stood his ground, thereby expressing his indignation.
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Anger, the strongest emotion in this category signified a strong displeasure and state of
arousal as was evident in T07 who was regularly mocked and harassed by her employer
while working as a nanny. She reported that in response to the mocking, I didnt feel
inferior, but it made me very angry.
Undifferentiated emotional disturbance. The third type of emotional response was
labelled undifferentiated emotional disturbance or bad feelings (30% of participants). We
were unable to code these responses into other categories because participants did not or
could not elaborate on them, and simply said they felt bad. In some cases, the response
was accompanied by psychosomatic symptoms. Participants described their emotional
responses to discrimination as, for example, feeling very bad or my whole body hurt all
the time and the doctors didnt find anything wrong in me. T12 reported such feelings
during school when gifts and clothing donations were sent to the children at her rural
school and teachers distributed among the students:
(. . .) the best and most beautiful gifts were given to the non-Mapuche classmates. . .and so we felt
really bad. Perhaps since we were little children then we didnt realize that it was because we were
Mapuche, but now I know it was in such way, the only I know is that we felt very bad for that.

Shame. A fourth frequently experienced emotional response to discrimination was

shame, reported by 52% of participants. Shame is painful emotion caused by a strong sense
of guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness or disgrace. In contrast to humiliation which derives
from external negative feedback from others (i.e. it is a feeling of being significantly put
down), shame is a self-conscious emotion, and involves a self-evaluation in terms of the
degree to which one has lived up to ones own internalized set of standardsor failing to
live up to them. This occurred usually when participants were confronted with verbal and
behavioural practices that highlighted and inferiorized their Mapuche status. For example,
T05 reported on a friend who did not want to recognize that she had a Mapuche family
name: so I think she was ashamed of recognizing it, though she knew I was Mapuche as
well.
Powerlessness. The fifth frequently reported emotional response was feeling
powerless (16% of participants) for not being able to modify the state of affairs. For
example, T17 who was constantly mocked because of her ethnic origin at school said, I felt
bad, didnt know how to defend myself, one is never prepared for these situations. . ..
Other categories of emotional reactions. Four other categories of emotional response
were derived from the data and used in coding the interviews, but only a small number of
responses were incorporated into them. These categories were fear and sadness (four
participants [8%] each), feeling uncomfortable (two participants) and feeling worn out (one
participant who reported on the chronic nature of discrimination).

Coping responses
Coping responses were grouped into three categories: self-protection, self-control and
confrontation. These categories moved along a continuum from apparent outward passivity
to overt action.
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Defensive/self-protective strategies. In the self-protection category, although the

victims recognize the event to be discriminatory, they do not show any open or direct
response. Instead they engage in behaviours to defuse the discriminatory behaviour to
avoid confronting it. There are various ways to do this.
Using a cognitive re-interpretation (52% of participants) the victim reduces the
importance of the perpetrators actions by either thinking that he/she is mistaken, or by
attributing to him/her ignorance or inferiority. For example, in response to ethnic insults
made by some neighbours, T15 thought that they were mistaken. He said, I reacted and
said to myself its ignorance. . . . they didnt know what they were saying. T07 also used
this strategy when some work colleagues made some racist comments. She said, I laughed
out loud because those people were more ignorant than me. They did not value the
Mapuche culture, so they did not know what they were saying. They used Mapuche words
and dont even know what they mean.
Another way of re-interpreting discrimination is to consider that discriminatory
practices can only disadvantage the perpetrator. For example, S12 told of how a priest
stopped being his friend when he learned about his (S12s) Mapuche origin. But he added,
I say to myself, poor priest, he missed my friendship.
Withdrawing (52% of participants) is a second defensive strategy through which the
victim withdraws from the event or situation either physically or psychologically, without
responding to the discrimination directly. For example, in response to mocking or
derogatory comments several participants simply keep silent (withdrew psychologically),
whilst others abandoned the situation. In using the former strategy, S10 reported there was
no option but keeping silent or leave. . .simply Id speak no more. In contrast S17, a home
nanny who experienced constant discrimination from her urban employer quit her job:
. . .so thats why I left for the country. . .I never came back again.
Acceptance (42% of participants) is a third defensive/self-protective strategy that
involves resigning oneself to the discrimination to save psychological effort. It is marked
by apathy and passivity. For example, S10 explained how he reacted to the discrimination
perpetrated by his schoolmates: In the moment I used to be timid and stand back. I didnt
do anything because I had no defense because my parents were not there. I was in the
boarding school and there was nothing I could do.
Other participants such as T12 accepted discrimination under specific circumstances, as
when they perceived that it is motivated by the perpetrators ignorance. I accept being
discriminated by those who are ignorant because they do it because they dont know.
Others show absence of response due to having been accustomed to constant
discrimination, as S15 stated: I didnt do anything simply because one gets accustomed.
T25 reported being active: I say to myself I do nothing, and I say nothing. I am not
going to fight or reproach anybody. I can easily overcome it.
Some participants protect their self-concept by attempting to demonstrate their value
(42%) or rising above the rest in personal achievements in order to show that the
perpetrator is wrong. This defensive strategy, which is similar to John Henryism as first
described by James, Hartnett, and Kalsbeek (1983) as a synonym for prolonged, high-effort
coping with environmental stressors, occurred mainly in school and work contexts. For
instance, T12 confronted negative stereotypes by his peers I always try to study hard, very
hard. It was very hard for me facing their discrimination, but I strengthened myself and said
to myself I am going to demonstrate to them that we Mapuches are not stupid because
they always tried to suggest that the Mapuche are stupid. So, I tried to demonstrate to them
that I could be better or the same as them.
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Minimizing (20% of participants) involves diminishing the importance of the

discriminatory event. This is done for example by attributing the event to a joke, or
without intention. As T18 stated I have never been treated in a bad or humiliating way.
They were only jokes, no more. They said hey Mapuche, hey Indian, but they dont say it
to hurt me because they know I do not get angry, so it is just a joke.
Avoidance (18% of participants) involves using conscious strategies to avoid personal
exposure to potential discrimination. This can be done by excluding some behaviour from a
personal repertoire as, for example, not buying on credit to avoid it being denied, as
described by T06: because if I wanted or if I was going to buy on credit they would look at
your face and body and say well ah, no, no, we cant. So in that regard, I have always
bought by cash because I feel that I cant be discriminated against.
Another way of avoiding discriminatory events is to keep a physical distance from the
perpetratorfor instance, avoiding social situations in which the perpetrator may be
present. In this way, T13 avoided being discriminated at school: I kept distant from the
teacher. In fact I was never close to the teacher, or my high schoolmates. For instance, I
didnt go to parties or things like that.
Self-controlled strategies. Self-controlled responses occur when the individual feels
an urge to respond to discrimination but consciously chooses to block the response.
Contained response (16% of participants) occurred when the participants consciously and
effortfully suppressed their response in order to avoid possible negative consequences,
such as being reported to the police or other authorities. For example, T18 relates: I felt
powerless and very bad because I know that I could hit them but I couldnt. I didnt because
they would accuse me here at school, or at home, and I could be punished.
Eight participants (16%) gave examples of ignoring the discriminatory acts, or even
denying them. For example, S15 reported I was saving in order to finish building my
house, so I used to walk barefoot. I didnt have shoes, and my neighbours laughed at me,
but I simply didnt pay any attention. Similarly, S24 reported They mocked my Mapuche
family name . . . They harassed me, but I didnt. . . . I didnt do anything. I was indifferent.
Confronting strategies. The third and most active style of responding to discrimination
was to confront the perpetrators in some way. There are several ways to do thisto contest
the behaviour verbally, to hit out verbally or physically or to respond in kind.
Contesting (40% of participants) involved verbal responses directed towards the
perpetrator, with the aim of establishing that discrimination is not acceptable, or that the
perpetrator was wrong. For example, T05 reported when I did the military service they used
to say or tell me, This Mapuchito2 here, this Mapuchito there . . . And then I told them,
Who do you think you are? Why do you call me Mapuchito? Similarly, S07 responded to
the mockery perpetrated by a civil servant as follows: I asked him why he was mocking me if
he was only a public servant and his duty was to attend all people therefarmers, Mapuches,
indigenous, non-indigenous. Then he looked at me and stopped it.
Hitting out is another confronting strategy reported by 14 participants (28%). It involves
striking out verbally or physically, against the perpetrators in order to harm or embarrass
them, or to seek revenge. This is simply put by S08 who reported that If they abused me, I
also abused them verbally, not physically because if it is physical, it is a criminal act. A
more detailed example was provided by S18 who recounted an incident in which a security
2

Diminutives like Mapuchito carry a semantic load in that the Mapuche is supposedly unable to look after
himself and progress (Quilaqueo & Merino, 2003).
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guard prompted him to leave the bank because of his indigenous appearance: I had money
in the bank, so I went to the bank in Temuco. I came from the country, so I was wearing
jeans and worn-out shoes. So the guard said, hey, you, you cant be here. Youve got to get
out. Why? I said. He said this is only for people who have a current account. So I
said I have my current account here, that is why I am here. Who do you think you fucking
are? So, I felt bad, but anyway, I made the insult and I stayed there, and they attended me.
A more physical reaction was reported by T12, who related, I remember very well . . . I
hit a boy because I was badly treated by a classmate after being discriminated by him. He
would abuse me verbally, saying that I was an Indian and that triggered me, and I hit him,
and I won. Similarly, in S25s account, physical aggression was used to seek revenge on a
teacher who discriminated against Mapuche students. This participant related: We used to
walkthere was a lot of mud and rain in winter timefrom home to school, and there
they obliged us to go out to collect pine cones at lunch time. And I rejected it. I didnt want
to go, so this teacher raised up his hand to hit me and said that we are obliged to do it
because we were dirty Indians. I raised up my hand and hit him in the stomach. I was
8 years old, and told him I was proud of being a Mapuche woman.
Responding in kind (22% of participants) involves treating the perpetrator in an unfair or
unequal way as a counter a previous discriminatory event. T03 reported in school in the
country, the majority we were Mapuche children and the non-Mapuche once discriminated
against us. But they were only a few, so finally we discriminated against them.
Long-term impact
Participants reported that their experiences of discrimination had long-term impacts on
their wellbeing. These impacts were categorized as being either psychological or social in
nature, and within each of these categories, positive or negative.
The most frequent long-term impact reported was the positive psychological
subcategory. Twenty-one participants (42%) reported that their experiences of
discrimination had led to an ignition or a re-affirmation of their Mapuche identity. A
case of ethnic re-affirmation happened to T13 as a result of being harassed and segregated
at high school by his classmates and a teacher: I reckon that I learned from those
experiences, I first negated my identity but after some time I started to assume my Mapuche
condition in a positive way.
However, 23 participants (46%) also reported negative psychological outcomes,
including having denied their identity, suffering continuing pain or accepting their
inferiority. Examples of these outcomes were provided by S10 who, as a result of the
constant mocking of his Mapuche name and indigenous physical traits reported during a
long period of time I didnt want to be Mapuche. . .I used to question myself why I should
have to be Mapuche. Similarly, S23 reported that suffering continuous discrimination had a
negative impact on her: It was so negative, everything was so negative, that now I consider
myself neither Mapuche nor French nor English. I am only a Gods creation, thats all.
T02 suffers a continuing pain due to having experienced segregation at the church during
childhood. She declared that until today it has hurt me strongly, very, very much, and
began to cry.
In the social domain, 17 participants (34%) related positive outcomes, such as being
strengthened as victims, usually resulting in having their family connection strengthened.
As T02 reported, my dad would strengthen my identity by saying come on dear, you
must not feel sad, you can afford whatever you wish, you have great potential. T01 also
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commented on the strengthening of the Mapuche community and ethnic vindication that
occurred as a result of discrimination: we can recuperate our Mapuche nation by fighting,
recuperating our territory and having our own authorities.
Only two participants (4%) reported negative social outcomes that they believed had
changed their life course. One (S17) stated that he had not been able to marry his girlfriend
because her father objected to his Mapuche status, and another (S12) lamented losing a
friendship with a priest who ceased contact when he discovered that the participant was
Mapuche.

DISCUSSION
Our study of the indigenous Mapuches in Chile suggests that they experience
discrimination in their everyday lives in a range of contexts. All of our 50 participants
were able to identify personal experiences of discrimination, and many commented on
structural and cultural discrimination in the Chilean society. However, of particular interest
to this paper was the emotional impact, response strategies and reported long-term
outcomes of these discriminatory experiences. Interestingly, there was considerable
heterogeneity in these impacts and responses.
The major category of emotional reactions to experiences of discrimination was feeling
what we have termed psychologically hurt. Individuals reported feeling belittled,
humiliated, degraded, hurt, bitter or even traumatized. This category may have been used
frequently because many of the instances of discrimination reported occurred when
participants were younger and in school, or engaged in other situations in which they were
more easily able to compare themselves and their treatment to the way others were being
treated. Feeling hurt may be more likely to be the case for children than for adults, because
they are less likely to have established a strong identity (Erikson, 1950). This may also
apply to another category of emotional response, shame, where victims of discrimination
are made to feel inadequate and responsible for their inadequacy.
A second major emotional response evident in our data encompassed those emotions
along the anger continuum. Participants reported feeling annoyed, irritated, indignant and
angry in response to their experiences. However, the data were more skewed to the cooler
end of this continuum. These feelings may be temporally specific and be dissipated through
coping responses or over time, but many participants reported still feeling angry when
reporting their experiences.
Interestingly, while previous research on the psychological impact of discrimination
frequently suggests that depression or depressive symptoms is an outcome (e.g. Huebner
et al., 2005; Huebner et al., 2004; Klonoff et al., 2000; Schmitt et al., 2002; Whitbeck et al.,
2002), we found little by way of this response among our participants. Only four
participants suggested that the discrimination made them feel sad. Instead, a more
prominent emotional reaction was a feeling of powerlessness or impotence in the face of
discrimination. Participants described not knowing what to do, and feeling as if they could
not respond. While helplessness has been associated with depression (Seligman, 1975), our
participants did not make a connection between feeling helpless and feeling depressed.
Another category of emotional response to discrimination, undifferentiated negative
feelings, encompassed all the instances in which participants reported that they felt bad or
really bad as a result of their experiences. They did not elaborate on these feelings to
provide a greater understanding of the underlying emotional state. This lack of cognitive
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elaboration may have been due to the experience being too emotionally overwhelming the
victim. However, clearly, the experience provoked a negative reaction in the participant.
Other emotions or states reported to be a consequence of perceived discrimination included
fear, uncomfortableness and being worn out. However, as for sadness, the frequency of
such responses was low.
In response to their experiences of discrimination, our participants reported three major
coping strategies similar to those reported by Mellor (2004) in a study of Indigenous
Australians responses to racism: self-protective, controlled or confronting strategies.
These strategies, each having different aims, require varying amounts of energy and
psychological resources, and involve different levels of activity. For example, reinterpreting an event in a manner that removes intention on the part of the perpetrator
defuses a situation and allows a person who experiences discrimination to use their
resources in other ways. Suppressing an urge to react, or even ignoring a discriminatory
event requires psychological effort, up to the point at which one accepts the discrimination
as normal. The most active response is to challenge or contest the discrimination through
hitting out verbally or physically, arguing back or returning the discrimination in kind.
Vines, Baird, McNeilly, Hertz-Picciotto, Light, and Stevens (2006) found that AfricanAmerican women in the US who grew up in middle-income or well-off families reported
experiencing less racism and had less likelihood of responding in a passive manner than
other African-American women. Consistent with this, Moody-Ayers, Stewart, Covinsky,
and Inouye (2005) found that among African-Americans with chronic illness, more passive
coping in response to racism was associated lower household income. In addition, women
were more likely to use passive coping strategies than men. In the current study, it was not
appropriate to make between group comparisons for either the emotional responses or the
coping strategies implemented because data were collected by way of semi-structured
interviews, and the questions were open-ended, meaning that each participant did not
engage in exactly the same data collection process. Comparison between groups or the use
of statistical tests for between group differences are therefore not appropriate.
The participants identified both positive and negative long-term outcomes from their
discriminatory experiences. It is clear that for many, their experiences of discrimination
aroused or strengthened their Mapuche identity, and that this subsequently became a
protective factor for them. By enhancing their Mapuche identity, the discrimination led to a
heightened pride in themselves, which allowed them to cast aside the discrimination. These
findings are consistent with research (e.g. Branscombe et al., 1999; Jetten, Branscombe,
Schmitt, & Spears, 2001; Schmitt et al., 2002; Sellers & Shelton, 2003; Tom, 2006; Wong,
Eccles, & Sameroff, 2003) showing that ingroup positive identification reduces the
association of perceived discrimination with negative consequences (e.g. declines in
personal and collective self-esteem, psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction, academic
outcomes or self-competence beliefs; increases in problem behaviours, depression, anxiety
or stress) among disadvantaged and/or minority group members. This evidence suggests
that feeling connected to the positive aspects of ones group, in this case the Mapuches, can
compensate for the effects of discrimination and also serve as a protective factor that
mitigates the potential harms of discrimination on psychological functioning.
As indicated above, the most frequent emotions experienced by the participants were
feeling angry and hurtboth located at the hottest end of the wounded and anger
continuum. In the face of these situations, the use of self-controlling or secondary control
strategies such as cognitive re-interpretation and acceptance, together with the long-term
strengthening of ethnic identity may have provide some resilience for our participants when
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487

they are confronted with discrimination, reducing the possibility of the depressive and
anxiety symptomatology reported by other victims of discriminatory experiences.
However, it is important to note that in this study we did not examine our participants
mental health by way of diagnostic interview, nor did we assess psychiatric
symptomatology by way of inventories. Rather we were concerned with the emotional
impacts of discrimination and the coping responses used by respondents. Thus, we are not
able to compare our findings directly with those of previous research that has made more
formal attempts to assess physical and mental health outcomes of discrimination.
On that matter, it is important to note that research in the area of perceived discrimination
is constricted by the subjectivity of participants self-definitions of discrimination, which
cannot be objectively measured. While Crocker and Major (1989) pointed out that
perceptions of discrimination are inherently subjective because many possible discriminatory events are ambiguous, and that stigmatized individuals can never be certain whether
negative interactions or outcomes resulted from discrimination or some other factor, Essed
(1991, 1992) argued that people from groups with a history of discrimination against them
(like the Mapuches), have both a situational and general knowledge that allows them to
make such interpretations with great certainty. Nevertheless, it may be that as Mellor (2003)
suggested, some accounts are biased by a victim mentality or stigma consciousness (see
Pinel, 1999, 2002) or political motives brought about by affiliation with the Mapuche ethnic
group and its cause (see Operario & Fiske, 2001).
Another limitation of this study that follows from the above is that it relied on self-report
of discriminatory events, and more particularly the emotional and coping responses to
them, that occurred at any time in the past. As this relies on retrospective recall, the
participants may have reported biased or distorted accounts of events and responses, or
may have failed to report other significant events or reactions. For example, it may be that
some emotions were under-reported as time since the event has diffused the reactions or
made the events seem less significant. This could have been exacerbated by the
snowballing technique used to recruit participants, which may have led to the sample being
made up of like-minded people who have had similar experiences.
Finally, our sample was limited to 50 participants, sampled equally for gender, age and
location across to the two largest urban settings in which Mapuche live. A larger sample
could have enhanced our findings, which may not be generalizable to all Mapuche people.
In conclusion, our study of Mapuche people in Chile found that they experience a variety
of negative emotional responses to the discrimination that they report is perpetrated against
them. These reactions include feeling psychologically wounded, feeling angry, feeling
bad, feeling shamed and powerless. They respond to discrimination in manner to protect
themselves, control themselves or to confront the discrimination. In the long term, although
there are lingering effects, stronger identification with the Mapuche origins can be aroused,
and is identified as a protective factor. Despite this, further research could more formally
assess the relationship between mental health and experiences of discrimination among
Mapuche people, and the development and implementation of anti-discrimination
programmes in Chile are indicated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research reported in this paper was completed with the support of Fondecyt, Chile, for
the project Perceived discrimination in Mapuche discourse and its psychosocial effects.
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Discourse analysis on Mapuches from Temuco and Santiago, Chile (Project #1051047).
The authors wish to acknowledge the input of the Mapuche residents of Temuco and
Santiago who participated in this study, and Cristian Cerda who assisted in the management
and interrogation of the database.

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