Mitos y Leyendas: The Origin of the Mapuche People

• Mitos y Leyendas tell the amazing story of the origin of the Mapuche people.
• Find out how two animals helped two children in this task.
• Gerry de Bernardo says this story gives a deep understanding of certain values.

Many years ago, in a part of Latin America, there lived a local man with two children, a girl and a boy.

The story begins with the father asking his children to go up the mountain to collect pine nuts, which were an important food in the area during the winter.

The children, even though they were young, helped in picking up these pine nuts that fell from the big Araucaria trees.

As they collected the pine nuts, the weather changed all of a sudden. The wind started to blow from the north, and dark clouds appeared in the sky.

The Children are Left Alone

Even with the father trying to speed up the picking and get back to the valley before the storm started, the weather surprised them in the middle of the mountains.

The heavy rain made the streams become like rivers, and the rivers became risky.

Even when they tried hard, the father and the guanacos with pine nuts were taken by the strong waters.

The children, who had found a safe spot on a tall rock, could only watch as their father and the guanacos were lost in the rough waters.

Help from Above

As more time passed, things got really bad for the children.

The storm didn’t stop, and it looked like they would die from hunger and cold on their rock. But then, something special happened.

A big Copihue tree, which the water had moved, hit the rock where the children were. This tree, which didn’t get destroyed in the flood, saved them.

The children, who knew about using boats and wood, climbed the big tree, which became their boat.

A Puma and a Fox

The tree’s main part, strong and long, was like a bridge on the big river. They hid in the thick parts of the tree to stay dry and, with the tree, went down the river.

As they went, they saw they weren’t alone on the tree.

In its branches, they found bird homes and many small animals. There were rabbits, a snake, and a puma and a fox.

The children were shocked to see the puma and the fox, and were worried. But soon, they knew these animals were not dangerous.

The Children’s Survival

The fox, after losing her babies in the water, became friends with the children and gave them her milk.

This children, very hungry, drank the fox’s milk, and became good friends with the puma and the fox.

These animals looked after them and taught them how to live in the wild. They learned to find food and live in nature.

When it was spring, and there was more food, the fox stopped giving milk, but the children were okay. They remembered what the animals taught them.

The Origin of the Mapuche People

In the end, the children, now good at finding food and living in nature, left the place where they lived with the puma and the fox.

This is how the Mapuche people started, as they wanted to find other kids like them.

This story shows that the Mapuche learned to be strong and smart from the animals that helped them in the flood.

De Bernardo talks about being good friends and working together, even if you are different, like the puma and the fox, who looked after the children when they needed it.