Pedro César Cayuqueo Millaqueo (born 28 December 1975) is a Chilean journalist and activist of indigenous Mapuche descent involved in the Mapuche conflict.
Biography
Pedro Cayuqueo Millaqueo was raised in the Cacique Luis Millaqueo indigenous community, located in the commune of Nueva Imperial. He was written eight books on opinion journalism, investigative journalism and historical revisionism, all of which revolve around the Mapuche cause and were published by Catalonia. His best-selling book is "Historia Secreta Mapuche" (Secret Mapuche History, 2017). He was the founder and first executive editor of the newspapers Mapuche Times and Azkintuwe, in Temuco, both of which circulated for over a decade and were also published in Argentina. He was the presenter of the TV program "Kulmapu" – a show centered in the Mapuche culture – which aired on CNN Chile and VTR in 2015 and 2016. He has been a regular columnist at The Clinic and Caras magazine, and has also written for the newspapers El Austral de Temuco and La Tercera.
In the mid 90s, he entered Law School at Temuco Catholic University with the intention of becoming the first Mapuche lawyer to take their cause to the Courts of Justice. Then, in 1998, he joined the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM), and one year later – acting as its spokesman – he delivered an address before the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. As soon as he returned to his country, in May 1999, Special Prosecutor Archivaldo Loyola ordered his imprisonment accusing him of usurpation of land, theft of wood and misprision of felony, along with other leaders of the CAM. The legal actions taken against Cayuqueo by the Chilean government forced him to drop out of Law School, and – although briefely – he was incarcerated more than once, serving time in the prisons of Lebu, Traiguén and Nueva Imperial. He left the CAM in 2001.
He then went on to become a journalist, in order to defend the Mapuche cause from a less confrontational position.
From 2012 to 2016 he was a member of the Advisory Board at the Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos, and has also been in the board of directors at the Think tank "Espacio Público" and the "Corporación de Profesionales Mapuche". In 2021, he published The Wallmapu, a compilation of stories involving anti-Mapuche racism and the cultural movement of the Mapuche. The title is a play on words, combining "Wallmapu" (from Mapudungún, "our land"), the historical name for the Mapuche territory, with the title of Pink Floyd's album The Wall.
His latest literary work is a children's book entitled "Iñchiñ" (We), published in 2022.
Cayuqueo is the father of one daughter and currently resides in Viña del Mar.
Works
Solo por ser indios, Catalonia, Santiago, 2012
La voz de los lonkos, Catalonia, Santiago, 2013
Esa ruca llamada Chile, Catalonia, Santiago, 2014
Huenchumilla. La historia del hombre de oro, Catalonia, Santiago, 2015
Fuerte Temuco, Catalonia, Santiago, 2016
Historia secreta mapuche, Catalonia, Santiago, 2017
Porfiada y rebelde es la memoria, Catalonia, Santiago, 2018
Historia secreta mapuche 2, Catalonia, Santiago, 2020
The Wallmapu, Catalonia, Santiago, 2021
Iñchiñ, Catalonia, Santiago, 2022
Awards
Premio del Colegio de Periodistas de Chile, 2011
Premio al Periodismo Iberoamericano Samuel Chavkin, 2013 (North American Congress on Latin America and New York University Santiago Municipal Literature Award, best non-fiction work for Historia secreta mapuche, 2018