La Minga (The work party)

"This was one of the largest 'mingas' (work parties) I've seen in my life, a tremendous collaboration by the community to move the house where the writer Francisco Coloane was born to the Quemchi river waterfront, to be turned into a cultural center. They had to overcome many obstacles, including dragging the house by oxen, navigating the currents of the channel and withstanding the hostile climate of the region.


The most important thing about mingas is that they are ancient, ancestral forms of cooperation among rural families to do things like moving a house, collecting food for a neighbor and helping to rebuild a home that’s been destroyed. What I like about the minga is that it’s a functioning system which has survived the march of time, technology and social and economic development, even during the current global crisis."


Natalia Carolina Castro Padilla (born 1978), Puerto Montt