Elicura Chihuailaf

Elicura Chihuailaf is a definitive voice of contemporary Mapuche poetry. He writes in both Mapuzugun and Spanish, and he has translated works by other poets, such as Pablo Neruda, into Mapuzugun. His published works include En el país de la memoria (1988), El invierno, su imagen y otros poemas azules (1991), and De sueños azules y contrasueños (1995), Recado confidencial a los chilenos (1999), Kallfv (2006), A orillas de un sueño azul (2010), La vida es una nube azul (2019), and El azul del tiempo que nos sueña (2020). In 2020, he was awarded the National Literature Prize of Chile, becoming the first Mapuche writer to receive this honor. He has been referred to as the lonko, or headman, of present-day Mapuche poetry.