Comunicando un desastre. Un mapa, diversos mensajeros y las noticias imperiales de una sublevación indígena (Arauco, 1598-1610)

Abstract

This work studies how the so-called “Disaster” of Curalaba and the death of Governor Martín Oñez de Loyola, at the hands of indigenous people, in 1598, were communicated. By using a map dated back to 1610, which sought to represent the disaster and the resulting indigenous uprising, an attempt is made to account for the communication and information problems lived in Chile at the beginning of the xvii century. Through various agents, and information exchanged between Lima, Santiago de Chile and Madrid, we built an image of this misfortunate event as a way of diagnosing the situation and depicting the reversibility of military failure. Thus, both messengers and procurators communicated and represented the disgrace of Chile at court, where the Viceroy of the time had a leading voice.