“Santa Fe mo (inche ñi mapu mo cay)”. Vida familiar en la reducción fronteriza de Santa Fe, Chile (Siglo XVIII)

This article explores some characteristic aspects in shaping and articulation of the Mapuche families settled within the frontier town of Santa Fe (Chile) during the eighteenth century. Santa Fe, like the rest of the reducciones situated on the banks of the Biobio River, represented a negotiated space where indigenous families deployed strategies hybrid nature to preserve and enhance their agency within the Spanish colonial system. Among these strategies we do find the peculiar settlement systems, marriage practices, the role played by the caciques governors and notions concerning ownership and occupation of space.