Nicolás Palacios
Encyclopedia
Nicolás Palacios was a Chile
an physician
and writer
born in Santa Cruz
, best known for his writings on the "Chilean race" and national identity
. His uncopyrighted early 1900s book La Raza Chilena form the ideological backbone of many Chilean Nazi groups.
and a supposed Chilean race
. Palacios elevates the Chilean mestizo
in status since, according to his writings, the Chilean is a mix of two bellicose
master races
: the Visigoths of Spain and the Mapuche
of Chile.
Palacios traces then the origins of the Spanish component of the "Chilean race" to the coast of the Baltic Sea
, specifically to Götaland
in Sweden
, one of the supposed homeland
s of the Goths
. As Palacios explains, at most 10% of the Visigoths mixed with the native Iberians of Spain, while the rest remained racially pure though the Middle Ages. The conquest of Chile
and the War of Arauco
that followed for many years attracted adventurous Spaniards of martial lineage to Chile, thus giving Chile an overwhelming amount of Visigoth heritage and blood, in contrast to other more prosperous Spanish colonies where "merchant peoples" dominated. These Spaniards of supposed Visigoth ancestry would have mingled with native Mapuches, producing the common Chilean Roto
. According to Palacios, about 25,000 Goth
s arrived to Chile during the first five generations after the initial conquest
in the 1540s and 1550s.
Further, Palacios goes on to claim that both the blonde and the bronze coloured Chilean mestizo share a "moral physonomy", and that both think and reason in an identical way. This similarity he states can be found on early Spanish literature about Chile, among them the epic poem
La Araucana
, where Mapuches are frequently compared to the barbaric Germanic tribes that fought the Roman Empire
. Palacios denies that the "Chilean roto
" would be racially a "Latin", and said the Chilean has nothing "Latin" except the language and the surname. Palacios finds in alcoholism also a similarity with the Germanic peoples
of Northern Europe
.
Palacios warns against immigration from Southern Europe
and claims on medical grounds that Mestizo
s derived from Southern Europeans was a lack "cerebral control" and that they are thus a social load. He also states that there is no possibility for the Latin race to produce a "Miguel Cervantes
" or "Michelangelo
" in Chile or elsewhere, because the Latin race in the 20th century is very different from that in the Renaissance
.
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
born in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, Chile
Santa Cruz is a Chilean city and commune, located in the Colchagua valley, in the O'Higgins Region, placed in the southern shore of Tinguiririca river, 110 miles from Santiago, Chile's capital city and 27 miles from San Fernando-History:...
, best known for his writings on the "Chilean race" and national identity
National identity
National identity is the person's identity and sense of belonging to one state or to one nation, a feeling one shares with a group of people, regardless of one's citizenship status....
. His uncopyrighted early 1900s book La Raza Chilena form the ideological backbone of many Chilean Nazi groups.
The Chilean Race
Nicolás Palacios identifies what is typical Chilean with the figure of the rotoRoto
Roto or rota is a Chilean term, considered derogatory, which refers to a person of poverty and vulgar habits of urban origin. It is also used contemptuously to refer to inhabitants of Chile, especially in Peru and Bolivia...
and a supposed Chilean race
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
. Palacios elevates the Chilean mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
in status since, according to his writings, the Chilean is a mix of two bellicose
Martial Race
Martial Race was a designation created by Army officials of British India, where they classified each ethnic group into one of two categories: 'Martial' and 'Non-Martial'. A 'martial race' was typically considered brave and well built for fighting. The 'non-martial races' were those whom the...
master races
Master race
Master race was a phrase and concept originating in the slave-holding Southern US. The later phrase Herrenvolk , interpreted as 'master race', was a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic peoples, one of the branches of what in the late-19th and early-20th century was called the Aryan race,...
: the Visigoths of Spain and the Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...
of Chile.
Palacios traces then the origins of the Spanish component of the "Chilean race" to the coast of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, specifically to Götaland
Götaland
Götaland , Gothia, Gothland, Gothenland, Gautland or Geatland is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises provinces...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, one of the supposed homeland
Homeland
A homeland is the concept of the place to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin...
s of the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
. As Palacios explains, at most 10% of the Visigoths mixed with the native Iberians of Spain, while the rest remained racially pure though the Middle Ages. The conquest of Chile
Conquest of Chile
The Conquest of Chile is a period in Chilean historiography that starts with the arrival of Pedro de Valdivia to Chile in 1541 and ends with the death of Martín García Óñez de Loyola, in the Battle of Curalaba in 1598 or alternatively with the Destruction of the Seven Cities. This was the period...
and the War of Arauco
Arauco War
The Arauco War was a conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people in what is now the Araucanía and Biobío regions of modern Chile...
that followed for many years attracted adventurous Spaniards of martial lineage to Chile, thus giving Chile an overwhelming amount of Visigoth heritage and blood, in contrast to other more prosperous Spanish colonies where "merchant peoples" dominated. These Spaniards of supposed Visigoth ancestry would have mingled with native Mapuches, producing the common Chilean Roto
Roto
Roto or rota is a Chilean term, considered derogatory, which refers to a person of poverty and vulgar habits of urban origin. It is also used contemptuously to refer to inhabitants of Chile, especially in Peru and Bolivia...
. According to Palacios, about 25,000 Goth
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
s arrived to Chile during the first five generations after the initial conquest
Conquest of Chile
The Conquest of Chile is a period in Chilean historiography that starts with the arrival of Pedro de Valdivia to Chile in 1541 and ends with the death of Martín García Óñez de Loyola, in the Battle of Curalaba in 1598 or alternatively with the Destruction of the Seven Cities. This was the period...
in the 1540s and 1550s.
Further, Palacios goes on to claim that both the blonde and the bronze coloured Chilean mestizo share a "moral physonomy", and that both think and reason in an identical way. This similarity he states can be found on early Spanish literature about Chile, among them the epic poem
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
La Araucana
La Araucana
La Araucana is an epic poem in Spanish about the Spanish conquest of Chile, by Alonso de Ercilla; it is also known in English as The Araucaniad...
, where Mapuches are frequently compared to the barbaric Germanic tribes that fought the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Palacios denies that the "Chilean roto
Roto
Roto or rota is a Chilean term, considered derogatory, which refers to a person of poverty and vulgar habits of urban origin. It is also used contemptuously to refer to inhabitants of Chile, especially in Peru and Bolivia...
" would be racially a "Latin", and said the Chilean has nothing "Latin" except the language and the surname. Palacios finds in alcoholism also a similarity with the Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
of Northern Europe
Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
.
Palacios warns against immigration from Southern Europe
Southern Europe
The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...
and claims on medical grounds that Mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
s derived from Southern Europeans was a lack "cerebral control" and that they are thus a social load. He also states that there is no possibility for the Latin race to produce a "Miguel Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
" or "Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
" in Chile or elsewhere, because the Latin race in the 20th century is very different from that in the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
.