Patagonia is a geographic region located in the extreme south of

America, including areas of southern Argentina and Chile.

Politically, the region is divided into two: the Patagonia Argentina,
east (which includes the provinces of Neuqun, Black River,
Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South
Atlantic Islands) and the Chilean Patagonia, to the west (covering
the regions of Los Lagos, Aysen of General Carlos Ibez del
Campo and Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica).

The Mapuche are a people derived from the Araucanians. Around 500 years d. C. settled in the
region of the foothill lakes of Chile's central valley groups considered as ancestors of the
Mapuche. These populations were extended as far south as the river Maulln in Chile and
possibly westward, occupying the north and center of the present province of Neuqun. When
the Spaniards arrived, the Mapuche ("people of the land"), lived in the region between the rivers
Itata and Toltn. They shared with Picunche ("people of the north") and Huiliche ("people of the
south") the same language, which extended from the river Choapa, to Chiloe in the south. The
Mapuche began to enter the Argentine territory pushed by the Spanish persecution and attracted
by the wild cattle from the seventeenth century. This massive influx of the Mapuche in southern
Argentina provinces meant a considerable change in both cultures, not only of the Mapuche
culture, but also of Argentina Southern culture. This long process of miscegenation and cultural
exchange resulted paisana current population of the provinces of Neuqun, Chubut River and
Black.