Polifonía y argumentación en los discursos de los representantes aymara en la convención constituyente de chile de 2021-2022

Abstract

This study analyses the discursive phenomenon of polyphony in the interventions of Aymara representatives during the Chilean Constitutional Convention (2021-2022). Based on an examination of 81 plenary interventions by Luis Jiménez Cáceres and Isabella Mamani Mamani, it investigates the polyphonic strategies employed to construct legitimacy and reinforce Indigenous demands within a historically exclusionary institutional space. The findings reveal that polyphony functions as a fundamental argumentative tool in the political discourse of Aymara delegates. The main results include: the absence of reportative evidential markers, largely attributed to the explicit reference to the original source of information; the use of the pronoun “we” as an expression of collective agency; the invocation of ancestral knowledge as a source of cultural authority; and the citation of legal texts and international organizations as a strategy of institutional legitimization. The study demonstrates that polyphony not only structures Indigenous political discourse but also operates as a mechanism of resistance and visibility, through which Aymara representatives challenge dominant narratives and assert their identity and history within the framework of the Chilean constitutional process.