ABSTRACT
This chapter 1 explores the experiences of Mapuche people who are the first generation in their families to attend university and how participation in Higher Education shapes their identities. It draws on a sample of 40 life stories recounted by a group of Mapuche students who live in the capital city Santiago or in the Araucanía region in southern Chile and who have gained a level of educational mobility. I argue that participants have to face several difficulties and disadvantages during their attendance at university. They have to negotiate their Mapuche identities, and face the tension of structural racism and ethnic boundaries. However, despite all these difficulties my participants managed to achieve a university education and to experience some degree of upward social mobility in their subsequent occupations. Their stories underscore their experience of agency as well as suffering.
