Abstract ID: 3.10510 | Accepted as Talk | Talk | TBA | TBA

Torres del Paine National Park is a protected area located in the Magallanes region of Southern Chilean Patagonia, whose “snow-capped peaks, granite towers and extensive glaciers (…) surrounded by lakes” (Ceruti, 2020) have symbolic importance in the cosmovision of indigenous peoples and in the constant growth of tourism in Patagonia, associated with imaginaries of freedom, adventure and “extreme” nature. Hiking in Torres del Paine is not “high-altitude mountaineering” as in the Himalayas : it involves trekking in structured circuits, lasting between 1 and 7 days – which is a different approach to most of the Himalayan tourism as it does not aim for a summit, but rather “being with the mountain” (Sherpherd, 2021). The objective of this presentation is to share the results of a preliminary investigation that interrogates the masculinities of porters working at Torres del Paine, thanks to data from interviews, fieldwork notes and references to “mountain literature”, and based on a theoretical-methodological framework that places the body, understood as “material and social vehicle” and the primary territory of analysis, in which what affects the territory also affects the body, and vice-versa (Ulloa, 2021). The presentation aims to offer food for thought on the construction of the masculine identities and sexualities in mountain areas, based on the stories of these porters, for whom physical effort and fraternity is central in their daily work. We will examine the role of the body and physical emotions/sensations, as their (sensitive) relationships with “nature” in the “building” of their masculinities. We will also examine the invisibilization of these porters in the circuits, who are experiencing power imbalances within a system of capitalist tourism.