Abstract

The study addresses the tense convergence of proprietary notions that small and medium farmers held in litigation to access land. The Guacarhue Valley, an agricultural space in the central area of Chile, which, since 1820, underwent tension due to the formalization of land rights, was chosen as the observation scenario. A case study, found that the actors, arguing in response to access interests about this real state, made it possible to find dissimilar proprietary notions. On the one hand, it arose on the basis that the property had in residences experiences, settlement and work, as a legacy of the jurisdictional culture of the colonial period. On the other hand, there was the emerging exclusive validity of the public deed. The analysis corroborates the litigious practice as an instance of redefinition and promotion of proprietary notions. This proposal's originality lies in the possibility of transcending the institutional uses that the actors made concerning land policies of the new states in Latin America, as has been maintained so far. It allows, however, to understand these litigating experiences as one of the foundational axes of those policies.