COIRÓN

In the Southern Chilean region of Magallanes, ageing gauchos known as puesteros, live and work alone for months at a time across vast private ranches.

Their lives, defined by solitude, silence, and backbreaking labour on land they do not own, offer little security when age and injury begin to take their toll. As a result of enduring these conditions for decades, many of these men are left grappling with profound mental health challenges.

Meanwhile, the wider region is undergoing social, cultural, and economic change. As fewer young people feel the desire to pursue a life on the land, the traditions and knowledge that have sustained life on the estancias for generations are rapidly fading. Caught between preserving their culture and adapting to an uncertain future, these puesteros embody the tensions of a changing Patagonia.

Their interweaving stories form an intimate, complex portrait of rural life in contemporary Chile. A meditation on stillness, human resilience and the inevitable passing of time.

Coirón (noun) /ˈkɔɪ.rɒn/: The native grass of the Patagonian pampa, enduring wind, cold, drought, and poor soil, surviving where little else does.

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