Tierra del Fuego

07/31/25

“What makes the southern tip of the Americas so special?”

When one pictures South America, many think of lush, dense jungles that keep hot and humid all year. But at the very southern tip of the continent is a very special archipelago that looks nothing like what’s described above. Tierra del Fuego, Spanish for “land of the fire”, is an archipelago divided between Argentina and Chile that features mountains, forests, and even glaciers. While beautiful, the islands are the traditional homelands of the Selkʼnams, Kawésqar, Haush, and Yaghan people, who suffered from genocide by the colonial Euro-South American nation-states now occupying the land.