William Yankes takes his title, CHILE: un Cautiverio feliz? from the XVII century Chilean canonical work, Cautiverio feliz (1673. Republished in 1864) by Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, a Chilean-born soldier for the army of the King of Spain. During a bloody battle, the Conquest-era author was imprisoned by the indigenous with whom the Conquistador fought to seize their lands, which is now Chile. The young army captain and Conquistador, Bascuñán, was well-treated by the indigenous Mapuche. He then wrote his letter to the king of Spain asking to stop the slaughter and recognize the indigenous as human beings. It is said, the king never read his Letter.

Yankes' work underscores the crossing the frontiers of prejudice, of ignorance of the other's exotic culture. It describes indigenous cosmology, their reverence for nature, their magical ceremonies, the independent role of women, their respect for valor and the wisdom of the elderly. Yankes claims the XVII century chronicle is, in reality, Latin America's first novel. It draws the parallel that the past weighs heavily on the present. It points to the hard-to-bear fact that the wars of the Spanish Conquest never stopped. Today, those wars are fought by nature-destructive corporations, dictatorships, and military governments whose violence is often bent on displacing indigenous populations from their ancestral lands for oligarchy control and foreign corporate investments. Despite the title highlighting Chile, it pertains to any country where violence is the method to extract natural resources, leaving behind pollution and the communities to the plight of indigence and forced migrations. The title's questions invites social debate around the notion are we living in captivity? Are we happy in captivity? The answer is inferred in the title's prompting question; if we are indeed not happy, what are we going to do about it?