This theoretical work aims to make a diagnosis, by means of a synthetic method with an hypothetical-deductive emphasis, about which are the nuclear social imaginaries of the Chilean nation-state and the Mapuche people, in the context of the conflict between nation-state and Mapuche people. The theoretical approach links the social imaginaries with the construction of identity and otherness. The Castoriadis's contributions around the social imaginary and the theoretical updates by Manuel Antonio Baeza, are used, without detracting from other contributions. The analysis allows to identify and characterize a Western nuclear imaginary based on the idea of modernity-development and an indigenous nuclear imaginary based on the principle of renewal with a cyclical rather than linear time conception.