The Chilenization of Tacna, Arica, and Tarapacá refers to a process of forced acculturation implemented by Chile in the former Peruvian territories of Tacna, Arica, and Tarapacá following their occupation during the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). The primary objective was to assert Chilean cultural and national identity in these regions, which had previously been part of Peru.
The process involved a range of measures aimed at weakening Peruvian influence and consolidating Chilean control. These included the closure of Peruvian-run schools, the expulsion of Peruvian clergy and interference in religious institutions, the expansion of Chile's military presence into civilian areas such as Tacna, the promotion of Chilean media and propaganda, restrictions on Peruvian press and political activities, and a policy of encouraging Chilean colonization.
Chile's refusal to ratify the Billinghurst-Latorre Protocol, which had aimed to resolve the status of Tacna and Arica, marked the beginning of systematic Chilenization efforts in those provinces. Some historians also note that British economic interests—particularly the unification of saltpeter mining operations under a single political authority—played a role in influencing the outcome of the war and its aftermath.
Background
Starting from the Chilean silver rush in the 1830s, Atacama (a Bolivian region) was prospected and populated by Chileans backed by Chilean and European (mainly British) capital.Bethell, Leslie. 1993. Chile Since Independence. Cambridge University Press. pp. 13-14. Chilean and foreign enterprises in the region eventually extended their control to the Bolivian saltpeter mines. During the 1870s, Peru capitalized on the guano exploitation and nationalized all industries in Tarapacá, but Bolivian enterprises in its territory remained in private hands. Peru controlled 58.8% of all saltpeter production, while Chile held 19% and the United Kingdom 13.5%.British Influence on the Salt: The Origin, Nature and Decline, Soto Cárdenas, Alejandro. Santiago : Ed. University of Santiago de Chile, 1998. Page 50
According to the 1876 census, Peruvians represented the majority of the population in Tarapacá, followed by Chileans and Bolivians. Conflicts between Chilean and Bolivian miners were common in Peruvian saltpeterworks. However, there was no dispute about the Peruvian sovereignty of this territory. In fact, before the war, Peru's southern border was with Bolivia and not Chile.
After the War of the Pacific and the Treaty of Ancón, the Department of Tarapacá was given unconditionally to Chile, with Moqueguan Tacna and Arica being awarded to Chile being reorganized into the new Tacna Province, under the condition that a plebiscite be carried out ten years down the line. Such a plebiscite would never take place, however.
Peruvian and Chilean activity Territorial administration In 1884, the Tacna Province was created by Chile, being divided into three Departments: Tarata, Tacna, and Arica. The Tarapacá Province was also created, being divided into the departments of Pisagua and Tarapacá (after 1927 Iquique). Chilean government institutions were put into place, and streets were renamed:
CityPeruvian nameCurrent name TacnaAlamedaBaquedano28 de Julio26 de MayoMatrizPrat2 de MayoGeneral del CantoSiete VueltasCarrera Pinto Arica 7 de Enero 7 de Junio Calle del Telégrafo Arturo Prat Chucuito Pasaje Sangra Nueva Calle de la Matriz Baquedano BidaubiquePatricio Lynch Zapata General Lagos Prado Blanco EncaladaAyacuchoYungay28 de JulioRafael SotomayorAtahualpa (as well as its extension Maipú)Maipo2 de Mayo21 de MayoBolognesiGeneral Velásquez IquiqueTacnaObispo Labbé Zela Luis Uribe Arequipa & 2 de Mayo Patricio Lynch Junín Eleuterio Ramírez Ayacucho Bartolomé Vivar Puno Barros Arana Hospital Amunátegui Cavancha Juan Martínez Cajamarca Sotomayor Santa Rosa & Vigil Esmeralda Lima & Tarata Ignacio Serrano Calle Nueva Manuel Thomson Ancash Latorre & Riquelme Ucayali Alejandro Gorostiaga Marañón Arturo Wilson Huancavelica Baquedano Tumbes Manuel Orella Camiña Pedro Lagos La Libertad Covadonga Pichincha Roberto Souper (today Arturo Prat) Plaza del Reloj Plaza Arturo Prat Plaza Mercado Plaza Carlos Condell Plaza Escuela Taller Plaza Manuel Montt (today Mercado Centenario)
Discrimination against the Peruvian population was notorious in the public works promoted by the Chilean government such as one that harmed the oasis of Pica and the nearby valleys of Quisma and Matilla, since their waters were expropriated to supply Iquique. Chileanization did not have a positive effect on the already existing population, as the Chilean newspaper La Voz de Valparaíso noted:
The process of Chileanization of Tacna and Arica was directly related to the negotiations for the plebiscite established in the Treaty of Ancón.
Education
Chileanization was sponsored by the Chilean government, where classes were held with Chilean textbooks, and where disciplines such as gymnastics, pre-military exercises, and school shooting were emphasized. In contrast, the Peruvians of Tacna, Arica and Tarapacá created and maintained their own schools, in order to instill Peruvian values in their children.
The president of Peru Nicolás de Piérola entrusted writer Modesto Molina with the organization of private schools in Tacna and Arica. Oswaldo Zeballos Ortiz, director of the "Peruvian School of Arica" expressed to his students, on 23 December 1899:
At the beginning of the year 1900, the Chilean government decided to close all Peruvian schools. In June of the same year, materials arrived for the Chilean public schools that would be created in the territories of Tacna and Arica, and which began operating on 1 March 1901. Faced with the measure adopted by the Chilean authorities, the Peruvian inhabitants decided to create clandestine education centers. Thus, for example, the Peruvian historian Jorge Basadre had to study in a clandestine school called "Santa Rosa", directed by the Peruvian Carlota Pinto de Gamallo, using the Chilean text of José Abelardo Núñez, until he traveled to Lima aged nine. Valparaíso's La Unión newspaper noted:
In all lyceums, Peruvian students were forced to wear a Chilean cockade and sing the Chilean national anthem.
Military Chile established compulsory military service in September 1900, through Law No. 1,362, on "Recruits and Replacements of the Army and Navy", which established compulsory conscription for men between 20 and 45 years of age, for a period of one year.
The Chilean authorities applied such regulations on the provinces of Tacna, Arica and Tarapacá. The Supreme Court of Chile, in October 1917, when resolving an appeal in the fund filed by young children of Peruvians born in the province of Tacna, considered that the territories of Tacna and Arica were fully subject to Chilean sovereignty and formed an integral part of its territory and that, therefore, people born there after the conclusion of the Ancón Treaty, even if they were children of Peruvians, were Chileans and had to comply with the obligations imposed on them by the law on army recruits and replacements.Contra Copaja y otros, en Revista de Derecho y Jurisprudencia (1918), Año XV, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. 191-196 Therefore, young Peruvians living in the Tacna and Arica area were recruited and sent to Santiago to serve in the Chilean Army. As a result, in order not to perform military service, Peruvian men within the conscription age range began to leave the area, declining in population the cities of Tacna and Arica and turning them into cities inhabited by Peruvian women, the elderly, and children. Similar situations also occurred in Tarapacá, although on a smaller scale and in a different context. In Tarapacá, the population of Peruvian origin was not the majority and Peru had relinquished its sovereignty over the area according to the Treaty of Ancón.
By 1919 in Tacna, due to conscription for military service, of the 19,000 remaining inhabitants, 8,000 were Chilean military; for this reason, many women from Tacna remained single. This scenario is described in the play La Senorita de Tacna by Mario Vargas Llosa, based on the experiences of his aunt Mamaé (where he relates how "Elvira" has a sentimental relationship with "Joaquín", a Chilean officer, reading verses by the poet Federico Barreto).
Religion
In ecclesiastical matters, although owned by Chile, the territories of Tacna and Arica continued to depend on the Diocese of Arequipa, in Peru, as had been ordered by the Holy See. Peruvian priests used their position to keep their attachment to their homeland alive, through the use of the pulpit. The preaching and the sermon were projected in the homes to the Peruvian citizens, who in social gatherings, pamphlets and civic events also showed their identification with their national origin.
In 1909, a secret document was circulated, prepared by a Chilean Special Consultative Commission, which recommended, in order to secure the territories of Tacna and Arica for itself, to "[…] expel the Peruvian priests and replace them with other Chilean ones." Soon after, in order to dismantle the nationalism of the Peruvians, Chile chose to replace the priests of Peruvian origin, beginning with the parish priests. This policy would have repercussions on the relations between the Holy See and the Chilean government and would generate the incidents between the FECh and Monsignor Sibilia, the papal nuncio in 1913.
The mayor of Tacna, Máximo Lira, on 27 February 1910, decreed the expulsion of such priests, in compliance with the orders issued by the minister Agustín Edwards Mac-Clure; They were detained at the police station by the prefect Manuel Barahona and, on the following 15 March, guarded by nine police officers, they were taken to Sama. The expelled priests were: José María Flores Mextre (parish priest of Tacna); Juan Vitaliano Berroa (parish priest of Arica); Francisco Quiroz (priest of Tacna); José Mariano Indacochea Zeballos (priest of Codpa); José Félix Cáceres (priest of Tarata); Juan Gualberto Guevara (auxiliary of the Arica parish, who later was cardinal and archbishop of Lima); Esteban Toccafondi (priest of Sama). This fact motivated a new break in diplomatic relations between Peru and Chile.
On the other hand, when the military chaplains of Chile assumed part of the task of creating feelings of Chileanness in the region, the celebration of the Virgen de las Peñas festival was prohibited, promoting its replacement by the veneration of the Virgen del Carmen. patron of the Chilean Army. Likewise, the Fiesta de La Tirana, a religious celebration of Aymara origin, which at the end of the 19th century was held on various dates - 6 August for Bolivians, 28 July for Peruvians, and July 16 for the Chileans–, around 1910, it was included in the Chilean calendar, setting a single day for it: 16 July evoking the Virgen del Carmen; being affected in this way the old brotherhoods of Peruvian and Bolivian origin.
Lodges and civil organizations
The Peruvian inhabitants, in order to preserve the national values in the areas owned by Chile, and promote the collection of funds for the eventual payment, stipulated in the Treaty of Ancón, established various associations and Masonic lodges.
In 1893 the Peruvian lodge "Constancia y Concordia" was created in Tacna, presided over by Rómulo Cúneo y Vidal. Towards 1898 there were in Arica the Peruvian lodges "Morro de Arica" No.12, dependent on the Supreme Confederate Council of Peru and "Universal Fraternity" No.20, dependent on the Grand Lodge of Peru.