Another reason was that, as a result of the Arauco War, indigenous Mapuche people were stolen from their lands, which in turn were exported to Peru, at a much cheaper price than that of a black slave.

The city received this large number of slaves because its territory was optimal for the cultivation of cotton and sugar cane in the Azapa Valley.

During that time, the Spaniards did not live mostly in Arica, as the anopheles, a species of mosquito, present in the Azapa Valley, transmitted the deadly disease of malaria.

Once Spanish presence in Valdivia was reestablished in 1645, authorities had convicts from all-over the Viceroyalty of Peru construct the Valdivian Fort System.

However, traditionally the Spanish colonial army had battalions of blacks divided into slave and free castes, and San Martín believed it even more difficult to gather people of color and whites fighting as a troop in the same unit.

[22] Despite the gradual emancipation of most black slaves in Chile, slavery continued along the Pacific coast of South America throughout the 19th century, as Peruvian slave traders kidnapped Polynesians, primarily from the Marquesas Islands and Easter Island, and forced them to perform physical labour in mines and in the guano industry of Peru and Chile.

One of the African heroes during the war would have been 16-year-old Corporal Alfredo Maldonado Arias, who during the capture of Arica sacrificed himself by setting fire to the gunpowder of the strong Citadel when he saw Chilean troops hoisting their flag in it.

[citation needed] Currently, the majority of Afro-Chileans are concentrated in the extreme north of the country, especially in the Arica and Parinacota Region, particularly in the Lluta, Azapa and La Chimba valleys.

[24] Notwithstanding the initiatives of different national and international social organizations, these have not been successful, since Sebastián Piñera's administration denied the inclusion of the question about the African origin for the last census.,[25] neither were they considered in the Chilean census of 2017.

It dates back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where this mixed musical form began to stand out in the Rímac, Barrios Altos, in neighborhoods of Callao and in bars located between the bridges, alleys and balconies of Lima.

The customary Fernando Romero Pintado indicates that the colonial dance called "Zamba" performed by Bozals and mulattoes is the mother of the zamacueca and grandmother of the sailor.

Around the second half of the twentieth century the claim of the Afro populations in South America burst in with it the Tumbe del valle de azapa.

This, added to the absence of historical ties in the area,[dubious – discuss] provokes a feeling of mistrust, rejection and the appearance of prejudices around the black community.

[37] On the other hand, in the north of Chile, the case of José Corvacho, an Afro-descendant official of the Solidarity and Social Investment Fund (FOSIS) of the Arica and Parinacota Region, was known to public opinion in December 2010, who was fired according to their statements due to their skin color.

[38] This fact led to the resignation of the Regional Director of FOSIS and the corresponding investigations of the case,[39] reopening the debate on ethnic inclusion in the country.

[41] Afro-Chileans have formed various entities and organizations to defend their culture and identity: Organización Cultural Lumbanga, Colectivo de mujeres Luanda, Comparsa de la ONG Oro Negro, Comparsa Tumba Carnaval, Club del adulto mayor Julia Corvacho and Agrupación Arica Negro.