Chilenization of Tacna, Arica and Tarapacá

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.

The president of Peru Nicolás de Piérola entrusted writer Modesto Molina with the organization of private schools in Tacna and Arica.

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.

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.

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).

[20] 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.

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.

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 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 1904, the lodge "Universal Fraternity" №20 ended its activities, with Julio Arturo Ego-Aguirre being its last president, recognizing that it was threatened by dangers which it had to face.

The lodge "Morro de Arica" №29, due to the death of some of its members, the abandonment of the city by others and the disconnection with the Peruvian central, also ended its activities in 1904.

[22] The Federation of Students of the University of Chile openly criticized the jingoism, xenophobia and militarism in its official magazine "Claridad".

When they condemned the Chilean government for the absurd mobilization called the War of Don Ladislao just to distract citizens' attention, on 21 July 1920 its headquarters was attacked and destroyed by nationalist groups and its leaders were arrested.

who came from Peru, in this unprecedented policy of hatred our wise men and our statesmen spent the millions of the Nation.However, by the time the historian Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna pronounced his famous phrase "Do not let go of the Morro" (Spanish: No soltéis el Morro), which fellow historian Gonzalo Bulnes considered a historical cry, the definitive annexation of Tacna and especially Arica had become the majority's opinion in Chilean society.

El Tacora by Roberto Freyre Arias, was the Peruvian newspaper that published criticism of the Chilean military, administrative and judicial authorities.

On 2 June 1926, the American ambassador William Collier collected the information that 250 Peruvians from Tacna and Arica lived in Santiago against his will.

The community members of Challaviento accused the police of having raped a young woman and of murdering a Bolivian resident who served as mayor.

Fearing reprisals, the Aymara communities of Toquela, Palquilla, Ataspaca, Caplina and Challaviento decided to withdraw north towards Peruvian territory.

In 1927, the government of Peru granted a loan of £2,000 to pay for the damages suffered in Tacna by the owner of a pharmacy set on fire by a Chilean mob.

The 28 July 1897 edition of the newspaper"Morro de Arica" published the statement: We are in the sixteenth year of captivity, without seeing our beloved bicolor flying; day by day drinking the cup of the most cruel misfortune.The Peruvian national holidays, organized by the Peruvian Society of Charity, were celebrated with parades, speeches and other public events until July 30, and were attended by the Chilean authorities.

The newspaper Morro de Arica published: Today we will not celebrate the anniversary of our political emancipation with the splendor of other years, contenting ourselves with raising a altar to the homeland in the deepest recesses of our hearts and in the silence that has been imposed on us.In Tacna, in August 1900, a military priest came from Santiago to perform public masses, as well as masses in the Arica hospital.

The Morro de Arica newspaper published a poem by Enrique del Piélago: Let us then stand like the Roman, and let us lay our hand on our chests.

Let us say to the Homeland without ceasing: That today her captive sons love their homeland more than ever, and while they live, It is only she who they will be able to love.On 18 July 1911, about eight hundred Chilean day laborers who worked on the Arica-La Paz railway, were in Tacna who attacked and destroyed in four hours, the Peruvian newspapers La Voz del Sur and El Tacora Then they entered the Club de la Unión where they destroyed the premises.

The Freyre family, owners of La Voz del Sur, accused the lawyer Salvador Allende Castro of the incident.

In 1910 there were Peruvian printing shops, schools, firefighters, clubs, mutuals, companies, lodges, and priests in Tarapacá that coexisted without difficulty with the Chilean population.

The beginning of the Chileanization took place with the emergence of the Patriotic Leagues that began the groundwork for an ethnic cleansing of the northern provinces of Chile.

In 1926, the Peruvian teacher Ema Venegas in Alto San Antonio was accused of antipatriotism by not attending the celebration of 18 September as well as Haydee Murillo in Pica, whose teachings had to be monitored by the local authorities.

The labor newspaper El Despertar de los Trabajadores by Luis Emilio Recabarren, Chilean union leader, was one of those that suffered the filling and fire at the hands of the patriotic leagues.

In Callao they were marginalized and treated as "Chileanized", again suffering discrimination from their compatriots, and they decided to go to Putumayo, San Martín, Ramón Castilla, Maynas and the Amazon Trapezoid.

This last area would be ceded to Colombia under the Salomón-Lozano Treaty, which also would affect other settlements, with the original inhabitants moving south, re-forming their again lost homes.