Chuquicamata Twenty Years Later

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. TWENTY years is a short span in the life of a community, but the last two decades have brought many changes to the north Chilean mining center of Chuquicamata and its surroundings, as I found upon my return in I948. The mlining company had greatly increased its output of refined copper, overcome grave technical problems, weathered a severe depression, and furnished important aid to the United States during the Second World War. More striking still was the advancement in living conditions in this conmmunity situated at 9200 feet in a most arid desert.Today Chuquicamata counts some 25,000 people, nearly half as many again as in I928. A few of the primitive old houses remain, but all about them are new, modern buildings. The increase in population has created a housing shortage, and this is being met by the erection of prefabricated concrete houses of four to six roonms, earthquake-proof, with full kitchen and sanitary conveniences. Disposal of garbage is ingenious: it is collected, dumped at the foot of the mine-tailings pile, and covered as the pile grows. As the streets are neater and cleaner, so are the people. No longer do flour sacks do duty as apparel; the workmen and their families are fully as well clothed as their counterparts in an industrial town in the United States. They enjoy sports baseball, basketball, football motion pictures, and other forms of recreation. Gardening, too, has been encouraged and adds greatly to the anmenities of life. More than 30 varieties of flowers are grown in the little gardens; despite winter winds and freezing ground temperatures, there are blooms throughout the year, and many a pepper tree as well. On the other hand, some picturesque features of the old days have disappeared. The horses of the twenties are gone, and the hitching posts, and the ramadas in whose shade staff members sheltered their mounts; the spacious corral at the east end of the plant has been turned to other uses. Mule pack trains no longer cross the pampa below the town. The burro and the llama, common on the Bolivian altiplano, are rarities; all kinds of cars, buses, and trucks have replaced them. I have always found the Chilean a good workman, especially if he has an incentive. Now a desire for education is evident. The grammar schools teach useful arts and sciences as well as the three R's, and there are plans for > MR. RUDOLPH, Corresponding Member of the American Geographical Society and a frequent contributor to the Geographical Review, is chief engineer at the Chuquicamata property. This content downloaded from 194.29.185.180 on Fri, 9 May 2014...

CARAVANS OF THE NORTH: A COMPARISON OF 20 th C CARAVANS IN NORTHERN CANADA AND NORTHERN CHILE

“…Llareta (Azorella yareta), a flowering plant found in the puna, was traditionally collected for fuel and transported by human and llama. Rudolph, the American geographer who first visited the Atacama region in 1922 (Rudolph 1951(Rudolph , 1963, noted that after roads were constructed into the region, cars were used to haul llareta. As the llareta became scarce along the roadways, llamas were used to collect the plant from distant and vehicle-inaccessible areas and bring it to the roadways, until the availability of this slowgrowing plant became too scarce to be viable.…”

Jobs and kindness: W.E. Rudolph's role in the shaping of perceptions of mining company-indigenous community relations in the Atacama Desert, Chile

“…During his free time, he extensively photographed the region of Atacama and its inhabitants. At the same time, he wrote a series of articles for the Geographical Review, published by the American Geographical Society, of which he was a member (Rudolph, 1927(Rudolph, , 1951(Rudolph, , 1952(Rudolph, , 1955a.…”

Entre Dos Aguas: Identidad Moral en La Relación Entre Corporaciones Mineras Y La Comunidad Indígena De Toconce en El Desierto De Atacama

“…Durante sus tiempos libres se dedicó con ahínco a fotografiar la región de Atacama y sus pobladores. A su vez, escribió una serie de artículos que fueron publicados en la revista 'Geographical Review' de la Sociedad Geográfica Americana de la cual era miembro (Rudolph 1927(Rudolph , 1951(Rudolph , 1952(Rudolph , 1955.…”