Turbinas y electricidad para la mina, lámparas a parafina para la población. Crónica de una asimetría del capitalismo minero en Tocopilla (1914-1942)

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the new local plot that occurred with the installation of a powerful thermal plant in Tocopilla in 1914, The Chile Exploration Company. It is described and analyzed a satellite industrialization of Tocopilla, its re-articulation and redefinition in the dialectic with Chuquicamata. It is proposed a historicization process of thermal electrification, which it is constituent of a true technological revolution on a large scale. Also, in a second part, it is described the means and the community illusion to achieve the electrification system of the people just in 1942, a process occurred in a context of dissociation of foreign capital with the local territory that built asymmetries.