The agrarian question and the copper in the Province of El Loa (1929/30 - 2006/07). Andes south-central, northern Chile

Abstract

The Province of El Loa, historically inhabited by the Andean population dedicated to agriculture, herding and exchange activities, has occupied a strategic place in the expansion of Chilean copper industry and its international insertion. Here is located Chuquicamata, the largest copper mine in the world by an important part of the 20th century. To advance in the understanding of the territory that produces this activity, we carry out a historical-structural analysis of the agriculture practiced in the province between 1929/30 and 2006/07. We characterize analytically the agrarian transformations of the area relating their development with the expansion of the great copper mining. Theoretically, we position ourselves from the paradigm of the agrarian question, which we re-problematize by linking it with the studies on extractivism. Methodologically we use descriptive statistics of agricultural censuses for the characterization of the agrarian structure, and historical and secondary sources that allow us to understand their connections with the copper exploitation.