Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works

Riccardo Riva, http://www.viaggiarechepassione.it

Humberstone and Santa Laura works contain over 200 former saltpeter works where workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in company towns and forged a distinctive communal pampinos culture. That culture is manifest in their rich language, creativity, and solidarity, and, above all, in their pioneering struggle for social justice, which had a profound impact on social history.

Situated in the remote desert Pampa, one of the driest deserts on earth, thousands of pampinos lived and worked in this hostile environment, for over 60 years, from 1880, to process the largest deposit of saltpeter in the world, producing the fertilizer sodium nitrate that was to transform agricultural lands in North and South America, and in Europe, and produce great wealth for Chile.

Because of the vulnerability of the structures and because of the impact of a recent earthquake, the site was also placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, to help mobilize resources for its conservation.

Year	Decision	Comments
2005	In Danger
2005	Inscribed	Reasons for inscription

Reviews

Maria Pastora Sandoval Campos (Chile):
It was a wonderful experiencie go to the saltpeters works. I'm a journalist and I wrote about it. It was very incredible to see things I only hearded and see in photos.

Really amazing! I want to be tehe again! To keep learning about our history.

Here are my links about Saltpeters Works:

Saltpeter process in Santa Laura
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=223630&rel_no=1

Santa Laura Museum
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=5&no=223630&rel_no=2

Humberstone way of life
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=5&no=223630&rel_no=8

Photos (captions in Spanish)
http://mariepelouse.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_mariepelouse_archive.html

Post in my blog (in Spanish):
http://www.mariapastora.cl/2005/03/santa_laura_humberstone_la_tir.html

Date posted: April 2006

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