MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Chile
Index
A view from San Cristóbal Hill, Santiago
Courtesy Embassy of Chile, Washington
Children returning from school in the town of Cochamó, located
on the Seno Reloncaví in southern Chile
Courtesy Inter-American Development Bank
Since the 1930s, the majority of Chileans has lived in
urban
areas (defined as agglomerations of more than 2,000
inhabitants).
This reflects a demographic trend of migration from rural
areas
that began early, according to developing world and Latin
American
standards. The urban population was estimated to be 86
percent of
the total in 1991. A perhaps better indicator of the
degree of
urbanization of a country is the extent to which the
population
lives in agglomerations of more than 20,000. According to
the 1982
census, there were fifty-one cities and towns in Chile
with more
than 20,000 inhabitants, and their combined population
represented
65.6 percent of the total. This percentage shows that
Chile is very
definitely an urban country. There has continued to be a
significant internal migration of the population, although
mostly
from one urban center to another. The 1982 census showed
that a
significant 8.6 percent of the population had moved to the
province
of current residence during the previous five years.
Central Chile is the site of the oldest urban centers,
many of
which were founded by the Spanish in the mid-sixteenth
century.
Most of the older cities are next to rivers in areas of
rich soil.
Santiago, founded in 1541, is typical of this pattern of
settlement
in a prime agricultural area. Little did its founders know
that
city streets and houses would occupy so much of the
Santiago
Valley's fertile soil in the twentieth century. Santiago
was
designated from its founding as the capital city of the
new colony,
and it has been the seat of the Chilean government ever
since.
Other cities, such as Valparaíso, founded in 1536, served
as ports.
The city of Concepción--founded in 1550 in what is now
Penco and
moved a bit inland to its present location in 1754--served
as the
center of a wheat-growing area, as a port for the southern
part of
the Central Valley, and as a military base on the
Araucanian
frontier.
Despite being continually populated for more than four
centuries, Chilean cities have--unlike Lima or Cartagena,
for
instance--few architectural monuments from the past. This
is
explained in part by the poverty of the country in
colonial times
but also by the devastating action of the frequent
earthquakes.
Following the usual Spanish colonial practice, Chilean
cities were
planned with a central plaza surrounded by a grid of
streets
forming square blocks. The plazas invariably were the site
of both
municipal or regional government buildings and churches.
Communications between urban centers were facilitated
during
the colonial period by the relative proximity to the ocean
of even
the most Andean of locations. Except for cities in the
Central
Valley, between Santiago and Chillán, ocean transportation
and
shipping were vital to the north-south movement of people
and goods
until the building of railroads from the second half of
the
nineteenth century until the first decades of the
twentieth
century. Even then, the railroads only served the central
and
southern parts of the country to Puerto Montt, leaving
sea-lanes as
the main links to the extreme north and south.
The most significant feature of the development of
urban
centers in Chile has been the imbalance represented by the
growth
of Santiago, which has far exceeded that of other cities.
According
to the 1992 census figures, the Metropolitan Region of
Santiago had
about 5,170,300 inhabitants, a total equal to about 39
percent of
the Chilean population. In 1865, with a population of
about
115,400, Santiago was the residence of only 6.3 percent of
the
nation's inhabitants. From about 1885 onward, the capital
city grew
at a rate between about 30 percent and 50 percent every
ten to
twelve years (see
table 5, Appendix). The 1992 census
figure showed
a slight moderation of this pace, which was, nonetheless,
at 3.3
percent per year significantly higher than the average
national
population increase.
Santiago's population growth occurred mainly as a
result of
migration from rural areas and provincial urban centers.
Almost 30
percent of the population of the capital in 1970 was born
in areas
of Chile other than Santiago, a percentage that has
probably not
changed much since. The only other areas of the country
that have
greatly increased their population in recent years are the
extreme
south and the extreme north. This growth has resulted from
internal
migration prompted by economic expansion associated with
fishing
and mining. However, given the much smaller populations in
those
areas to begin with, the fact that between 30 percent and
40
percent of their inhabitants were born elsewhere does not
signify
much in terms of the absolute numbers of people migrating.
Santiago is not only the seat of the national
government
(except for the National Congress, hereafter Congress, now
located
in Valparaíso) but also the nation's main financial and
commercial
center, the most important location for educational,
cultural, and
scientific institutions, and the leading city for
manufacturing in
terms of the total volume of production. Although
sprawling
Santiago has continued to absorb formerly prime
agricultural areas,
there are sections of town where wineries still cultivate
grapes.
Historically, Santiago has been the main area of
residence for
the nation's wealthiest citizens, even for those with
property
elsewhere in the country. Unlike other Chilean cities,
Santiago has
always had an extensive upper- and upper-middle class
residential
area. Originally near the main plaza in the center of
town, this
area developed toward the south and west at the end of the
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth
century.
Although neighborhoods in these areas retained some
samples of the
architecture of that period, by the 1990s they were
occupied mainly
by lower-middle-class residents. Beginning in the 1930s,
Santiago's
upper-class residents moved east of the center of town,
toward the
Andes. This transition was accompanied by an increase in
the
commercial use of downtown as larger and larger buildings
were
constructed and the public transportation system was
enhanced. As
use of the automobile became more common, the upper-class
and
upper-middle-class residential areas expanded farther up
the
foothills of the Andes. This process of suburbanization,
complete
with shopping malls and supermarkets with large parking
lots, also
has led to the development of new and faster roads to the
center of
the city and to the principal airport. New bus lines also
were
established to serve the suburbs. All of this increased
motor-
vehicle traffic in the Santiago Valley, whose surrounding
mountains
trap particulate matter, generating levels of air
pollution that
are among the worst in the world. In the early 1990s,
emergency
restrictions on the use of motor vehicles have become a
routine
feature of the city's life during all but the summer
months, when
there is more wind and the thermal inversion that traps
the dirty
air in the colder months no longer prevents its venting.
The large number of people migrating to Santiago and,
to a
lesser extent, to other major cities, led to a severe
shortage of
housing, especially of affordable housing for low-income
people.
Estimates in 1990 were that the nation as a whole needed a
million
more housing units to accommodate all those living in
crowded
conditions with relatives or friends, those with housing
in poor
condition, or those living in emergency housing. Since the
1960s,
extensive portions of the Santiago area, especially to the
south,
east, and north of the center, had been occupied by people
who
built precarious makeshift housing on lots that were often
used
illegally. As these areas aged, the municipal authorities
extended
city services to them and tried to redesign, where need
be, their
haphazard layout. Moreover, many people--about 28,000
between 1979
and 1984--were moved out of illegal settlements by the
authorities
and into low-income housing. The result was a further
expansion of
urbanization and an increase in the distances that people
had to
travel to work, look for work, or attend school.
Nonetheless, by
1990 virtually all of the poorer areas of Santiago had
access to
electricity, running water, refuse collection, and
sewerage. In
fact, the country's urban population as a whole had good
access to
city services. By 1987, 98 percent of the population in
towns and
cities had running water (the great majority in their
homes), 98
percent had garbage collection, and 79 percent had sewer
connections.
The segregation within Chilean cities by income level
has made
residential areas very different from one another. In
Santiago,
where the differences are more sharply drawn than
elsewhere, some
neighborhoods are worlds apart. The upper-class areas in
the
eastern foothills of the Andes offer comfortable houses
with neat,
fenced-in gardens, or spacious apartments in sometimes
attractively
designed buildings, all on tree-lined streets.
Restaurants,
supermarkets, shopping malls, boutiques, bookstores,
cinemas, and
theaters add to the appeal of what is
a very comfortable urban life. The area is well connected
by public
transportation, including the major east-west line of an
excellent
subway and its feeder buses. The best hospitals and
clinics are
within easy reach, as are the best private schools.
The poor areas of the city are not as well served.
There are
few supermarkets, and the usually poorly stocked corner
groceries
often sell their goods at higher prices. Some streets are
not
paved, and this, together with the lack of grass cover in
the open
spaces, creates dusty conditions during much of the year.
Trees
have been planted extensively in Santiago's poorer areas
since the
1960s, but many streets are still devoid of them. Getting
to the
city center and to clinics and hospitals is more difficult
for
residents of the poorer areas. However, access to
preprimary
schooling and to sport facilities, especially to soccer
fields, has
expanded significantly since the early 1970s. Except for
some very
plain-looking buildings with apartments for low-income
families,
most housing consists of one floor. The poorest houses are
made of
a variety of materials, including pine boards and
cardboard. Houses
are generally built with brick and poured-concrete braces,
and most
poor people eventually try to build with such materials as
well. As
communities begun by land-squatters have become more
settled, it
has been possible to see the gradual transformation of
squatter
construction.
Chilean cities commonly contain relatively large
housing
developments (poblaciones), including multifamily
units,
single-family units, or a combination of the two. Many of
these
developments were constructed with loans made available to
enterprises, pension funds, or savings and loan
associations by the
state for their employees or affiliates, usually at
subsidized
rates (especially before the military government).
Consequently,
they are often occupied by people who have the same place
of
employment or who belong to a specific occupational
category. Such
housing would not be available as easily to large numbers
of people
were it not for the special financial arrangements worked
out for
the group. Transportation to and from work was often
arranged by
employers. One unintended consequence of this pattern of
urbanization was that it contributed to the overall
segregation of
housing in Chile by income level or occupation.
However, in part because of this pattern, Chile had a
large
proportion of homeowners. About 60 percent of housing
units were
owned by their occupants. As the housing developments aged
and many
of the original occupants sold their houses and moved
elsewhere,
the developments became more socially heterogeneous.
People also
began to modify and remodel their houses; and new corner
groceries,
hairstyling salons, tailor shops, schools, churches, and
other
establishments emerged, giving the developments a more
settled,
urban look.
Because of a lack of jobs in the formal economy, many
people
need to make a living selling odds and ends on the
streets. These
people have not been counted as unemployed in official
statistics
because they are engaged in income-producing activities.
During the
military regime, the authorities attempted to organize
this form of
commerce by licensing stalls on the sidewalks of
designated streets
and by prohibiting sales elsewhere. However, there was
greater
demand for such stalls than there were available spaces,
and they
could not be erected in the most important commercial
streets.
Hence, many people defied the regulations and attempted to
sell
their goods where these activities were prohibited,
risking
confiscation of their wares by the police. The Aylwin
government
continued the policy in slightly modified form.
Data as of March 1994
|
|