sense of community of those who, for centuries, have populated and continue to populate these remote slopes of our mountain range and Andean zone. Resisting the passage of time, their shapes, materials, construction technologies, and symbolism cross generations and stand renewed, strong, shouting their silence to those who, like us, visit them from different worlds and cultures. Their inhabitants and custodians (alféreces, fabriqueros, mayordo- mos) give an oral account of their history with narrations and songs. They take care of their roots, return, and come back to populate them with meaning and message. The feast of the Patron Saint is coming and the cascade of dates fills the calendar with encounters and memories. Saints, parihuelas, candles, oil lamps, paper, live flowers, carpets, and holy images, merge in processions, festivities, ceremonies, and recreation of community values. The churches and their lordship make this possible and justify it. The patrimonial ensembles, structured in a recognizable and always original pattern, combine church, urban atrium, processional route, cemetery, orchard, and parish house, to give an account of a timeless seal that welcomes the symbol, faith, and life in all its stages. They shelter, hier- archize, and define the settlement. The amazing system of land occupation -of tremendous patrimonial value for its ethnic, historical, functional, and symbolic integration-, must be added to the landscape. The harshness and aridity of the driest desert in the world find the vital expression of nature in these marvelous ravines, opening its way despite its scarcity and fragility. Millenary cracks open up in the earth and landscape, connecting the snow-capped peaks with the coastal edge, crossing the immensity of the silence of the Pampas, like strands of life. The settlement spaces are defined by a system of small fertile valleys amid vast expanses of aridity and silence. These spaces, clearly delimited by topography, the main watercourse, and altitude, are associated with pre-Hispanic and later settlements, showing at least four temporary coverages. The first is the pre-Hispanic use and its still-present trace of terraced crops, petroglyphs, ruined tambos, water channels, roads and corrals, potato, corn, oregano, beans, and other crops; management and breeding llama and alpaca herds for wool. It is followed by the Colony and occupation of the conqueror who introduces the Catholic religion, the administrative structure, the ecclesi- astical figure, a new language, and who, surprisingly (if we consider other actions in our region), accepts and integrates the ways of community organization, of working the land, of natural cycles and of the constructive tradition. A scenario of encounters, surprises, and superimpositions that define the urban and housing expression of these areas is thus config- ured. The position of the houses, the extension of the settlements, and integration with the neighboring areas of crops, roads, shelter stations on the route, toponymy, traditions, and trades add up to a functional, spatial, and formal system with a strong and clear expression. Third is the Republic. Chile, its identity, and the late incorporation of these territories into the country's national space give impulse and expression to a new form of occupation and development. The old roads and routes were reinforced, the new administration was installed and infrastructure work was carried out. Not much more. The existing towns and the previous pattern of occupation resist and adapt to the margins of the territorial administrative proposal brought by the new stage. Resilient, they contribute with their products, culture, and wisdom. The fourth stage, Modernity, is undoubtedly of the greatest con- cern. Marked by the ability of investment and government, it brings infrastructure networks, energy, drinking water, paved roads, and an endless number of expressions of material progress, providing these centenary towns with opportunities for improved and safe residence; at the same time, they are aware of the threat of depopulation, of the fracture of time as a factor of decisions to reside, of aggressive markets that suppress and blind traditions and ancestral values. Of paternalism and, not infrequently, arrogance.
The lesson learned by the churches, the towns that house them, and the communities that care for them is that, despite these new con- ditions, their tradition, integral culture, landscape, and administrative regime have been able to coexist and, on many occasions, challenge this order of things. The preservation of the heritage of churches and towns, of their con- struction techniques and vernacular ways, is associated with the work of the Altiplano Foundation with a respectful and sustained dialogue with the communities. They turned into friends, and consider this team to be a support, a colleague for the continuity of their values and ways of organizing and action. Through the vehicle of restoration materials for the temples and their functional and symbolic components, the Foundation opens the door to re-educating visitors, enhancing the value of trades, and revalorizing construction techniques and materials, thus demonstrating, through presence and perseverance, a possible path for everyone's cultural growth. Special mention deserves and is due to the people who dedicate their lives to making this fragile and promising model of heritage management possible, integrating dedication, service, work, and humility, raising not only temples destroyed by time but also local human groups, with deep tradition and history. Women and men, generally older, see a window of opportunity in this work to renew their roots, to contribute to the common good, to educate the young, and to strengthen their lives. Industrious and generous, their bright smiles welcome visitors, host them, and nourish them physically and spiritually. They are wonderful people. There is a lot of teaching in this unique place in our country. Wise les- sons from history that have global reach and should help us face today's challenges in this vocational work. In its neighbors. In the landscape. In everything. A great experience. ! Pablo Jordán An architect from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a Master of Science in Architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a specialist in Urban Planning and Management, Environmental Design, and Social Housing. A partner and consulting manager for URBE Arquitectos. He was the President of AOA from 2022 to 2023.
Churches of the Altiplano: An Approach for Their Integral Management.
By: Bárbara Ossa & Daniela Serra
In the towns of the Chilean highlands, and especially in the region of Arica and Parinacota, you can find more than fifty temples and chapels whose origins date back to colonial times and the beginning of the Republic. Most of them are located in isolated and difficult-to-access places, their presence is overwhelming, partly because they are traces of complex cultural processes that have taken place in this territory. This includes the expansion of the so-called Inca Empire in the area inhabited by the millenary Andean communities and the subsequent conquest and evan- gelization undertaken by the Spanish from the sixteenth century onwards. Due to their strategic location connecting the port of Arica and the Potosí silver mine, the Inca roads would have been used by the Hispanic empire to transport minerals and various supplies, which became known as the Ruta de la Plata (Silver Route). Along with economic exploitation came the process of early evangelization and the subjugation of the local indigenous communities. To this end, the Spanish crown led the construction of temples made of local raw materials such as earth, stone, and rough straw ¹ , in which elements of the indigenous cosmovision were
1 Magdalena Pereira y Javiera Maino, Andean Churches of Arica and Parinacota. The Traces of the Silver Route (Arica: Fundación Altiplano, 2012): 47.
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AOA / n°51
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