They are a hospitable people, but are clannish, and have a strong prejudice against all foreigners. This prejudice, apparently inherent, and deep rooted in the minds of the people, while it has contributed materially to the maintenance of racial characteristics, has also discouraged and restricted immigration. As a result of this antagonistic feeling against foreigners coming to the country, the increase in population has been small, and the progress of commercial and industrial development correspondingly slow.
At the time of the Spanish invasion, in the sixteenth century, the Indian population was estimated at 1,000,000. The aggregate number of inhabitants is now calculated at 3,500,000, an increase of 2,500,000 in two hundred and seventy years. This very slow increase in population in a country possessing an equable and healthful climate may be attributed to several causes.
During the period of the conquest the ranks of the indigenous races were greatly decimated by war. Later, the utter disregard for hygienic conditions, the proverbial uncleanliness of the common people and the unsanitary manner in which the majority of them live, have increased the death rate to abnormal proportions. This is especially true among the children, many of whom die from inattention, cold or lack of proper food. Tuberculosis is a common malady, and annually claims thousands of victims. The prevalence of this disease is also due largely to the manner of living. In the homes of the majority of the poor people there are no floors, except the ground upon which the houses are built. In the winter, or rainy seasons, the cold and dampness of the dirt floors cause pneumonia, and colds that prove fatal to delicate children and adults of weak constitution, or those suffering from hereditary pulmonary diseases. The number of births in Chile in recent years has been little in excess of the number of deaths.
As a means of increasing the population, and hoping thereby to promote the development of natural resources and industrial interests of the country, the government of Chile adopted a colonization law for the purpose of inducing emigrants from Europe to settle in the agricultural and timber regions of the south. The law contains some liberal provisions, and attractive features, including free transportation for colonists from European ports to their destination, one hundred and sixty acres of land for the head of each family, and a government subsidy of five hundred pesos, with which to buy farm implements, build a house, etc. To promote this scheme of colonization, the Chilean government maintains agencies in Europe, through which the advantages to be gained, and the attractive features of colonial life in the Republic are liberally advertised. Through this plan a number of important foreign colonies, especially German communities, have been established throughout southern Chile. Valdivia, which has grown into an important manufacturing city, as well as the highly developed and cultivated country surrounding it, are settled almost exclusively by Germans. In more recent years the Italians have established large communities in the southern provinces, but they have been less successful than the Germans, and much dissatisfaction is the result. Among the early settlers in Chile, under the colonization law, were communities of Scotch, the majority of whom were disappointed with the conditions and with what they claim was a lack of protection of their personal interests, and their property rights.
A book published by an anonymous writer, entitled “La Raza Chilena” (The Chilean Race), and signed “Chileno,” bearing date 1905, is devoted to a discussion of the race question, population and colonization. The writer criticises severely the colonization plan, and the evils that have crept into the system, citing many instances of dissatisfaction among colonists, and cases of corruption and jobbery on the part of immigration agents, in support of his demands for reforms in the law, and a change in the plan for encouraging colonists to settle in the country.
VILLAGES AND CITIES
All the villages in Chile are similar in appearance and general aspect. There is little variety and few attractive features to distinguish any of them, or one from another. The one story houses are almost invariably built of adobe, and roofed with tile or thatch. The architecture, if the style of the village buildings can be dignified with the term, is Spanish. The houses front directly upon and are flush with the sidewalk, most of them being built round a patio.
There is an unattractive sameness about Chilean villages, even to the disagreeable smells. There is usually one long, straight street upon which are located the shops and better class of dwellings. This main thoroughfare is backed by a few other streets, flanked with low, rambling huts, the habitations of the poorer classes. In the center of the town is the plaza, the chief feature of every Spanish-American municipality, large or small,—the common meeting place of the village people and playground for the children. Ornamented with trees and flowers, it forms a pleasing contrast to the dull gray of dusty streets and adobe walls. In the more pretentious of the municipalities, the plaza is frequently enlivened in the evenings with music by a band, which never fails to attract a crowd. On such occasions the plaza presents a scene of lively interest and animation. There the people congregate to visit, gossip and enjoy the music. Black-eyed señoritas and stout matrons, with faces framed in mantillas, join in the promenade, passing and repassing the caballeros with whom they exchange knowing looks and significant glances, the method employed in love-making and conducting flirtations in Chile. Upon the green sward, beneath the friendly trees, happy children engage in juvenile sports and youthful pleasures. It is in these public meeting places that the village people are seen at their best; there they abandon themselves to the simple pleasures and enjoyments to which their environments limit them.
A curious feature of every Chilean village is the varied and violent colors used in painting the houses. Shades of blue, red, yellow, pink and green frequently appear in strange contrast in the same row of buildings. Intermingling with these peculiarly contrasting hues are red tile roofs, the lighter shades of thatch, and the gray of undecorated adobe walls, relieved by occasional stretches of whitewashed houses and garden enclosures.
The little “despachos,” with their inartistically decorated windows and curious assortment of bottles of “chicha,” wine, “aguardiente,” dry goods, provisions, firewood and charcoal, are a feature of every town in the country. In the front of these shops where articles of various kinds are dispensed, is a sort of hitch-rack which may be used as a place for customers to leave their horses when on business, or as a means of engaging in the common sport of the country, “topiadura.” It is in the village drinking places that the country people meet to exchange news and gossip of the neighborhood, and to indulge in a social cup. On feast days and Sundays crowds congregate in these places where drinking is indulged in to excess. There are few places of amusement, and perhaps no place where the opportunities for entertainment of an intellectual or elevating character are more limited and restricted than in a Chilean village. The despachos with their gambling, drinking and accompanying vices, afford the only relief from the monotonous home life of the poor people, which has little in it to encourage mental or moral improvement.