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The Construction of Valparaiso's Urban Value After The 1906 Earthquake
The Construction of Valparaiso's Urban Value After The 1906 Earthquake
The reconsTrucTion of
Valparaíso’s urban Value afTer
The 1906 earThquake
magdaLena giL
Profesora Asistente, Escuela de Sociología
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Santiago, Chile
are the particular values associated with it. However, 1 El Almendral antes del
there are times when the value of a peculiar good must terremoto de 1906. Calle y
Plaza Victoria, Valparaíso.
be discussed or contested. For example, we value a (Actual Av. Pedro Montt). /
family heirloom when it is lost or a wetland once it has El Almendral before the 1906
been contaminated. In these cases, it is the destruction earthquake. Victoria Street
and Square, Valparaíso.
of the object or place what makes the loss of value clear, (Current Pedro Montt Av.).
and its restitution forces to define what, how, and how Fuente / Source: Postal
much that loss is valued. de Colección / Postcard
Collection.
This is what has happened in many Chilean cities
after the great socio-natural disasters that have affected
them throughout history, especially earthquakes. As
described by Torrent (2016), that is the case for Chillán
after the 1939 earthquake left a virtually blank plan
from which a new city could be thought from scratch.
Within this context, different “value economies” can
be considered (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006), each
highlighting a particular aspect of the territory. That
is, one must discuss – in many cases for the first time
– what is it that it is valued from a city, what must be
recovered and what can be replaced. This is because
the post-disaster recovery process is not only a task for
the physical world, even if determined by the need to
rebuild. Recovery is also a process driven by the desire
to re-engage with the social and cultural life that the
disaster has endangered, something Davis and Alexander
(2005) have called genius loci or ‘sense of place.’
An example of this is the destruction of Valparaíso
in 1906, since it raised a fervent and agitated
discussion about the new city plan, bringing forward
different visions regarding its value as imaginary and 79
“Catastrophe becomes an
opportunity to redesign the
urban space, creating a
‘window’ through which the
urban values of a society can
82 more clearly be observed.”
83
and well-conditioned buildings, in short, with all those 9 «De las Ruinas»
elements that can make life within it pleasant and safe.28 “Fom Ruins.”
Fuente / Source:
Zig Zag Nº 82, 9 de
This also meant, as mentioned earlier, to relocate poor septiembre de 1906.
segments of Valparaíso on the city’s outskirts. September 9, 1906.
87
88
A R Q 97 — U C C H I L E
28 El Mercurio de Valparaíso. “Los problemas de Valparaíso,” October
15, 1906. See also: “La Salubridad Pública y la reconstrucción de la
ciudad,” January 10, 1906.
29 For instance, it is worth noting the scant presence of a discourse on
building improvements in terms of seismic protection.
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Earthquake of 1906.» En Buchenau, J. & Johnson, L. (ed). Aftershocks. Valparaíso: Ediciones Universidad de Valparaíso, 2011.
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Magdalena Gil
<mogil@uc.cl>
89