Baldomero Lillo, 1910: El Salitre, La Vida Humana Como Recurso Natural y la Viabilidad de un Proyecto Nacional

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2026

Department 1

Spanish

Abstract

Baldomero Lillo participated in the debates surrounding Chile’s Centennial celebrations of independence in 1910. Lillo entered this conversation after a long period of reflection prompted by the massacre of workers at the Escuela de Santa María in Iquique in December 1907. His impression throughout his essay characterized the events not as an accident; but, rather, a symptom of a systemic national emergency caused by extreme extractivism framed by an increasingly global economy looking rapidly by natural resources, undermining a century old national project by a devastating demographic cost generated by the rapidly deteriorating life expectancy among industrial workers. His cultural, social, and economic reflection led him to argue that only the full commitment to workers’ education would allow for a way out of that situation.

DOI

10.5354/0719-4862.2026.84205

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