Extractivismo familiar: identidades, memorias y modos de vida en las familias industriales del salitre en Chile

Abstract

This essay analyzes how the extractive dynamics of the nitrate cycle shaped the identities of families and industrial communities in northern Chile. Drawing on the dialogue between the concepts of the industrial family and the pampino community, it examines how extractivism shaped ways of life, labor relations, family practices, and forms of sociability. It argues that pampino identity emerged at the intersection of capitalist productive structures, industrial paternalism, and local cultural practices, characterized by multiculturalism, religiosity, and workers’ resistance. The essay also demonstrates how collective memory, uprootedness, and transgenerational transmission have made it possible to preserve rituals, traditions, and senses of belonging, even after the closure of the nitrate works. Based on this review, it introduces the notion of family extractivism as an analytical category that integrates structural, sociocultural, and identity dimensions to understand the persistence and transformation of family experiences in both historical and contemporary extractive contexts.