Page 55 - Revistas Identidad de valparaiso.pptx

identity

This section will analyze the spread of the British colony within the Valparaíso region and its main identity elements.
As previously stated, the British, at first, settled within the city of Valparaíso, especially in the Alegre and
Concepción hills. “Around 1874, on Cerro Alegre there was an English hospital and very elegant villas with a number

of well-designed gardens, with many small windows that looked out over the sea. A decade later, many children with
shorts, blonde heads and curly hair of clear English origin played in that place. ”In this way, these hills began to have a
marked British identity. Later on, British high society, thanks to a great commercial, banking and mining boom,

began to populate rural areas with villas and farms throughout the region. In the first place, the area of Viña del Mar

was notably populated. This is how the colony expanded, and along with it its own identity, since they continued to
preserve unity. Most of the interviewees also point out that when they were children they felt totally British. This is
explained by all the elements discussed above.
A child was born in a house where only English was spoken, attended

a school where that language was also spoken, and also his
companions were mostly from the colony. Social life at school was
almost always among the British themselves, with whom sporting

activities, social gatherings, etc. were held. Thus it is understood
that those children identified more with Great Britain than with Chile.

They gave me the nickname "Diego", it was a derogatory nickname
for the Spanish. But it didn't affect me much, because I was lucky

enough to be a good athlete, which made me gain prestige within the
school. So the nickname "Diego" became somewhat endearing.

According to the same interviewees, they began to feel Chilean in
the adult stage of their lives, when they began to work and their
social circle expanded to others who were not members of the

colony. However, it should be noted that many of them, after leaving
school, remained linked to jobs related to the British. Daisy Puig says

that she spent her last school years at Santiago College in Santiago.