The frontier tarapaqueña and its territorialities, f rom the nitrate crisis to the golden decade (1919-1960)

Abstract

Positioning ourselves in a theoretical dialogue between the reflectivist perspective of studies in international relations and the critical geography, the Tarapacá border is approached around two objectives. First, to problematize the border as a multiple space and simultaneous dynamics. Second, to investigate the configuration of the Tarapacá border and the territorialities that the different political and social actors projected from the saltpeter structural crisis until the golden decade of the Chilean-Bolivian diplomatic relations (1919-1960). Reviewing archives and bibliography that have addressed the issue of border space, as well as paradiplomatic actors during that period in Tarapacá. The framework of three different territorialities in the border space belonging to actors of different State/ regional/ethnic communities’ scales are identified. They are opposed, juxtaposed and assembled one to another.