Hurtado - Hacienda Los Andes
A Brief History lesson

The Hacienda Los Andes is located at an elevation of 1200 meters in the Andean valley of the Hurtado river. The first inhabitants were the Paleo Indians, whose roots reach back to 12,000 B.C.  Artifacts, petroglyphs, and tools of the Molle culture, which disappeared by 900 A.D., are found in this valley. Diaguita tribes inhabited the valley from then on. In 1470 the Incas conquered northern Chile. They developed mining, metallurgy, and they established a kind of aqueduct which is still in use in this area.

The Diaguitas were mainly farmers: they bred animals and worked in their fields raising such plants as corn and pumpkin. the Algarrobo tree was very important to the Indians: Not only the wood is of an excellent quality, they used the seeds of this tree to make flour. This flour was used to bake bread. Guanacos were herded for their warm wool. 

As the Spanish influence took hold over the native people in northern Chile, the original culture became more and more repressed. Many Indians died, and others inter-bred with the new conquerors from Europe. The original cultures do not exist anymore, but many existing artifacts like ceramics, ceremonial caverns, tools, and petroglyphs remain to remind us of the old Indian culture.

The next important step in the history of the valleys of North-Central Chile was the minor period: the Spaniards worked in gold, silver, and copper mines until they were abandoned in the late 16th century. In the beginning of the 19th century, miners came from Europe to try their luck in the old Chilean gold mines. This gold-rush made the miners jealous of each other. They tried to hide their mines and some of them were even murdered. The miners did not care about their environment. The most precious commodity for them was wood - for construction and fuel. Because of their excessive use of wood, some of the local plants nearly became extinct. Like the Indians before them, the miners had a special interest in the Algarrobo tree. Nowadays this beautiful tree is very and rare and it is protected in the region.

Today the surroundings of the Hacienda Los Andes are original: adobe houses are built beside the gravel road, huasos (Chilean cowboys) take their goats down to the valley along old cattle trails, and mules carry the fresh-made goat cheese to market. People live both in the semi-desert and in the valley of the Hurtado river where fertile vineyards are set next to fruit orchards, colorful flowers, and gardens of herbs.

The valley consists of an area of about 2230 square kilometers. The Hurtado river is 125 km long. In 1995, 12,000 people inhabited the area, but by 1998, there were only about 4700  people living here. The actual village of Hurtado has a population of about 700. The interactions between citizens from La Serena or Ovalle and villagers of Hurtado have increased during recent years, especially since the road downstream of Hurtado was improved significantly. Some of the old traditions have slowly disappeared from daily life. Still there are some families, especially families living far apart in the Andes, who follow and preserve their customs, such as:

The birth of a child is accompanied by several restrictions. When a woman is giving birth to a child, pregnant women or women who have not given birth to a child are not allowed to stay in the same room. This would cause stronger pain according to their beliefs. The belief in superstition is still very common in the valley. Witches, magic, and supernatural powers are in the peoples minds. Curses are often blamed for handicaps, children are saved with talismans and amulets from the "evil eye." 

Children start working in the household when they are very little; they have to collect firewood, water, and care for siblings and animals. Later on they start with heavier work such as milking goats and cutting hay. Virginity is not important in the region, neither for men nor for women. People think that, in time, virginity disappears automatically. An unmarried woman who has children from different men does not have a bad image and can marry without problem. What is not well regarded is a woman with a child of a man who is married to another woman.

Legal divorce is often not used to affect the separation of a couple. Usually the couple agrees on a certain amount of alimony for the children.  Legal divorce is very difficult to get in Chile. One method that couples (planning ahead) sometimes use to circumvent the difficulty of obtaining a divorce is to spell one or more name wrong on the marriage certificate. Then later on, if need be, they can annul the marriage because of the spelling mistake.

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