¿Squatter Settlements? La Pincoya Neighbourhood, it´s Collective Thinking and Origins (1967-1970)

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to study how La Pincoya settlement is born between the years 1967-1970, by analysing the social imaginary of the squatting (the appropriation) that would give origin to it. Our hypothesis is that La Pincoya is born from diverse settlements, being the Pablo Neruda one the most important. This is believed to have been born in a context of social hyper-mobilization, just by seizing the land where its located. This social imaginary has been carried on, both by the new generations and by published investigations, in spite of having been semisecret occupation, authorized by the owner of the property. Moreover, most of the others settlements that are part of the neighbourhood, were born as State programs to provide a building site to families without homes. This investigation uses a varied type of sources, limits itself in the local history, as it studies a specific locality: La Pincoya settlement and in the oral history, since it analyses the storytelling and the memory of the protagonists.