Contemporary Patrimonial Activation Processes: Tensions, Disputes and Consensus among Communities: The Case of Bellavista in Tomé, Chile

Abstract

Not without struggle, contemporary heritagization processes in Chile show a shift from traditional perspectives – functional to the nation state discourse and the private market – to more complex and inclusive processes. This new trend is demanding important negotiation capacities as well as the political will of the different agents at stake, in order to achieve the co-construction of heritage. Through discourse analysis and in-depth interviews, double crossed with secondary data, we analyzed the designation of Bellavista Oveja Tomé’s industry as a historical monument; a privately-owned building and a symbolic icon for the local community. The results indicate that heritage groups achieving their agendas are those developing complex forms of activism; including both institutional and non-institutional actions. And also, those who calibrate the level of social pressure just beneath the threshold of breaking the bargaining arena, but high enough in order to overthrow hegemonic notions of heritage. In this way heritage activists are indeed making ‘official’ the ‘non-official’.