The carrilana problematic in the construction of the railroad branch Talcahuano – Chillán (1869-1873)

Abstract

Inside the history of railroads in Chile, there is one prior stage to its exploitation: the construction of railways. In this, a new popular character was created, of peasant origins, who became a worker: the carrilanos, people that headed a series of violent episodes that brought them a bad reputation. The
objective of this article is to get to know who these people were; therefore we have used the information available in the local press and from trials filed in the courts of Concepción. The results show the actions of these people: at times very violent, where they developed both as an individual and
as a group, and with consequences that implied a level of destruction, and their almost unprecedented death in the affected localities by the presence of these subjects while the construction of the railroad tracks lasted (1869 - 1874), in the towns and villages where the Talcahuano - Chillán branch train was
later circulated.