Lo Barnechea

Lo Barnechea is a commune located in the northeastern sector of the province of Santiago. Its urban boundaries include Los Andes of the Valparaíso region to the north, Colina to the west, Vitacura and Huechuraba to the southwest, Las Condes to the south and San José de Maipo to the east. It developed around the old rural town of Lo Barnechea. Its population is heterogeneous, as it is inhabited by high- and medium-high-income families in sectors such as La Dehesa, Los Trapenses and El Arrayán, while there are medium-low- and low-income families in the towns of Lo Barnechea, Población La Ermita and Cerro Dieciocho.

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Lo Barnechea has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. Before the Incas, it was occupied by the Llolleo culture and the Bato tradition, and after them, the Aconcagua culture, the Promaucaes, the Incas and later the Spanish occupation.

Its pre-Hispanic inhabitants were called huaicoches (in Mapudungún: waykoche 'people who live in a landslide zone') because of the huaicos or huaycos of the region (in Quechua: wayqu 'stream'). Also called lloclla (in Quechua: lluqlla 'alluvium'), these are violent alluvial floods in which a large amount of material from the slopes is dislodged and dragged by the water downstream to the bottom of the valleys, causing enormous burial sites in its path. In modern scientific terms, according to the Multinational Andean Project, a huayco is known as a debris flow, or debris flow. A huayco is caused by the violent fall of water, which drags mud, stones, trees and anything else in its path. Its origin may be due to an intense rainfall or the overflowing of a river or lagoon at high altitudes.

The town of Lo Barnechea was created in the 19th century. So far, it has resisted conurbation with Greater Santiago.

The DFL 1-3260 of 9 March 1981 established the new commune of Lo Barnechea, from a subdivision of the commune of Las Condes; however, until 1991, it was part of the communal grouping managed by the Municipality of Las Condes. By Decree with Force of Law No. 32-18.992 of 20 May 1991, the Municipality of Lo Barnechea was officially established, the same day as its neighbor Vitacura.

The urban center of Lo Barnechea is located in the areas below 1,000 meters above sea level, in the basin of the Mapocho River and the valley of La Dehesa. Its neighborhoods are composed of affluent sectors such as Los Trapenses, La Dehesa and El Huinganal (Molle Schinus polygamus, in Mapudungún Huingan), El Tranque, and middle class sectors such as the traditional Pueblo de Lo Barnechea, Cerro 18, San Enrique and El Arrayán.

Many of its streets evoke the old alleys owned by the seven founding families. El León Street once housed the old Parador and Hostería de El León, which used to welcome miners after their long days of work. On this street lived the Salfate sisters, now deceased, who knew the history of the town and its inhabitants: Blanca and Irene Griselda. Their stories about the mythical trips to the Laguna del Viento in the foothills of the Andes and the local mythology enlivened the village's social gatherings in the afternoons.