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There was a time when the skies of the Pampilla esplanade, located west of the peninsula of the same name in Coquimbo, were filled with kites, turkeys and kites. Branches were set up, the female singers sang the cuecas accompanied by accordion and tambourine, and under the warm spring sun, the courageous of all occasions signed up for horse races.
The name of the Pampilla coquimbana merged with that of the national holidays. As a great expression of the popular festivities rooted from the colony and in the ritualized calendar of patriot celebrations that the nascent republic established. Although in principle, the anniversaries of the battles of Chacabuco and Maipú were also commemorated (February 12 and April 5, respectively), it was on September 18 that it was established as the official holiday during the decade of General Joaquín Prieto (1837 ). Almost a century later, in 1915, the Army’s Glory Day was added as a holiday.
On the Pampilla, there is a history that the celebration in the place is old. It was only suspended twice: in 1973, a few days after the coup d’etat that the military regime established, and in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which also motivated the announcement that the traditional inns will not be lifted from the National Stadium, in Santiago.
According to Fernando Rojas Clavería in his article History of the Pampilla, published in the newspaper La Región, in Coquimbo (2006), around 1864 -when the Coquimbo Port Department was created-, the place was known as La Serranía and its owner was the Spanish citizen Francisco Iñiguez Pérez. Then the national holidays were already celebrated with some activities that will be maintained over time in one way or another.
“There was an extraordinary race track for the Chilean,” says Rojas, “which at that time were great entertainment.”
Horseback riding was common in those early days. The Polish sage Ignacio Domeyko detailed in his memoirs how the “18” was celebrated in Coquimbo in 1838. He relates that the 19th was the one reserved for racing. “After noon the plaza began to fill with riders riding beautiful horses; they were young owners of the neighboring farms, dressed in garish national capes, called ponchos, Guayaquil hats, and with huge silver spurs with long points. ”
This tradition, derived from the peasant customs of deep rural Chile, changed over the years. “There was a time when the great spectacle of the Pampilla consisted of the forced duel of the Huasos mounted with the police pickets. The fight stemmed from the possession of a rod of bumps in view of which the local riders succumbed to the atavistic desire to grab hold of their hands, ”says René Peri Fagerstrom in an extraordinary chronicle for the magazine En Viaje -de Ferrocarriles del Estado-, in 1963.
Although there are versions that point out parties in the place even in the colonial period -for example, after the withdrawal of the pirate Bartolomé Sharp from La Serena in 1681- the truth is that since the first celebrations of the “18” in La Pampilla there was no lack of the classic party entertainer: music
Indeed, while children and adolescents entertained themselves by raising kites, people danced cueca feet on the earthly esplanade, perhaps as an expansion of the common suburban chinganas at the time. “What to say about our national dance: it reigned in two branches that were located at the foot of the hill,” writes Rojas Clavería. In a jiffy the singer of a good vihuela was armed [un instrumento parecido a la guitarra] and couples danced until they got welts from the ground. In those years there were no orchestras and only the vihuela, the accordion and the tambourine were the ones that gave it an extraordinary animation ”.
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According to Rojas, it was also common for urban venues such as cabarets to install eighteen “branches” in La Pampilla, to take advantage of the clientele. “They were the ramadas for the grueso thick sticks’ (wealthy people) and they consisted of fine marquees that covered large spaces and inside, lace, garlands and other accessories shone, highlighting the large mirrors, harps and guitars. “
The cueca had a long history. Domeyko mentions it in his memoirs as early as the 19th century and highlights its transversal nature. “The most favorite of these dances, the one considered to be essentially national, is the zamacueca, apparently from Peru, simpler and easier than the Andalusian bolero, but less passionate; they dance it here in all the meetings, the same in the elegant halls as in the peasant’s cabin; the difference consists only in the more or less convenient way and the grace of those who dance ”.
For this reason, creole rhythms dominated the ramadas, at least until the irruption of tropical rhythms, and in recent years, reggaeton. In his chronicle for En Viaje, Peri Fagerstrom details that in 1963 a folk festival was even held on the occasion of the celebration of the 18th in the Pampilla. It does not detail the name of the winner, but the name of the curious trophy that was awarded; the bronze buccaneer.
At that time, according to the chronicler, there were already crowds and fierce competition to settle in a good location for parties. In other words, it was already rooted as a popular festival. “The huge amphitheater is populated with cars. buses, and trucks that deposit about sixty thousand people on its central esplanade, most of whom spend the night in tents that jealously preserve a traditional location ”.
It also details a custom that developed after the official festivities passed: “plugging the holes”, something like an “18 boy”. “It is the big eater of street vendors, bowlers, owners and employees of inns, volantineros, etc. For many coquimbanos the “hole cap” is the tastiest part of all the festivities “.
La Pampilla also had other milestones. In 2003, there he played for the last time the historical formation of Los Prisioneros, before consummating the second retreat of the guitarist Claudio Narea.
In addition, sport can score some achievement there. “It was the second place where football was practiced in Chile,” says Rojas Clavería, “because the English residents of the port ‘pichangueaban’ almost daily. They also founded a golf club. ”
It is a place that was deployed as a stage for popular culture, emerged after centuries of miscegenation, peasant traditions, and the acquiescence of political authorities. After all, Chile had a party.
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