Lo Barnechea is a commune located in the northeastern sector of the province of Santiago. Its urban boundaries include Los Andes of the

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

region to the north, Colina to the west,

Vitacura Vitacura is a communes of Chile, commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Chile, Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It is one of the most expensive and fashionable areas of Santiago, Chile, Santiago. Inhabitants are primarily h ...

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.

History

Lo Barnechea has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. Before the

Incas The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

, 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 Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

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 Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, ...

. 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.

Geography

Terrain

Rivers

Mapocho River The River Mapocho () ( Mapudungun: ''Mapu chuco'', "water that penetrates the land") is a river in Chile. It flows from its source in the Andes mountains onto the west and divides Chile's capital Santiago in two. Course The Mapocho begins at the ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

* Molina River

Stream

* El Arrayán Stream ( Nature Sanctuary) * El Carrizo Stream * El Gabino Stream * El Guindo Stream * El Manzano Stream * Las Hualtatas Stream * Las Rosas Stream

Creeks

* El Culén Creek * El Ají Creek * El Guindo Creek * El Peumo Creek * Huallalolén Creek * La Carbonera Creek * Las Ñipas Creek * Las Zorras Creek * Los Chanchos Creek

Cityscape

The urban center of Lo Barnechea is located in the areas below 1,000 meters above sea level, in the basin of the

Mapocho The River Mapocho () (Mapudungun: ''Mapu chuco'', "water that penetrates the land") is a river in Chile. It flows from its source in the Andes mountains onto the west and divides Chile's capital Santiago, Chile, Santiago in two. Course The Mapoc ...

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 The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

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. Towards the northwest there are neighborhoods with Spanish names: Chin street is the location of the owner of a parcel of land with the surname Echeñique. In the Trapenses area, many of the landmarks associated with this congregation— which was based in the commune for many years before selling its land for capital gain, are still remembered. Currently, at the end of the Trapenses there is a road that connects La Dehesa with Chicureo.

Economy

In 2018, the number of registered companies in Lo Barnechea was 10,072. The Economic Complexity Index (ECI) in the same year was 1.01, while the economic activities with the highest Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index were Retail Sale of Underwear and Personal Wear (42.14), Dance Instructors (27.49) and Amusement Parks and Similar Centers Activities (18.79).

Demographics

According to the 2017 census of the National Statistics Institute, Lo Barnechea spans an area of and has 105,833 inhabitants (50,500 men and 55,333 women). Of these, 103,134 (97.4%) lived in urban areas and 2,699 (2.6%) in rural areas. The population grew by 41.58% (31,084 persons) between the 2002 and 2017 censuses. The 2024 projected population was 131,053.

Administration

Municipality

As a commune, Peñalolén is a third-level

administrative division of Chile The administrative division or territorial organization of Chile exemplifies characteristics of a unitary state. State administration is functionally and geographically decentralized, as appropriate for each authority in accordance with the law ...

administered by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

, headed by an

alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

(mayor) who is directly elected every four years. The 2024-2028 alcalde is Felipe Alessandri Vergara ( RN). The communal council at the time had the following members: * Benjamín Errázuriz Palacios ( REP) * Carmen Mc Intyre Astorga ( REP) * Francisco Madrid Vera (Ind/ AH) * Paulette Guiloff Hes ( Evópoli) * Pablo Errázuriz de la Maza (Ind/ UDI) * Juan Chomali Kattan ( RN) * Michael Comber Vial ( RN) * Juan Pablo Parada Da Fonseca (Ind/ RN)

Parliamentary representation

Lo Barnechea belongs to

Electoral District An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

No. 11 together with the municipalities of Las Condes,

, La Reina and Peñalolén and to the VII Senatorial District (

Santiago Metropolitan Region Santiago Metropolitan Region () is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions. It is the country's only landlocked administrative region and contains the nation's capital, Santiago. Most commercial and administrative centers are loc ...

). It is represented in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

of the National Congress for the 2022-2026 term by the following deputies: * Catalina Del Real Mihovilovic ( RN) * Gonzalo de la Carrera Correa (Ind) * Cristián Araya Lerdo de Tejada ( REP) * Guillermo Ramírez Diez ( UDI) * Francisco Undurraga Gazitúa ( EVOP) * Tomás Hirsch Goldschmidt ( AH) In the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, Lo Barnechea is represented by Rojo Edwards ( PSC), Luciano Cruz-Coke ( EVOP),

Manuel José Ossandón Manuel José Ossandón Irarrázabal, colloquially Cote Ossandón, (born 24 August 1962 in Viña del Mar, Región de Valparaíso) is an agricultural technician and a senator of Chile for the 7th Senatorial District, for the period 2022–2030. He ...

( RN), Fabiola Campillai (Ind.), and Claudia Pascual (PCCh) for the 2022-2030 term.

Architecture

The

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

in the area of buildings is very scarce, with a few late

colonial style American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), Spanish Colonial, French Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian ...

houses located preferably in the so-called Pueblo de Lo Barnechea. Within the commercial area, there are the shopping centers Portal La Dehesa, Espacio Urbano La Dehesa, Paseo Los Trapenses and Mall Vivo Los Trapenses. Also noteworthy is the large number of mansions and luxury homes that are established in this commune, especially in the sectors of Arrayán, Los Trapenses and La Dehesa, with these styles built mainly during the last twenty years and associated with the "upper class" of the country, making the commune one of the most expensive in the country in terms of average house prices. In parallel to the construction of houses and luxury apartments,

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

was developed in Lo Barnechea, in addition to the processes of self-construction of the founding tenants of the town, along with their generations. For the same reason, in the commune of Lo Barnechea we can see a series of contrasts, not only architectural, but also of social character, given that in a few square meters, or bycrossing a street (Padre Alfredo Arteaga Barros with Comandante Malbec), neighborhoods of high socioeconomic strata can be seen, in juxtaposition to sectors of low social strata, with clear delimitions between them.

Transportation

The commune has weak connections to the interconnected

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

of the city as a consequence of being located at a far end of the metropolitan area, together with Vitacura it leads the rate of motorization per capita (motor vehicles per inhabitant) in Greater Santiago. It was expected that by 2020, Lo Barnechea would have three stations of the Las Condes Tramway, which would give it a historic connection to the

Santiago Metro The Santiago Metro () is a rapid transit system serving the city of Santiago, the capital of Chile. It currently consists of seven lines (numbered 1-6 and 4A), 143 stations, and of revenue route. The system is managed by the state-owned Metro S. ...

, being currently one of the three communes of Greater Santiago (along with La Pintana and Lo Espejo) that does not have stations within the metro syste. However, the project was canceled by the authorities due to a lack of funding and subsidies for its development. Lo Barnechea is part of the Transantiago feeder zone C, together with the districts of Providencia, Las Condes and

. It is currently served by units 4 and 6 of this transportation system. There is an elevator on Cerro 18 operated by the Municipality of Lo Barnechea which connects this sector with Los Quincheros Street and the top of the hill, where the Parque de la Chilenidad is located.

Climate

Lo Barnechea has in the semi-arid

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

in a similar fashion to the rest of the Metropolitan Region, characterized by a prolonged dry season and a winter season, which concentrates annual rainfall. * ''Annual rainfall'' 360 mm * ''Average temperature'' 14 °C * ''Average Maximum Temperature'' 22 °C * ''Average Minimum Temperature'' 7 °C The climatic patterns present very important variations due to its location as a foothill area, which subjects it to the effects of altitude. It is estimated that in a mountainous environment, rainfall increases by about 22 mm every 100 m of altitude, while the temperature decreases by about 0.5 °C every 100 m. Due to this, being the urban area of the town of Lo Barnechea located at 850 m a.s.l. and above the rest of Santiago, it receives 65 mm more rainfall than in the commune of Santiago in the center of the city. This varies due to the size of the rural territory of the commune. In the annual distribution of rainfall, and considering the entire mountainous area, when it rains several days in a row, large flows are produced in the riverbeds, which causes flooding by accumulation and its subsequent transfer to the slopes. The topography of the

and its location, means that these climatic event will need to be taken into account in planning the future population distribution of the Commune.

Flood of 1982

The Flood of 1982 occurred with the incursion of warm winter fronts causing a rise in the lower limit of the snowpack, from 1800 to 2400 meters above sea level, generating a large increase in the volume of water and sediment runoff as a result of the melting of the snow, which caused saturation and subsequent overflow of the natural and artificial water drainage systems. The impact of this flood were tragic and disruptive, with loss of life, interruption of activities and damage to infrastructure and equipment, due to the permanence of inhabitants on the banks of the Mapocho River. The repetition of a similar event, under the current conditions of occupation and urban expansion in Lo Barnechea, could cause an even more catastrophic event, due to the high degree of intervention and modification of the natural system as a result of the construction development that continues to take place on increasingly higher ground.

Education

Higher Education

* Andrés Bello National University *

Universidad del Desarrollo Universidad del Desarrollo (Spanish: ''Universidad del Desarrollo'') is a Chilean private university. Its main campus is in Santiago de Chile, with a secondary campus in Concepción. History The University was founded in Concepción in 1990, ...

University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

** The University of Chile is present in the commune with its Faculty of Medicine, East Campus, which maintains the Serjoven Health Centre, which provides free care to more than 1,000 impoverished adolescents within Lo Barnechea each year. * Culinary Institute * CPEIP ** Centro de Perfeccionamiento, Experimentación e Investigaciones Pedagógicas del Ministerio de Educación.

Municipal Schools

* Colegio Diferencial Madre Tierra * Colegio de Adultos Fermín Vivaceta * Colegio Farellones Colegio Lo Barnechea with three campuses: *Eduardo Cuevas Valdes Campus (Early childhood, pre-kindergarten through 2nd grade) *San José Campus (Intermediate, 3rd through 6th grade) *Instituto Estados Americanos Campus (from 7th to 4th grade Polyvalent)

Subsidized Schools

* Colegio Polivalente San Rafael * Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa * Centro Educacional San Esteban Mártir * Colegio Betterland School * Colegio San Juan de Kronstandt

Private Schools

* Craighouse School * Colegio Nido de Águilas * Colegio Everest *

Santiago College Fundación Educacional Santiago College is a private educational (PK-12) institution in Santiago, Chile, founded in 1880. It was founded by American Methodist Ira Haynes La Fetra and his wife as a girls boarding school. In March 1972 the school be ...

* Colegio Monte Tabor y Nazaret * The Southland School * Colegio Newland * The Mayflower School
Colegio Huinganal
* Colegio los Alerces * Huelquén Montessori * Instituto Hebreo * Maimonides School * Lincoln International Academy * Bertrait College * Anglo American International School * Japanese Language Institute ( サンチャゴ日本人学校), a Japanese school overseas

Soccer

Currently, Lo Barnechea is home to two soccer teams that participate in official competitions, one at the professional level and one at the amateur level.

Sister cities

Tyler, Texas Tyler, officially the City of Tyler, is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the population is 105,995. Tyler was the List of municipalities in Texas, 38th most populous city in Texas (as well as the m ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Twinning since 2006.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* León Echáiz, René. ''ÑuÑohue, Historia de Ñuñoa, Providencia, Las Condes, Vitacura y La Reina'', Editorial Francisco de Aguirre, primera edición, 1972. * Piwonka Figueroa, Gonzalo. ''Las aguas de Santiago de Chile, 1541-1999''.

External links

I. Municipality of Lo Barnechea

Lo Barnechea Cultural Corporation

Lo Barnechea Virtual Community

Lo Barnechea community indicators in the Library of the National Congress of Chile
{{authority control Populated places in Santiago Province, Chile Geography of Santiago, Chile Communes of Chile