100-Foot-high Cross on "La Melonita" hill, in La Calera
La Calera is located 66 km (41 mi) northeast of Valparaíso, and 118 km (73 mi) northwest of Santiago, in the Aconcagua River Valley. Its area is 60.5 km2 (23 sq mi).[2] La Calera borders Nogales to the north and west, Hijuelas to the east, and La Cruz to the south.
The city of La Calera is partly enclosed by Route 5 and Route 60.
History
La Calera's name comes from the production of quicklime (Spanish "cal") that is obtained from the processed limestone (Spanish: piedra caliza) (calcium carbonate), extracted from the hills at the south of the town, which were already exploited by the Chilean and Peruvian natives for some 400 years previously. Therefore, La Calera means "quicklime mine".
Established by the Jesuits as a settlement of the Jesuit reduction, the estate of La Calera belonged to the Jesuits up to 1767, to the expulsion of Jesuits by the decree of King Charles III of Spain from 1 March 1767.[5] The Bavarian Jesuit missionary Karl von Haimhausen was prominent in the area's early development. The turning point came in 1842, when it was acquired by Bolivian citizen Ildefonso Huici (father of socialite Eugenia Errázuriz) who started industrialising it using local resources.[6] By 1844, a small town had emerged consisting mainly in a number of workers' dwellings located around the factories and production centres established in it, giving life to what La Calera is today.
Economy
Due to its strategic crossroads location on the central valley and the pioneering and entrepreneurial work of locals and immigrants (Palestinian immigrants, Germans, Italians), La Calera has managed to remain a significant commercial and services centre to the interior of the Valparaiso Region, even though it is not the capital city of the Province. It also remains an important industrial base, employing a fair share of the rural population around it.
According to data from the Census 2002 by the National Statistics Institute, the commune's population was 49,503 inhabitants (24,134 men and 25,369 women). Of these, 47,836 (96.6%) lived in urban areas and 1,667 (3.4%) in rural areas.[2] Its 2007 estimated population was 50,644.[citation needed] La Calera holds 3.21% of the total population of the region. The city's central location in between Santiago de Chile and Valparaiso on the coast made the city of La Calera a true crossroads of industrial development.
Amongst the important immigrant communities set in La Calera before 1950, Palestinians and Italians stand out, which makes the town with the largest proportion of Palestine people in Latin America. The small but well prominent Palestinian community was recently reported in international news media. Even a former Mayor of the city was of Palestinian descent. As mentioned, Italians as well as French immigrants have established a thriving agricultural economy.
La Calera has a mestizo cultural identity and over half the people have some Amerindian ancestry. It is estimated that Spanish descendants and mestizos make up more than 90% of the population.
Notable Caleranos
The demonym for a person from La Calera is Calerano for a man, or Calerana for a woman. Notable Caleranos include:
As a commune, La Calera is a third-level administrative division of Chile, administered by a communal council (Concejo Comunal), which is headed by a directly elected mayor. The current mayor, as of December 2008, is Dr. Eduardo Martínez Machuca (Christian Democrat). The communal council has the following members:[1]
^Alejandra L. McCall. Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam: The Expulsion of the Jesuits from Chile and their Journey into Exile. University of North Carolina at Asheville, 2008.
^Alvaro Mercado Jara. Paisaje re.creativo en la cuenca del Aconcagua. V. Reseña histórica de la calera surgimiento y desarrollo de la comuna desde el siglo xv al xxi. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. 2010
