Workers and the Local Response to the Third Plague Pandemic in Iquique (Chile, 1900-1903)

Abstract

By studying the Third Plague Pandemic in Iquique, Chile, this article aims to contribute to the recent trends of scholarship that emphasize the global scope and impact of historical pandemics in local contexts. It examines how the local population and especially saltpeter workers understood, contested, and even neglected the epidemic due to local tensions. Methodologically, this paper relies on an ample array of sources, with an emphasis on sociocultural artifacts produced by local residents, such as poetry, newspapers of the working class, and cartoons. We conclude that in Chile the epidemic that affected Iquique in May 1903 revealed the government’s inability to respond to epidemic outbreaks manifesting in areas far from Santiago, the capital city. In Iquique, the workers and lower classes responded massively, denying the epidemic. The popular sources reveal an anti-central government and anti-big capital sentiment that ultimately led Iquiqueños to perceive the plague as a hoax.