Alto Hospicio - History

History

The history of Alto Hospicio has always been linked to neighboring towns, their history goes back to the indigenous coastal (monkeys) who, after the exhausting climb of 550 meters from the cove-Ique Ique through the so-called Festival of the Mule (at the foot of Bajo Molle), stopped to rest on the pampa. During Inca times of Tupac Inca Yupanqui (one thousand three hundred and eighty - 1410 AD), began the exploitation of silver deposits Huantajaya, about three miles northeast of High Current Prison Hospicio. Exploiting ups and downs, remained until the end of the eighteenth century when Basilio de la Fuente, a prominent resident of the town of San Lorenzo of Tarapacá, made a fortune with the mineral, which funded the major irrigation works to the creek. After the Pacific War, was a desolate Alto Hospicio train station nitrate (specifically in the field of High Molle), where they lived more than 100 people. By the 50's, settled in the place parceleros Aymara, from inside: the High-agricultural sources Hospice, where plots are constructed first, modest farms with crops and animals. The economic boom experienced Iquique in the mid- 90's, made Alto Hospice exploded demographically, from a small group of houses and towns that did not exceed 2,000 inhabitants in the early nineties to a huge city with thousands of inhabitants. Alto Hospicio is 10 km away and only 600 m on the Lower Iquique. In August 2007 opened the Basic Hospital Hospice Emergency High in the La Pampa. Commune became the 12 April 2004, when it approved the bill separating Alto Hospicio of the commune of Iquique (Law No. 19943), under President Ricardo Lagos Escobar .