MIGRACIONES LOCALES Y ASENTAMIENTO INDÍGENA EN LAS ESTANCIAS ESPAÑOLAS DE CHILE CENTRAL, 1580-1650.

This article examines the process that took place as changes were made to the way in which indigenous manual labor was used (as mandated by the Spanish government through the encomienda) in Central Chile towards the end of the sixteenth century through the first half of the seventeenth century. As gold veins were depleted and the Chilean economy changed, moving toward agro-livestock production, Spanish representatives began slowly and tentatively, at first, then massively and permanently, to move workers to farms and ranches where they lived and lent personal services. Other tax payers paid indigenous people, bought slaves or contracted those who were available to work regardless of their origin. This meant that by the seventeenth century, the majority of these people were living on such rural properties and deserting their original settlements. As these farms became the main nuclei of the rural indigenous populations, people from many different geographical locations–with a variety of legal statuses and identities–came together and raised families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]