"Let Us Bring it with Love": Violence, Solidarity, and the Making of a Social Disaster in the Wake of the 1906 Earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile

On August 16, 1906, the people of Valparaíso and central Chile experienced a massive earthquake and raging fires. In the aftermath of the event, the local authorities in Valparaíso sought total control of the city population, lashing and killing many and requiring written permission to traverse the city. Meanwhile, in Santiago, the prolabor Partido Democrático first interpreted the disaster as affecting all classes equally. But party leaders soon recognized that the state was abandoning their working-class comrades. Using archival documents and periodicals, this article follows the path of recent scholarship that has denaturalized "natural disasters." I emphasize how a political party with roots in working-class activism interpreted and integrated the social disaster into its politics. The state and local elites attempted to use the earthquake and fires to their advantage, yet in so doing they pushed a portion of the labor movement to the left. By working to help the victims of the earthquake and of the state, the organizers of the Partido Democrático forged bonds of "affective solidarity" that enabled workers to advance economic demands and to produce a radical critique of the state.