Rescate Ancestral

In northern Chile, the Tarapacá region encompasses landscapes that stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Andean high plateau. The coast, pampa, oases, ravines, and the Andean foothills form a territory connected for generations through trails, the exchange of food, family ties, and shared knowledge. Its richness is expressed both in the diversity of its environments and in the ways of life of those who inhabit them.

Within the region, the province of Tamarugal offers insight into these relationships through its villages, landscapes, and communities. The oases of Pica and Matilla, the agricultural ravines of Camiña and Tarapacá, the *pampa* (plains), and the high-altitude territories reveal diverse ways of cultivating crops, raising livestock, utilizing food resources, and managing water. Terraces, irrigation channels, ancient trails, and geoglyphs coexist with remnants of the nitrate era and with ongoing activities that continue to bring life to the region.

The cultural diversity of Tarapacá has been built upon the histories and knowledge of the Aymara and Quechua peoples, as well as the contributions of communities from various origins that have been part of this territory over time. Their life paths—shaped by settlement, migration, forced displacement, and labor—intertwine across villages, oases, ravines, the *pampa* (plains), and the coast. Music, celebrations, stories, traditional crafts, and culinary preparations all express this living heritage, which is passed down and transformed from one generation to the next. Engaging with this heritage invites us to recognize the individuals and families who sustain it, while respecting their identities and the ways in which they share their knowledge.