Capitán Pastene is a town founded by Italian immigrants, located in the commune of

Lumaco Lumaco is a town and commune in Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region of Chile. Its name in Mapudungun means "water of '' luma''". Lumaco is located to northeast of Temuco and from Angol. It shares a boundary to the north with the communes ...

in the

Araucanía Region The Araucanía ( ), La Araucanía Region ( ) is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions, and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is Temuco; other important cities ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

History

Capitán Pastene was initially founded with the name "Nueva Italia" in 1906. The first settlers were Italians brought by

Giorgio Ricci Giorgio Ricci (b. 1870 in Verica, Italy, Verica) was an Italian entrepreneur known for bringing Italian immigrants to Araucanía (historic region), Araucanía in Chile under fraudulent conditions. Occupation of Araucanía, Araucanía had been recent ...

, he had promised land suitable for agriculture, but settlers found themselves immersed in a zone of forested hills. In 1907 the settlement changed name to Capitán Pastene. Several houses recall the days of the earliest settlers of the 87 families, with nearly 770 members, who arrived in 1904 and 1905 from

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

in two successive migrations to focus initially on

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

work. Soon a number of settlers moved out to the nearby towns of

Traiguén Traiguén () is a Chilean city and commune in the Malleco Province, Araucanía Region. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Traiguén spans an area of and has 19,534 inhabitants (9,734 men and 9,800 ...

and

Temuco Temuco () is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune, capital (political), capital of the Cautín Province and of the Araucanía Region in southern Chile. The city is located south of Santiago de Chile, Santiago. The cit ...

or farther away to Santiago or Argentina. Settlers arrived from the northern

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

n region of

Emilia Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 million. Emilia-Romagna is one of ...

(

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

and major cities such as Modena) and left a generation of Italo-Chilean that lasts to this day, which has contributed to enriching the local culture. Capitán Pastene has 2,600 inhabitants many of whom are descendants from that first group from Modena. It is estimated that throughout the region known as "Pastene", people with kinship ties to migrants from Modena number over 16,000. Including the Chileans of Modena descent there are 800,000 Chileans of Italian ancestry, distant or close, including the Italian-Argentines transplanted to Chile.Italianos en Chile
''La colonización italiana en Chile, fragmentos de una travesía desde el norte de Italia a Valparaíso de Chile''. Currently, there is a considerable revival of

Italian traditions Traditions of Italy are sets of traditions, beliefs, value (ethics), values, and Convention (norm), customs that belongs within the Culture of Italy, culture of Italian people. These traditions have influenced life in Italy for centuries, and ar ...

in the region of Capitan Pastene.

Juan Bautista Pastene

Giovanni Battista Pastene (1507-1590), after whom the town is named, was a Genoese maritime explorer. He was among the first to explore the Pacific in the sixteenth century. He was a lieutenant of

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and the first royal governor of Chile. After having served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in ...

, and when

Emperor Charles V Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (as Charles I) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy (as Charles II) fr ...

ordered the exploration of southern Chile, this task was entrusted to Pastene.

Twin cities

Capitán Pastene has been proposed to be nominated a ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of southern Chile and thus to be a twin city of Pavullo, a small town near Modena. Most of the original settlers were from Pavullo and Verica.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capitan Pastene Port settlements in Chile Communes of Chile Populated places established in 1905 Chilean Populated places in Malleco Province 1905 establishments in Chile

History

Juan Bautista Pastene

Twin cities

See also

References