La Virgen del Carmen en San Carlos de Bariloche

Abstract

The city of San Carlos de Bariloche stands out for being recipient of different migratory flows, the Chilean presence, which dates back to the construction of the town being especially important. Since the beginning of 1970 Chilean migrants were visualized within the city in different poor population groups. Between these spaces, the La Cumbre neighborhood knew him is, for those years, as the Chile barrio. According to documentary sources that is picked up the beginnings of the neighborhood organization were closely associated with the chapel of Nuestra Señora del Carmen, built at the end of the ' 60s and put into operation at the beginning of the ' 70s. The present work intends to analyze the process of formation of the Chapel (1971-1994) as sacred space of Chilean membership in neighborhood identity construction and the devotion for Mary under the advocation of Nuestra Señora del Carmen as a fundamental part of this process. Then visualize how the transfer and the Carmelite devotional practice of Chileans in San Carlos de Bariloche can be analysed as an integration strategy employing migrants in response to a process of social development which became increasingly more inclusive due to the increasingly authoritarian political contexts.