Amenities in the workers’ town

The amenities provided by Portolés y Compañía S.A. in the workers’ town by Los Hurones dam included a church, a hostelry and a hostel with bedrooms and dining rooms, offices, a laboratory, workshops, school, hospital and commissary (shop). These were for use by all the families and represented an opportunity compared with the limited services in nearby villages and ranches. In fact, residents in the latter also took advantage of them: accidents and pregnancies (deliveries) in the surrounding area were attended to, and they bought things in the commissary and their children attended the local school and received presents from the company on Kings’ Day, like the other workers’ families. Nevertheless, at no stage of the building work were there enough houses and services for all the workers.

Eye-witness accounts transmit an awareness of class and gender distinctions in the management of services. Blasina Orellana (Algar, 1944) worked as a cleaner and dining lady in the hostelry serving food to the technical staff (among them Enrique Tizón, see photo) and cooking in the hostel where the skilled workers were housed:

«In the hostelry I wore a uniform and served food to 10-12 well-dressed men; but in the hostel a woman couldn’t serve the workers, men did that.

«Workers received a single dish of chick-peas, beans or lentils. And dessert was always a piece of quince. In the hostelry the second course was steak or some fish.»