My Name Is Emilia del Valle

In June 1891, Emilia arrives in Iquique, Chile, where rebels have established their own government. Emilia notices the harsh class disparities within the town. Many of the wealthy, she notices, descend from Europeans while more of the workers are of Indigenous heritage. She also learns that Chilean surnames are all positioned within a social hierarchy, and this places her in the upper class. 

Emilia’s first column in Chile describes the importance of the nitrate industry in Iquique, from where it is exported around the world, and describes the mining process. She interviews a man who describes how Chile’s president didn’t listen to the workers during a strike the previous year when they were asking for pay raises and better working conditions. She also speaks to four workers’ wives and concludes that the war is more about the wealthy than it is about the lives of the working class. Regardless of the outcome, they will remain in poverty, but they want better living conditions.

Eric arrives in Chile, and Emilia informs him about the nitrate trade. They also notice signs of Britain’s influence on Chile all around them. While Eric thinks that Emilia communicates quite well with the Chileans, she admits that the Spanish in Chile is much different from that which she speaks at home in San Francisco.