Chile - Houses of the hacienda San José del Carmen el Huique

"The area of Coichagua, of exceptional agricultural productivity, was not very much populated or exploited by the Spaniards until the XVil century. This was due to the scant native population of the area and to the fact that the lands, although of great potentiality, either lacked irrigation or were, on the contrary, flooded. in 1598, a serious native revolt provoked the concentration of the Spanish population at the center of the country, fact which, in turn, led to the colonization of the area, and to the application of irrigation and growing techniques that made it flourish as the agricultural region par excellence. Coichagua developed on the basis of an economic system whose unit was the hacienda (large country estate), a self-sufficient productive core around which Central Chile's society and culture were built. The Hacienda San José del Carmen El Huique has its origin in the Larmague country estate, built at the beginnings of the XVII century by conqueror Juan de Quiroga thanks to land awards and concessions.."