Abstract

The article analyzes the implementation and development of the commemoration of the Battle of Arica (June 7, 1880) in said city. Through a broad temporal analysis and based on a systematic review of the local press, the research examines the uses and disputes over the memory of the War of the Pacific in the Peruvian and Chilean communities of the city, and the nationalistic uses that they conferred on civic festivities. The text reveals both the ritual use of commemoration to claim the Peruvian identity against the Chilean occupation until 1908; and then the paper analyzes the Chilean hegemony of the commemoration until 1929, where the ceremony had an important role within the policies of nationalization of the frontier.