"La Picantería": the history of the iconic gathering that changed politics in Chile over wine and Creole food

When he entered, the first thing the celebrated lawyer and politician José Victorino Lastarria managed to say was that the place seemed to him "una picantería" (a cheap eatery). Just as Arturo Alessandri would christen La Piojera years later, the truth is that Lastarria used this very Chilean word to convey that the meeting place to which his friends, the Amunátegui brothers, had invited him was far from glamorous. It was nowhere near the style of the sumptuous, French-inspired salons where politics was conducted. Rather, what Miguel Luis Amunátegui Aldunate (1828-1888) and Gregorio Víctor Amunátegui Aldunate (1830-1899) were seeking was to cultivate a style closer to the popular. José Victorino Lastarria "La Picantería" then became one of the unavoidable political sociability spaces of the mid-nineteenth century, at the hinge between the end of conservative governments and the liberal period. It was not the only one, but it did become one of the most relevant. It was a tertulia organized by the Amunátegui brothers in their house, located on the present-day street of the same name, parallel to La Moneda. "It was on the plot of land where today roughly the Entel Tower stands, and the building right next to it, on the current Amunátegui street, which at that time was known as Calle del Peumo. Unfortunately, it no longer exists," historian Cristóbal García-Huidobro tells Culto; he has studied the period extensively and mentioned the tertulia in an episode of his podcast Dato mata relato. García-Huidobro assures that there is no exact record of the date the tertulia emerged. "It was probably 1858, but there are no minutes or anything like that, only some recollections from people who spoke about what the meetings were like. For example, Joaquín Santa Cruz has a short text called Recuerdos de la Picantería, which, if I'm not mistaken, is published in the Chilena de Historia y Geografía journal." As befits a space of sociability, people gathered at the tertulia to savor delicious Creole dishes, have a drink or two, listen to music and, above all, talk politics. The idea of the Amunáteguis was to bring together the young liberal-minded people emerging in Chile. They were, moreover, among the first Chileans born after independence. At that time, this group felt growing discontent with the government of conservative Manuel Montt, not to mention civil wars and attempted revolutions such as those in 1851 and 1859. Manuel Montt Torres. "Together with their friends, the Amunáteguis decided to create a tertulia that met in a room of the Amunátegui house, and they were not precisely people with much money (the family had had a very hard time after the father's death). It was a musty place, with ugly wallpaper, some rush chairs. And one day they invited José Victorino Lastarria to the tertulia, and Lastarria, who had been a teacher of all of them, the Amunátegui brothers and their friends, among whom was, for example, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, arrives and tells them that the place was very ugly and that it looked like a picantería," says García-Huidobro. Lastarria's nickname had a correlation, García-Huidobro assures: "A picantería was a fonda or a place where one ate in the Chilean countryside, which was usually very precarious and, let's not say, very honest." However, with a keen political nose, the group liked the very Creole nickname, adopted it to name the place, and gave themselves the proud and fitting name of "Picanteros." "The Amunáteguis liked it because they considered it gave them an imprint that was, up to a point, popular or, if you will, Jacobin," notes the historian. Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. National Library Collection. The first "Picanteros" That said, however popular they felt, the truth is that the young "picanteros" were not precisely peasants and common folk, as García-Huidobro explains. "A good part of the members of La Picantería were people who belonged to the national elite; they were not aristocrats, but they were people who at least had some degree of relevance or importance." "They met fundamentally to talk politics. La Picantería was born during the last year of President Montt's government. It was a time when a part of the Picanteros ended up in exile, precisely because of the war of 1859, which was not the case for either Miguel Luis or Gregorio Víctor Amunátegui." Miguel Luis Amunátegui, Domingo Santa María and Gregorio Víctor Amunátegui in 1848. Of course, in those political gatherings there was also room for Creole fun, not to mention delicious concoctions and assorted refreshments. "The original Picantería was full of popular foods, Chilean sweets, wine and that kind of thing. Each 'Picantero' brought something, that is, it was like, 'okay, I'll bring such and such.' Basically, everyone contributed," says García-Huidobro. Of that first generation of "Picanteros," several would write their names into the history of Chile. "In the Old Picantería, the one of the original Amunáteguis, were names like Domingo Santa María, Diego Barros Arana, Federico Errázuriz Zañartu, Melchor Concha y Toro, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. Basically, a bunch of people who were the great liberal generation of the second half of the nineteenth century," notes García-Huidobro. Even in the 1860s, they received a new generation of "Picanteros" who also had something to say. "For example, Ramón Allende Padín, who was Salvador Allende's grandfather; Emilio Bello would be there, Vicente Zegers, Robustiano Vera. All were figures who would in any case have some impact on politics or also in the sciences, medicine, literature, and so on. So in that sense, the Picantería opened up more, but it was always the same logic of a political tertulia." Ramón Allende Padín La "Picantería" puts on tails However, by the 1870s, when the liberals had already come to power under José Joaquín Pérez (1861-1871), the "Picantería" changed its style, became more aristocratic, and began receiving a new generation of "Picanteros." This was because the Amunáteguis began making improvements to the place, as García-Huidobro recounts. "In the 1870s, the picanteros began calling the Picantería the 'Gran Hotel,' because that was the name of the biggest hotel in Santiago, which was on the Plaza de Armas, because by those years everything was more elegant. For example, the Salón Rojo, which was the name they gave to the room where the Picanteros met, was still red, but with a much more elegant wallpaper. It had a marble fireplace, a crystal chandelier on the ceiling, Siberian leather armchairs, rosewood chairs upholstered in velvet. The Amunáteguis, who were bigger, older, had done better in life, and that also somewhat changed the character of the Picantería toward a liberalism less scruffy and more tied to the national institutional framework." That said, according to García-Huidobro, the "Picantería" notched one not minor achievement: "It was the only political tertulia that had a woman as a member, and that was Martina Barros Borgoño, Diego Barros Arana's niece. He would bring her to the tertulia. And since the woman was of forceful opinions, one of the forerunners of feminism, she had a space. There was full equality among the members of the tertulia." Martina Barros Borgoño That said, in La Picantería they did not only talk; they also acted. In fact, from its depths emerged various parliamentary and even presidential candidacies. "It will be in the Picantería where, for example, the candidacy of Miguel Luis Amunátegui for the presidency of the Republic will emerge —says García-Huidobro—. His name was proposed to the liberal convention, and between him and Aníbal Pinto, they chose Pinto, who would end up being president of the Republic." "There will be a rupture at some point in the Picantería, because at the same time as the dispute between Amunátegui and Pinto, the candidacy of Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna also arises, but after the elections, everyone as friendly as ever; it was simply a moment of division," notes Cristóbal García-Huidobro. As time went by, the Amunáteguis grew old and, for that reason, drifted away from the tertulia. By the late nineteenth century, the "Picantería" had entered into decline. "With the death of Miguel Luis Amunátegui in 1888, the bet was on the children; the original old-timers no longer took part in the tertulia. Gregorio Víctor Amunátegui had no desire to continue with the tertulia either and, with the passage of time, all the original spirit of the tertulia had been lost." Picanteros or Jacobins? For any lover of History, "La Picantería" could at times recall the political clubs that existed during the French Revolution, such as the Cordeliers Club (to which the famous Danton belonged), the Jacobin Club, the Feuillants Club or the Panthéon Club; however, García-Huidobro keeps his feet on the ground and rather links its origin to the tertulias held in the colonial period. "In spirit there was probably something of the French clubs, but in structure and forms it came from the logic of the colonial tertulia and the early republican one. Tertulias continued to exist in an era when there were no newspapers, or almost none; the only way to communicate news was by word of mouth. And indeed, that space of sociability was maintained throughout the nineteenth century." Why were they not entirely similar to the French clubs? García-Huidobro answers: "Because the space of sociability was already taken by the political parties. By the time the Picantería was founded, formal political parties already existed: the liberal, the conservative and the national. In the era of the French Revolution there were no political parties; there were these clubs, which are basically groups of political affinity. In the strict sense, they are not the same."