Chileans in the California gold rush

Chilean miners, merchants and adventurers were among the first to respond to the California gold rush with the first group arriving by sea in 1848. News about the rush arrived in Valparaíso in September 1848 and the first group of Chileans arrived in California in late October of the same year. 1500 Chileans arrived in San Francisco in 1848. In total, Chile issued about 6,000 passports for travellers to California, but this does not reflect the number of migrants as many abandoned the country informally and Chile found little use in attempting to regulate and register the emigrants.

Chileans came from central Chile, and were –except the very first wave– often skilled miners –as opposed to the bulk of the arrivals to California. This made Chileans relatively well-prepared for mining influencing practises in California by –among other things– introducing the mining technology to California such as the batea gold pan, then made of wood, and the trapiche which became known as the Chilean mill. Many Euroamericans were indebted to Chileans who taught them the basics of the mining trade.

In contrast to Anglo-Americans, Chileans tended to work less individually and more cooperatively, something that facilitated certain types of mining endeavours. Over-all, Chileans were initially more successful than Euroamerican miners causing a negative campaign against them in the press. A Chilean practise that was much resented was for Chilean companies to make claims in the names of their "peons", something Euroamericans equated with using slaves to make claims. In some accounts, the success of Chileans miners was exaggerated to make the claim large amounts of gold was being shipped out to Chile. Success among Chileans in California was not universal and some returned early on due to financial failure. Estimates of the numbers of Chileans in California goes as high as 7,000, but the 1850 California census reported only 619 Chileans, likely due to Chileans hiding their identity. A large number of Chileans returned to Chile after the 1849–1850 period.

In California, the term Chilean garnered a wider meaning often including any Spanish-speaking non-European nationality and usually associated with a "bronze-coloured" skin tone. Many Mexicans and Peruvians were branded "Chilean". Reportedly this branding was due to Chilean's high visibility due to their tendency to assume leadership in groups of Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Among the Chileans who embarked to California was Vicente Pérez Rosales who wrote extensively about it contrasting aspects of the North American society with the Chilean one. The Californian writings of Pérez Rosales were published in various forms having a lasting impact discourses about Chilean identity. The extent of emigration caused concern about a purported shortage of skilled labour in Chile and the issue was discussed in the Congress of Chile. The emigration of Chileans to California happened at the same time as trade relations between Chile and California greatly expanded with Chile supplying California with large amounts of wheat.

A large number of Chilean women worked as prostitutes in Little Chile during the rush, and many of them were from Valparaíso.