Celebrities with Chilean Roots

Native American and European lines in Chilean DNA

A 2015 study in Nature Communications analyzed the genomes of 313 Chileans from every region of the country. On average, their ancestry was 55% European, 42% Native American and 2.4% African. Individuals differed widely, with Native American ancestry ranging from almost none to 91%. The authors date the mixing to about ten generations ago. The Y chromosome, which passes from father to son, turned out mostly European, while the X chromosome showed mainly Native American ancestry. In the authors’ words, “Sex-chromosome analyses confirm imbalanced contribution of European men and Native-American women.”^[5]

African ancestry falls from 3.9% in the far north to 1.3% in the far south. The study links this to the colonial slave trade, which brought many enslaved Africans to Peru and the north of Chile and few to the center and south.^[5]

The ChileGenomico project published its results in 2020. It estimated the ancestry of 2,843 Chileans from eight cities spread over 2,600 kilometers and split the Native American share into a component linked to the Aymara of the north and one linked to the Mapuche of the south. The average came to 53% European, 25% Mapuche, 18% Aymara and 4% African. Mapuche ancestry averaged 40% in the south and Aymara ancestry 36% in the north. Native American ancestry was lowest in the center of the country, between Valparaíso and the Biobío region.^[6]

Mapuche, Aymara and the other Indigenous peoples

In the 2024 census, 2,105,863 people said they belonged to an Indigenous people. In Arica and Parinacota in the far north and in La Araucanía in the south, they make up more than a third of the population.^[2]

A law of 1993 names the peoples the state recognizes. Since 2023 there have been eleven, from the Atacameño and Colla of the north to the Kawésqar and Yagán of the southern channels. By law, the state values their existence as “parte esencial de las raíces de la nación chilena”, an essential part of the roots of the Chilean nation.^[7]

The Mapuche, historically known as Araucanians, live mainly south of the Biobío River. They resisted Spanish and later Chilean rule for some 350 years. After independence, the Chilean government settled them on reservations.^[8] In the census, 381,762 people aged five and older said they spoke or understood the Mapuche language, Mapuzugun.^[2]

Silverwork gained importance among the Mapuche in the late 18th century. Smiths hammered and melted silver coins from the frontier trade into jewelry for women and gear for the horses of the chiefs. The craft peaked in the 19th century and declined with the occupation of the Araucanía.^[9]

From Valdivia’s Santiago to independence

The conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founded Santiago on February 12, 1541, in the valley of the Mapocho River.^[10] The Picunche who lived there were placed under the rule of the Spanish settlers.^[1] Around 1600, the colony had no more than 5,000 Spanish settlers. It was poor, and enslaved Africans never numbered more than a few thousand.^[11]

The first step toward independence came on September 18, 1810, when an open town meeting in Santiago elected a junta of local leaders. In 1817 an army under José de San Martín, with Bernardo O’Higgins among its commanders, crossed the Andes and defeated the royalists at Chacabuco on February 12.^[12]

The lawyer Miguel Zañartu drafted the act of independence, which O’Higgins and his ministers signed on January 1, 1818. It was proclaimed on February 12, the first anniversary of Chacabuco.^[13][12] The act declares that the continental territory of Chile and its adjacent islands “forman de hecho y por derecho un Estado libre Independiente y Soberano”, a free, independent and sovereign state in fact and by right.^[14] Spain’s decisive defeat on the mainland followed at Maipú on April 5, 1818.^[12]

Basques, Germans and Croats

In the 18th century, Basques formed an important part of the immigration from Spain and went mostly into trade. Landowning Creole families formed marriage ties with the newcomers, and the Castilian-Basque elite that emerged led the country after independence.^[15] Their surnames and family records have a section of their own on the Basque page.

A colonization law of 1845 started the settlement of southern Chile by European immigrants. The first nine German families arrived in 1846 and settled on the Bueno River. About 700 more followed between 1852 and 1860 under the state colonization agent Vicente Pérez Rosales. In 1853 Llanquihue was declared a colonization territory, and Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas were founded in the course of the settlement. Most colonists received land, building materials, a cow, a horse, tools and seeds. Acquiring land caused disputes, partly because Indigenous communities refused to leave theirs.^[16]

About 3,000 Croats settled in the far north and in Magallanes, with the largest wave between 1890 and 1914. Like other Croat emigrants, they were identified by the state they came from, as Austrians until 1915 and as Yugoslavs from then until 1990.^[17]

Two surnames and the Civil Registry since 1885

By law, both parents pass on their first surname to their children. Under laws passed in 2021, parents agree on the order when they register their first child together. If they cannot agree, the order is drawn by lot before the registry officer.^[18] Adults may change the order of their surnames once.^[19] Patronymic surnames such as Fernández and Martínez appear on the Spanish page.

In 2009 the Civil Registry counted 355,506 people with the surname González, 270,146 with Muñoz and 203,146 with Rojas. The ten most common surnames, all of Spanish origin, covered 2.8 million Chileans.^[20]

The Civil Registry has recorded births, marriages and deaths since January 1, 1885. Before that, the Catholic Church registered baptisms, marriages and deaths.^[21]

A person born abroad to a Chilean father or mother is Chilean under the constitution, as long as a parent or grandparent became Chilean by birth in Chile, by naturalization or by a special law. This rule dates from a constitutional reform of 2005.^[22]

Chileans in the California gold rush

Once the news of the gold discovery reached Valparaíso, ships sailing around Cape Horn to San Francisco called there for water, provisions and passengers. Chileans of all ages and classes set out for California, and they became known as “los argonautas del 49”, the argonauts of ’49.^[23]

In San Francisco most of them settled near Telegraph Hill, in a district of about eight blocks now crossed by Columbus Avenue. It was called Chilecito, Chiletown or Little Chile. Others spread to some 50 settlements in counties such as Calaveras, Sonoma and Sacramento.^[23]

For lack of records, the number of Chileans who made the journey is unknown. One estimate puts their number in California in 1850 at about 5,000. Most of the men worked as miners, day laborers or farmers.^[23]