This brief book looks at what the people of Colchagua, a rural province in central Chile, did for recreation in the mid-nineteenth century. The author relies principally on the reports of local political officials, but Purcell Torretti also uses newspapers, travel accounts, and novels.
The people of Colchagua liked to spend time in chinganas (bars or small inns), play cards, dice, and bolos (a game with mallets and balls something like croquette), attend cock fights and horse races, and gamble, among other recreational activities. The author offers the following main conclusions regarding these topics. Sometimes fights broke out at these events, especially when the people involved were drinking. People enjoyed participating in these activities on holidays. People preferred outdoor activities when the weather was nice. Most horse races were held on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, although, Purcell Torretti notes, sometimes they were held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Railway workers...
