Qualla: Punta Arenas, Peru https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Punta Arenas, Peru https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru Punta Arenas, Peru: Introduction https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru/ The blocks were lettered, not numbered. If you lived here in 1960, your address might have been B-10 or W-5, and your neighbors would have understood exactly what that meant. Punta Arenas was an American oil town on the desert coast of northern Peru, built by the International Petroleum Company to house its supervisors and their families beside the Talara refinery. The houses were identical: red brick, flat roofs, deep lawns, all arranged in a grid designed to remind the American engineers of Coral Gables, Florida, coincidentally the location of IPC's headquarters in the 1940s. For three decades, Peruvian children walked to the Talara Staff School to learn in English. Thanksgiving was a holiday. Halloween too. And then it was not.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/n/j/punta-arenas-peru-wp/6pnj-punta-arenas-peru-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Punta Arenas, Peru: An American Suburb in the Desert https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru/ The setting was pure Piura desert: dry, hot, windswept, adjoined by the refinery's stacks and the oil fields that stretched inland. The International Petroleum Company designed Punta Arenas as a self-contained colony where a resident American family would find all the comforts of...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/n/j/punta-arenas-peru-wp/6pnj-punta-arenas-peru-an-american-suburb-in-the-desert.mp3 0:06 2 full Punta Arenas, Peru: The 1968 Coup and Nationalization https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru/ The Talara refinery was the provocation that launched a revolution. On October 3, 1968, General Juan Velasco Alvarado seized power in Peru, and one of his first acts was to nationalize the International Petroleum Company. The refinery and all its associated assets, including the ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/n/j/punta-arenas-peru-wp/6pnj-punta-arenas-peru-the-1968-coup-and-nationalization.mp3 0:06 3 full Punta Arenas, Peru: Resentment Across the Fence https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru/ Peruvian workers who took over the supervisor positions moved into the houses, but the community never lost its sense of separateness from the city of Talara beyond the gates. During Alan Garcia's first presidency in the 1980s, Peru entered an economic crisis that widened every i...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/n/j/punta-arenas-peru-wp/6pnj-punta-arenas-peru-resentment-across-the-fence.mp3 0:06 4 full Punta Arenas, Peru: The Slow Emptying https://qualla.com/punta-arenas-peru/ Punta Arenas did not end in a single event. It faded through the 1990s as the Talara refinery faced declining production and falling oil prices. By 1999, many houses had been rented to outside companies as Petroperu tried to squeeze revenue from assets it could no longer fully us...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/p/n/j/punta-arenas-peru-wp/6pnj-punta-arenas-peru-the-slow-emptying.mp3 0:06 5 full