The Santa Isabel neighborhood, the birthplace of the Italia and Caupolicán neighborhoods

The Santa Isabel neighborhood, originally known as the Juan García Ballesteros settlement, dates back to approximately 1897–1935 and has been home to a diverse range of communities, including members of the Chilean aristocracy, presidents of the nation, immigrants—mostly from Italy—and families of varying economic backgrounds.

In 1896, at the corner of Avenida Italia and Francisco Bilbao (now the Factoría Italia), Giaccinto Girardi founded the Girardi Hat Shop.

On Santa Isabel Avenue, before the metro station of the same name, the Luchetti pasta factory was located. At that time, this area was known as the red-light district and Chinatown.

On Jesuitas Street, the Italian textile factory Sermini was established, now called "El Castillito Sermini"; where the owner himself designed the house, and it was one of the first in the district to have sewerage; the owner was also a pioneer in establishing the first daycare center in Providencia, dedicated to the women who worked in his factory; and he previously bought and later rented the surrounding houses to his workers’ families so they could live close to work.

Culturally: around 1937, the Teatro Italia was established, and later two Italian circuses set up along Italia Avenue; one of these circuses belonged to the Valsasnini family, on the site of the former Teatro de la Aurora. In the 1960s, the neighborhood was notable for being home to one of the presidents of the republic; today it is a House-Museum.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the CIC-Rossen mattress factory and a prominent watchmaker’s shop were established; later, the space served as a warehouse for the Village gift and card shop.

In the 1970s, the Caupolicán neighborhood began to take shape as antique dealers and artists started to set up shop along Caupolicán Street in the Ñuñoa district.

It is an honor for us at Visibles World Creative Agency and Media Magazine to have helped promote the neighborhood where we were born; this was our first media outlet and private commercial platform, founded by our general manager, Gabriel Agustín Garay Opaso, and we created it to raise awareness, promote, and give visibility to our neighbors, organizations, businesses, Italian culture in Chile, and the area’s tourism potential.

BARRIO ITALIA TV BUSINESS GUIDE:

Since 2009, we had an innovative digital guide featuring businesses, places to visit, and recommendations for activities in the neighborhood; however, as time went on, the neighborhood became so dynamic, and combined with the high turnover of businesses at that time, we decided to discontinue our guide to ensure that the information on our platform remained up-to-date.

Pamela Jara Pérez, a prominent Chilean actress, dynamic woman, entrepreneur, and mother, was our platform’s official host. Together with our entire team of journalists, editors, photographers, and the other hosts of various sections who supported her, we formed a great team at Visibles World Media Magazine.

We’re sharing this link where you can enjoy various content we created throughout this project, as well as this other link to learn about its founder.