The article addresses the usage trajectories of the real estate structure of the former Caritaya police station, located within the territory of the Aymara community of Mulluri, in the Arica and Parinacota region. Built in the 1930s, the police station represents the early installation of the Chilean State in Aymara territory through the construction of an impressive engineering work: the Caritaya dam. Through these infrastructures, sovereignty, power, and capital investment were exercised in this territory, formerly Peruvian. Over time, the property was refurbished and has been used to this day by one of the last families practicing “costeo,” or transhumance, within the framework of ancient mobility practices linked to traditional herding. The usage trajectories and life history of this enclosure intertwine past and present, tradition and modernity, challenging how the disciplines of archaeology and history methodologically approach the past and present of indigenous communities in their interaction with the State, as well as the very conception of space and territory.
