"The house that has the tile sign on the wall was built at the start of O'Daly street by the merchant Guillermo Cabrera Gutiérrez just before 1900 and contains an example of the famous advertising sign for Chilean nitrate on the flat panel of its southern wall. This is a masterpiece of Art Deco design, created in 1929 by the then young student of architecture Adolfo López-Durán Lozano, born in Madrid in 1902 and some years later, professor of Shape Drawing at the School of Architecture of Madrid.
The advertised product was a fertilizer made of sodium nitrate, of which Chile had great natural deposits, and increasing exports to Europe would soon allow it to dominate the sector.
The poster, made of ceramic by the Valencian tile makers Ramón Castelló, is strategically placed at the start of the main shopping street of Santa Cruz de La Palma, so it could be seen by all hauliers, farmers, businessmen and passers by heading from the south towards the town centre.
Nitrato de Chile" translates to Chilean Nitrate (or Chili Saltpeter), referring to sodium nitrate fertilizer once heavily imported to the Canary Islands, particularly La Palma, as seen on historic signs in Santa Cruz de La Palma, an iconic symbol of the island's banana farming history.
Santa Cruz de La Palma was a major importer of this fertilizer from Chile's Atacama Desert for banana plantations.
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