It analyzes how the Chilean state implemented administrative policies for nationalistic purposes, using civic rites, and in particular, the celebrations of the Chilean national holidays to eradicate any feeling of ascription to the Peruvian citizens of the territory of Tacna and Arica. In particular, this article argues that among civic rites, national holidays are par excellence the constructors of the Chilean nation, since they articulate a symbolic link with the deployment of state apparatuses, as the educational system, promoting nationalism in the spheres of public and private life of people.