Three pivotal events took place in Iquique between 1870 and 1930: one of the key naval battles of the War of the Pacific (1879); the establishment of a parallel government that challenged president José Manuel Balmaceda’s desire for greater taxation of nitrate wealth (1891); and the massacre by the Chilean military of striking miners at the Escuela Santa María (1907). This chapter examines the rhetoric of mourning in the literature of Iquique during this period and its link to shifting alliances along national, political, and affective lines. Texts analyzed include articles by Nicolás Palacios; poems and prose by Rubén Darío, who lived in Chile between 1887 and 1889; the novel Juana Lucero (1902) by Augusto D’Halmar; and the writings of labor organizer Luis Emilio Recabarren. The chapter links mourning to questions about workers’ rights, extractivism, and “cosmopolitanism” in Latin America’s first export age – issues still under debate today in the region.