Concepción is a sanguine city. It was founded by blood, and it has been soaked in it time and time again. Founded by Pedro de Valdivia, a conquistador and the first governor of Chile, the city was a vital military settlement only miles from the land of the Mapuche; the city's destruction in 1554 was inevitable, and the Spanish retributions unto the Mapuche doubly so.

The death dealt in the Arauco War with the Mapuche would come to haunt Concepción, as the city would be faced with massive earthquakes. In particular, the 1939 and 1960 earthquakes were some of the most powerful ever recorded, and both brought the city to lows it had not felt in centuries. The other side of the claret motif, however, is that pumping blood necessitates a heart-- Concepción prospers despite it all. It has never failed to rebuild itself, unflinching in the face of rending earth or fiery war.

Following the Arauco War, Concepción quickly realigned itself from a military city to a cultural one, and its meteoric economic rise has made Concepción the undeniable beating heart of southern Chile. Despite the Mapuche razing the city two separate times, despite the endless march of heaving earth, despite the economic and political woes of Chile as a whole and the South in particular, Concepción stands tall and strong as a symbol and leader of southern Chile.