Pedro Aguirre Cerda
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Pedro Aguirre Cerda | |
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| 22nd President of Chile | |
| In office December 25, 1938 – November 25, 1941 | |
| Preceded by | Arturo Alessandri |
| Succeeded by | Jerónimo Méndez |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 6, 1879 Radical |
| Spouse | |
| Education | |
| Occupation |
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| Signature |  |
Pedro Abelino Aguirre Cerda (Latin American Spanish:
Early life
Pedro Aguirre Cerda was born on February 6, 1879, in Pocuro, a small village near the city of Los Andes, Chile. He was the seventh of eleven children born to parents Juan Bautista Aguirre Campos and Clarisa Cerda Escudero. His father, a farmer, died in 1887 when he was eight years old, leaving his widowed mother to run the farm and raise the eleven children on her own. His family was of Basque descent.[1]
He completed his initial tertiary studies at the
He was a very distinguished teacher, attorney, deputy and senator. He was also the first dean of the new school of economy of the University of Chile. As a member of the
He was chosen by the Popular Front coalition of left-wing parties and trade unions as its candidate in the 1938 Chilean presidential election, where he narrowly defeated right-wing candidate Gustavo Ross of the Liberal-Conservative coalition by 4,111 votes.
Presidency
Aguirre Cerda assumed his duties as president on December 25, 1938, under the slogan "Gobernar es educar" (to govern is to educate). As a teacher, his priority in government was education. As such, he promoted the development of the technical-industrial schools as a means to promote the formation of technicians for the nascent industrialization of the country. He also created thousands of new regular schools and encouraged the growth of the university system to cover the whole of the country. Aguirre's government also redistributed some land, encouraged the formation of agricultural settlements, built low-cost housing and schools, and integrated the Marxist parties into the political system.[2]
During his first year he had to face military opposition to his plans, which boiled over with the so-called Ariostazo. He also promoted and campaigned for a Nobel Prize for Gabriela Mistral, which only came to fruition under his successor, Juan Antonio Ríos.
On the economic side, and prompted in part by the devastating earthquake of 1939, he created the Production Development Corporation (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción - CORFO) to encourage with subsidies and direct investments an ambitious program of import substitution industrialization. This was the basis for the industrialization of Chile. From there sprung the steel, manufacturing and sugar industries.
In 1941, due to his rapidly escalating illness, he appointed his Minister of the Interior
Legacy
In the Chilean Antarctic Expedition in 1950–51, the explorers named the
Salvador Allende, one of Aguirre Cerda's close associates and Minister of Health under his presidency, would become president in 1970.
On July 3, 2018, another statue of him was inaugurated in the center of Santiago, this time in the Plaza de la Constitución, on the corner of Moneda and Teatinos streets.[1]
See also
References
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-02. Retrieved 2009-08-03.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ A History of Chile, 1808–1994, by Simon Collier and William F. Sater
- ^
This article incorporates public domain material from "Aguirre Passage". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
