Aguirre Cerda, Pedro

Youth and the beginning of a political career

Pedro was born in Pocuro, a small village near the city of Los Andes in Chile. He was the seventh of eleven children of Juan Bautista Aguirre and Clarice Cerda. His father, a farmer, died when Pedro was 8 years old, in 1887. His mother had to run a farm and raise him and his brothers alone.

Pedro Aguirre Cerda graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Santiago and became a Spanish teacher in 1900. In 1904 he became a lawyer. In 1910, thanks to a government scholarship, he studied administrative and financial law at the Sorbonne , as well as economics and social law at the College de France . He returned to Chile in 1914 and began teaching at the National Institute. He also taught philosophy at the Higher Military School and the Lyceum of Manuel Barroso Borgogno. He also became president of the National Society of Teachers. Aguirre Cerda was an outstanding teacher and soon became the first dean of the new economic school of the University of Chile .

In 1916, Pedro Aguirre Cerda married his cousin Juan Rosa Aguirre Luco, who was the daughter of Dr. Jose Joaquin Aguirre Campos and Mercedes Luco Gutierrez. The couple had no children

In parallel with the pedagogical career of Pedro Agire Serdi, his political career is developing. Even at the age of 27, he connected himself with the Masons, which determined his entry into the Radical Party. In 1915, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from San Felice , Putaendo and Los Andes (1915-1918), and later from the province of Santiago (1918-1921). In 1921, he was elected senator from Concepcion to the dissolution of the National Congress in 1924. In 1918, Pedro Agire Serda was appointed by the President Juan Luis Sanfuentes Minister of Justice and Education (January-September), and under President Arturo, Alessandri Palma was twice appointed Minister of the Interior (December 1920 — April 1921, January-February 1924).

In 1924, a military coup took place in Chile, which forced Aguirre Cerda to interrupt his political career and leave his homeland. He went to Europe. In 1925 he returned to Chile, but left again in 1927. During his stay in Europe, he writes the books The Agricultural Problem ( El problema agrario ) and The Industrial Problem ( El problema industrial ). The first book came from conversations with the poetess Gabriela Mistral with whom Pedro had been connected for many years with friendship since they met in 1916. Aguirre Cerda finally returned to Chile in 1930.

In March 1936, a Popular Front was created in Chile with the participation of the Radical, Communist and Socialist Parties. In 1938, Aguirre Serra became a Popular Front candidate in the presidential election and defeated conservative candidate Gustavo Ross (50.26% of the voters)

Pedro Aguirre Cerda was elected President on December 25, 1938 under the motto “Governar es educar” (“To lead means to educate”). A teacher by education, Aguirre Cerda considered education a priority for the government. He contributed to the development of technical craft schools as a means of forming technical personnel for the industrialization of the country that had begun. He also created thousands of new regular schools and encouraged the growth of the university system. He introduced a number of socially oriented laws in other industries, for which he received the nickname "President of the poor." A law on bank loans for peasants was adopted and a partial redistribution of land was carried out. The government of Aguirre Serda encouraged the creation of agricultural settlements and housing for the poor, but under pressure from the reaction, it did not dare to implement agrarian reform.

During the first year of his reign, Aguirre Cerda faced military opposition to his plans, which was expressed in particular in an armed uprising called Ariostazo . Aguirre Cerda launched a campaign to award Gabriela Mistral with the Nobel Prize , which was already carried out under his successor, Juan Antonio Rios .

In the field of industry, Aguirre Cerda pursued a policy of industrializing the country, contributing to the creation of enterprises for the production of steel, aluminum, copper, the development of the oil refining and sugar industries. He pursued a policy of substitution by industrialization of imports. Under him was established the Corporation for the Development of Production (Production Construction Corporation, Corporación de Fomento de la Producción - CORFO). In foreign policy, he adhered to the course of maintaining neutrality in the outbreak of World War II.

In 1941, due to a rapidly progressing illness, he appointed Minister of the Interior Jeronimo Mendes as vice president of the country. Pedro Aguirre Cerda died of tuberculosis on November 25, 1941 in Santiago . Mendes served as president until Juan Antonio Rios , elected on February 1, 1942, took office on April 2.