Horacio Serrano
Horacio Serrano | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Agriculture | |
| In office 7 June 1943 – 1 September 1943 | |
| President | Juan Antonio Ríos |
| Preceded by | Fernando Moller |
| Succeeded by | Alfonso Quintana |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 December 1904 |
| Died | 5 February 1980 (aged 75) |
| Spouse | Elisa Serrana |
| Children | 5 (among them, Sol Serrano)[1] |
| Education | University of Chile (LL.B) |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Horacio José Serrano Palma (14 December 1904 – 5 February 1980) was a Chilean politician who served as a minister of Juan Antonio Ríos.[2]
Family and education
[edit]He was born in Santiago on 14 November 1904,[3] the third of six children born to Margarita Palma Cavero and farmer Juan Serrano Squella, who served as intendant of Valdivia Province in 1898 and as senator for Ñuble in 1924, representing the Liberal Party (PL).[4]
He had five brothers:[3] Juan; José, a lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs during the second administration of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo;[3] Antonio, who served as Undersecretary of the Interior during the administration of Radical president Juan Antonio Ríos; Andrés; and Mauricio, a farmer and member of the Club Hípico de Santiago.[3]
He completed his primary and secondary education at the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Santiago before continuing his studies at King's College in England, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in science in 1926. He later travelled to the United States and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating as an engineer in 1934.[3]
In 1949, he married novelist Elisa Pérez Walker, better known as Elisa Serrana, who was twenty-five years his junior. They had five daughters: Elena (Nena), a lawyer; Paula, a psychologist; Margarita Serrano, a journalist; Marcela Serrano, a writer; and Sol Serrano, a historian.[5]
Public career
[edit]Serrano was involved in agriculture, managing the Las Mellizas and Reñihue estates in Ñuble and Aysén Province, respectively.[3] Politically independent, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture by Radical president Juan Antonio Ríos on 7 June 1943, serving until 1 September of that year. The following year, he was appointed executive vice-president of the Institute of Agricultural Economy (Inecona).[3]
He subsequently represented Chile at several international meetings, served as head of economic research at UNESCO, and as secretary-general of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH).[6][3]
Among his other activities, Serrano became a full member of the Chilean Academy of Language in 1970, was a corresponding member of the American Institute of Engineers, and served as a member of the Chilean Commission for Intellectual Cooperation.[3] He was also a member of the Club de la Unión, the National Agricultural Society (SNA), and the Sociedad Ganadera Austral.[3]
Literary career
[edit]In his 1958 essay ¿Por qué somos pobres? (Why Are We Poor?), Serrano agreed with historian Francisco Antonio Encina in identifying the loss of Chile's merchant marine and Patagonia, as well as the transfer of the nitrate industry to foreign entrepreneurs, as among the country's gravest historical mistakes.[7]
His use of irony was exemplified by the short book En defensa de la tontería (1948), published in the form of a breviary. René Silva Espejo, in his address marking Serrano's admission to the Chilean Academy of Language, cited passages from the work discussing the role of foolishness in history.[8]
Works
[edit]Serrano was the author of the following works:[3]
- La marcha humana (1937)
- ¿Hay miseria en Chile? (1937)
- En defensa de la tontería (Editorial Marinetti, Santiago, 1948)
- Entre mar y cordillera: la lucha del chileno contra la naturaleza (Marinetti, Santiago, 1952)
- ¿Por qué somos pobres? (Editorial Universitaria, Santiago, 1958)
- El chileno, un desconocido (1965)
- Reflexiones, caminos, encuentros (1981), a posthumous collection of chronicles
References
[edit]- ↑ "Muere Elisa Serrana, autora de la generación del 50". El Mercurio. 6 September 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
- ↑ "Horacio Serrano, discreto observador". Biblioteca Nacional Digital. 15 February 1980. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 de Ramón Folch, Armando (2003). Biografías de Chilenos: Miembros de los Poderes Ejecutivos, Legislativo y Judicial (1876–1973). Vol. IV. Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile. pp. 130–131.
- ↑ Library of the National Congress of Chile (n.d.). "Reseñas biográficas parlamentarias: Juan Serrano Squella". Historia Política Legislativa (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 March 2013.
- ↑ "Muere Elisa Serrana, autora de la generación del 50". El Mercurio (in Spanish). 6 September 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
- ↑ Efraín Szmulewicz (1984). Diccionario de la Literatura Chilena (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello. p. 358.
- ↑ Javier Pinedo (2005). "El pensamiento de los ensayistas y cientistas sociales en los largos años 60 en Chile (1958–1973). Los herederos de Francisco A. Encina". Atenea (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ↑ René Silva Espejo (1970). "Discurso de recepción con motivo de la incorporación de Serrano a la Academia Chilena de la Lengua". Instituto de Chile, Boletín de la Academia Chilena, Correspondiente de la Real Española (in Spanish). Santiago. p. 107. Retrieved 26 March 2013.