Diario las Américas., 1958-03-14
Know thy
.Nei9hbor
BY ANTONIO RUIZ

CHILE - 1t has been said that
no part of Chile'S past has been
left unStudied, no document of its
archives unpublished or un ex-
planned. And it is true for his
tory is, indeed one of the coun-
try's most original and widely Gull
tlvated literary forms. By the
middle of the 18th, century, it
had become a vigorous expression
OF national consciousness and
thought. A trio of historians, Mi
guel Luis Amunategui, BENJAMIN
Vicuna Mackenna and Diigo Ba-
rros Arana, were leading figures
in the intellectual life of the Sc
cond half of the last century.
Amunategui, an interchangeable
writer who worked closely with
his brother Gregorio, another bril-.
liant historian and militant liber-
al, won wide acclaim for his stu
dies on the forerunners of indie
pendence and on the role of Der.
nardo 0'Higgins in Chilean his
tory. In eloquent journalistic style.
Vicuna Mackenna pictured many
different stages of his country's
past; his histories of the indie
pendence and the republican eras,
however, are considered among
his most important works.
Perhaps the most c%omprehen-
Sive general history of Chile, from
primitive times up to the Constitu-
ton of 1888, is Barros Arana's
monumental 16-volume work. In
addition, he described specific Pc
riods and events in Chilean his
tory and prepared a valuable text
book on the History of America.
Another famous national histor-
ian of about the same time was
Ramon Sotomayor Valdes, whose
studies deal specially with the 18-
30's.
During this century, C~rescente
Errazuriz, former Archbishop of
Santiago, wrote a classic history
of the Chilean Church. The reputa-
ton Of the illustrious Amunategui
family has been kept alive by Do
mingo Amunategui Solar, son of
Miguel Luis Amunategui, whose
works include accounts of colonial
, and revolutionary days and i'm
portant studies of Chilean litera-
ture, and by his cousin Miguel
Amunategui Reyes. Famous for his
tudieS of the War of the Pacific
is Gonzalo Bulnes, and Alberto Ed
wards has written books on philo-
sophy and history.
For more than half a century,
Jose Toribio Medina made also
many valuable contributions to
Chilean history, archaeology, ety.
mology, and literary criticism,
which earned for him the respect
and admiration of the entire con-
tinent. 1t has been said of him that
"it would be impossible to take
one step in American history with
out resorting to the publications
of Medina" Over 800 titles are
listed in the photography of his
works, which range from an
astrological study of Chilean In
dams to a translation Of Longfel-
lows "Evangeline." His historic
al studies emphasize the colonial
developments f America.
Contemporary historians include
Alexandra Fuenzalida Grandon,
who has traced the social and in
tellectual development of Chile;
Luis Galdames, a student of con-
stitutional history, whose "a His
tory of Chile" was translated in
to English in 1941, and Ricardo
Donos, author of several b%iograph-
les and a study on Chilean politics
and society since the 1883 Constitu-
ton. Since its appearance in 1910,
Francisco Encina's controver-
sial History of Chile from pre-
historic times until the end of the
10th. century, has been a best sell
Ter. The ~essayist Jaime Eizaguirre
has also presented a significant
historical Interpretation of his
country. Histories Of everything,
from Chilean foreign relations to
cookery, have been written by Eu-
genio Pereira Salas, and outstand-
ing histories Of Latin American
literature by Arturo Torres Rio
seco and Ricardo Latcham.
Snanfsh Varsim pace &