Alonso Zumaeta

Born in Gultro, Rancagua conurbation, on 26 July 1907, he was the third of five children of Pedro Zumaeta and Celinda Faune, a family dedicated to agriculture. He completed secondary education at the San Martín Institute of Curicó (Marist Brothers). At 16 he entered the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, sharing classrooms and residence with Salvador Allende, at the Pensionado Belisario Torres for provincial students. He graduated as a surgeon on 11 November 1931, with the thesis “Study of Mean Pressure in Clinical Practice.”^[1]

In 1931 he participated in university protests against President General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, contributing to his resignation and exile. At 23 he was appointed physician at the Hospital of Chimbarongo, serving 1932–1936. During this time he joined the Socialist Party in Molina. Conflicts with local landowners led to his transfer to Castro, Chiloé, where he became director of the local hospital (1936–1939). There he founded 14 socialist sections and befriended the lawyer Juan Bautista Rossetti Colombino.^[2]

He married Aída Reyes in 1937, with whom he had two children: Pedro Alonso and Maricel. In 1938 he and his wife led the regional campaign for presidential candidate Pedro Aguirre Cerda.

In 1941 Zumaeta ran for Deputy representing the province of Chiloé, losing by only 60 votes. The same year he moved to La Calera, serving as regional physician for the Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado and as director of the Workers’ Insurance Fund. He was elected councilman of the Municipality of La Calera in 1942, a position he held for 16 years, serving his last two terms as mayor.

After six years of widowerhood, he partnered with Laura Adriana Fernández Botto in 1951. On 26 July 1957, he won a by-election for the 6th Departmental Grouping, filling the vacancy left by deceased socialist deputy Armando Mallet Simonetti. His upset victory over Fernando Vial Letelier became popularly known as the *“Zumaetazo.”* He took office on 27 August 1957. Re-elected for 1961–1965, he served on the Standing Committee on Health and Social Welfare.^[3]

He collaborated closely with communist senator Dr. Jaime Barros Pérez-Cotapos in providing social medicine to low-income neighborhoods of Valparaíso and La Calera. For his dedication, he was later named Honorary Member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party.

Following the 1973 military coup, Zumaeta left La Calera and settled in Viña del Mar–Valparaíso, where he clandestinely organized socialist study circles and civic groups. In 1983 he became the first president of the Valparaíso branch of the Chilean Human Rights Commission. From his medical office on Victoria Street, he helped form the Popular Democratic Movement of the region, alongside Juan Guillermo Matus, Hardy Knittel, and Alejandro Valenzuela.

That same year, under the so-called “Jarpa opening,” socialists from across the region gathered publicly for the first time in a decade at the “Sala 14” in Viña del Mar. Under the pretext of honoring Dr. Zumaeta's 50 years of medical practice, the event drew 250 participants.

He was a member of the Chilean Medical Association and honorary director of the 1st Fire Company of La Calera. He died in Viña del Mar on 8 September 1987 and was buried in the Firefighters’ Mausoleum at the Municipal Cemetery of La Calera.

Posthumously, his name was given to a sports club, a clinic, and the Socialist Party's local section. On 14 September 2003, Mayor Roberto Chahuán Chahuán officially inaugurated the “Avenida Alcalde Dr. Alonso Zumaeta Faune” in La Calera.