Carlos Alberto Martínez (politician)
Chilean trade unionist, typographer and politician (1885–1972)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carlos Alberto Martínez Martínez (18 July 1885 – 9 March 1972) was a Chilean trade unionist, typographer and socialist politician.
Carlos Alberto Martínez | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the Senate | |
| In office 15 May 1945 – 15 May 1961 | |
| Constituency | 3rd Provincial Group – Aconcagua and Valparaíso |
| In office 15 May 1939 – 15 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Oscar Schnake |
| Succeeded by | Pablo Neruda |
| Constituency | 1st Provincial Group – Tarapacá and Antofagasta |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 15 May 1933 – 14 December 1938 | |
| Constituency | 7th Departmental Group – Santiago |
| Minister of Lands and Colonization | |
| In office 24 December 1938 – 28 September 1939 | |
| President | Pedro Aguirre Cerda |
| In office 5 June 1932 – 16 June 1932 | |
| President | Arturo Puga Osorio |
| In office 14 August 1931 – 2 September 1931 | |
| President | Juan Esteban Montero |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 July 1885 |
| Died | 9 March 1972 (aged 86) |
| Party | Socialist Workers Party (1912–1922) USRACH (1924–1928) Nueva Acción Pública (1928–1933) Socialist Party of Chile (1933–1969) Independent Popular Action (1969–1972) |
| Spouse | Rosa Klein |
| Children | 6 (Carlos Alberto, Franklin, Dante, Gutenberg, Edison, and Hugo) |
| Relatives | Gutenberg Martínez (grandson) |
| Self-taught; printing trades | |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Typographer |
He served as Deputy between 1933 and 1938, later becoming Minister of Lands and Colonization under Presidents Juan Esteban Montero, Arturo Puga Osorio and Pedro Aguirre Cerda, and as Senator from 1939 to 1961.
Biography
Family and early life
He was born in Santiago on 18 July 1885, the son of Pedro and Gabriela Martínez. His grandson Gutenberg Martínez later became a prominent Christian Democrat politician.
Martínez received only elementary schooling and began working at age 12 in a timber yard. After a work accident he joined the “Imprenta Universo”, where he spent more than twenty years learning lithography, bookbinding and linotyping. He later ran his own printing shop until 1944.
He contributed to workers’ newspapers such as La Reforma (Santiago), El Trabajo (Tocopilla) and El Despertar (Iquique), and directed the official publication of the Workers' Federation of Chile (FOCh; Federación Obrera de Chile).[1]
He married Rosa Klein, with whom he had six children.
Union and political beginnings
Martínez was one of the founders of Chile’s early labor movement, helping organize the first printers’ union and the Graphic Federation in 1903. He played a leading role in establishing the FOCh and mutual aid societies such as “Igualdad y Trabajo.”
A follower of Luis Emilio Recabarren, he helped found the Social Republican Party (1925), and later the Unión Social Republicana de Asalariados de Chile (USRACH), serving as its president until 1928. During the dictatorship of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo he was exiled to Tierra Amarilla.
In 1931 he joined Nueva Acción Pública (NAP) and in 1933 became one of the founders of the Socialist Party of Chile.
Government service
He held several ministerial posts in the 1930s:
- Minister of Lands and Colonization** under Vice President Juan Esteban Montero (August–September 1931);
- the same position in the short-lived Socialist Republic of Chile under Arturo Puga Osorio (June 1932);
- and again under President Pedro Aguirre Cerda (December 1938 – September 1939).
Legislative career
He was elected Deputy for Santiago in 1933 and reelected in 1937, serving on the Interior Government Committee and a special commission investigating the Braden Copper Company.
In 1939 he entered the Senate for the 1st Provincial District (Tarapacá and Antofagasta), completing the 1937–1945 term.
He was reelected Senator for the 3rd Provincial District (Aconcagua and Valparaíso) for 1945–1953 and again for 1953–1961, serving as Senate Vice President (April–November 1958).
Among his legislative initiatives were:
- inclusion of photogravers in the social security system (Law No. 6,221 of 1938);
- flood-control works on the Aconcagua River (Law No. 7,037 of 1941);
- and funding for the Public Assistance Building in Santiago (Law No. 11,054 of 1952).
He also served as Senatorial representative to the CORFO and the Maritime Workers’ Fund.
Later years and death
In 1969 he helped found the Independent Popular Action (API), which joined the Popular Unity coalition supporting President Salvador Allende. Martínez died in Santiago on 9 March 1972 at age 86.