Humberto Enríquez

He was the son of Marco Antonio Enríquez Enríquez and Rosalba Frödden Lorenzena. He married Marina Lorent Arroyo, with whom he had one daughter. He was the brother of Inés Enríquez Frödden, the first woman in Chile to serve as governor and member of the Chamber of Deputies; and of Edgardo Enríquez, rector of the University of Concepción (1969–1972) and Minister of Education under Salvador Allende. He was also the uncle of Miguel Enríquez, general secretary of the MIR, and great-uncle of Marco Enríquez-Ominami.

He studied at the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Concepción and later at the Liceo de Concepción. He pursued a law degree at the University of Concepción, where he was among the top students of his class, receiving the First Prize of the University of Concepción in 1929 alongside Alberto Coddou Binimelis. He earned his law degree in 1931.

His public service career began in 1939, when President Pedro Aguirre Cerda appointed him regional secretary. He later worked as a lawyer and served on the Court of Appeals of Concepción. In 1950 he was appointed notary public.

In academia, he taught Political Economy and Public Finance at the Faculty of Law of the University of Concepción, where he also served as director of the Revista de Derecho and secretary of the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences. From 1955 to 1961 he was professor of law at the University of Chile.

During the vice presidency of Alfredo Duhalde in 1946, he was appointed Minister of Public Education. That same year he played a prominent role as head of Gabriel González Videla’s presidential campaign.

He was elected Deputy for the 17th Departmental District (Tomé, Concepción, Talcahuano, Yumbel, and Coronel) in three consecutive terms: 1949–1953, 1953–1957, and 1957–1961. He was later elected Senator for the 7th Provincial District (Ñuble, Concepción, and Arauco), serving from 1961 to 1969.

Between 1965 and 1967, he also served as national president of the Radical Party.

He died in Concepción on 9 January 1989.

• BCN Profile