List of Chileans

This is a list of Chileans who are famous or notable.

Flag of Chile

Coat of Arms

Economists

Military

• Manuel Baquedano – general of the Chilean forces during the War of the Pacific
• Philip Bazaar – recipient of the US Navy Medal of Honour
• José Miguel Carrera – first Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army and Independence leader of the Patria Vieja
• Luis Carrera – Chilean military officer in the War of Independence
• Ignacio Carrera Pinto – captain in charge of the Chilean patrol who died in Battle of La Concepción
• Carlos Condell – captain of the Covadonga ship at the Iquique Naval Combat
• Manuel Contreras – head of Augusto Pinochet's National Intelligence Directorate (DINA)
• Manuel Hipólito Orella – sailor who was one of the first midshipman of the Chilean Navy
• Patricio Lynch – governor of Lima during the Chilean occupation of Lima, Perú, during the War of the Pacific
• Juan MacKenna – Irish-born organizer of O'Higgins's Army
• Bernardo O'Higgins – founder of modern Chile
• Arturo Prat – captain of the Esmeralda ship at the Iquique Naval Combat; regarded as a national hero
• Luis Pardo – also known as Piloto Pardo, Chilean Navy captain who rescued the survivors of the Shackleton expedition
• Sofanor Parra – officer of the cavalry branch of the Chilean Army who fought in almost all the military actions of the War of the Pacific
• Juan de Quiroga y Apablaza – military figure
• Manuel Rodríguez – Independence leader and guerrilla leader during the Reconquista
• Eleuterio Ramírez – officer, hero of the War of the Pacific
• José Ignacio Zenteno – lieutenant Colonel of the Army of the Andes, Minister of War and Marine in the O'Higgins government

Musicians

Artists

• Claudio Bravo (1936–2011) – hyper-realist painter
• Carlos Catasse – painter
• Marta Colvin – sculptor
• Alfredo Jaar – installation artist, filmmaker and architect
• Olga Lehmann – painter
• Roberto Matta – painter, sculptor
• Camilo Mori – painter
• Dora Puelma – artist
• Carlos Sotomayor – cubist painter
• Miguel Venegas – painter, called "El Maestro" (the Master)

Politicians

• Juana Rosa Aguirre – former first lady, wife of Pedro Aguirre Cerda
• Arturo Alessandri – served twice as president of Chile
• Jorge Alessandri – 27th President of Chile; President of Council of State under Pinochet Regime
• Salvador Allende – former senator and president of Chile; ousted in a military coup
• Clodomiro Almeyda – socialist politician
• Soledad Alvear – former Justice minister and Foreign minister; current PDC senator
• Celinda Arregui – feminist politician, writer, teacher, suffrage activist
• Gabriel Boric – first youth leader politician of Chile
• Michelle Bachelet – first woman president of Chile
• Juan Chandía – governor of Department of Tomé [es] for 1946–1952
• Carlos Dávila – former Secretary General of the Organization of American States
• Florencio Durán – former president of the senate
• Héctor Faúndez – diplomat
• Fernando Flores – businessman and former senator
• Gabriel González Videla – 25th President of Chile (1946-1952)
• Jaime Guzmán – right wing politician during the Pinochet regime; murdered by Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front on April 1, 1991; former UDI Senator
• Tomás Hirsch – former president of the Humanist Party of Chile; 2005 candidate for president
• Antonia Illanes – lawyer and politician
• José Miguel Insulza – former Interior minister; current Secretary General of the Organization of American States
• José Antonio Kast — president of the Republican Party, former deputy and councilman, presidential candidate in 2017 and in 2021.
• Carlos Keller – former Leader of the National Socialist Movement of Chile, responsible for the organization of the Seguro Obrero Massacre
• Joaquín Lavín – Independent Democratic Union candidate for presidency in 2005 election; former mayor of Las Condes and Santiago
• Orlando Letelier – Foreign Minister during Salvador Allende's government murdered during the Pinochet regime in Washington, D.C.
• Gladys Marín – communist leader, feminist activist, lived in exile, opposed conservatism and liberal economy, admirer of Lenin and Marx
• Raúl Morales Beltramí – politician and physician
• Sebastián Piñera – Chilean billionaire, businessman and politician; former President of Chile
• Aníbal Pinto – 9th President of Chile (1876-1881)
• Augusto Pinochet – Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Chile, President of the Government Junta of Chile, dictator from 1973 until 1990 and President from 1981 onwards.
• Diego Portales – Minister, major designer of the Chilean State during the first half of the 19th century
• Juan Antonio Ríos (1888–1946) – Chilean lawyer, political figure and 24th President of Chile
• Laura Rodríguez – first Humanist Party deputy in the world
• Camila Vallejo – Member of Parliament, led 2011 student protests in Chile
• Adolfo Zaldívar – PRI senator, former leader of the PDC
• Andrés Zaldívar – former PDC senator
• Herminia Colihueque, Mapuche first woman to run in an election for a political office

Religious figures

• Rodolfo Acevedo – Mormon bishop
• Saint Teresa de los Andes – first Chilean saint
• Carlos Camus – Chilean bishop
• Francisco Javier Errázuriz – fourth Chilean cardinal
• Juan Francisco Fresno – third Chilean cardinal
• Raúl Silva Henríquez – second Chilean cardinal born in Talca; human rights advocate
• Alberto Hurtado – saint
• Jorge Medina – fifth Chilean cardinal; conservative figure
• Fr. Juan Ignacio Molina – Chilean priest, naturalist, historian, botanist, ornithologist, geographer
• José María Caro Rodríguez – first Chilean cardinal
• Francisco Javier Quintanilla – theologian
• Juan Subercaseaux Errázuriz – Chilean Roman Catholic Archbishop
• José María Vélaz – Chilean priest
• Blessed Laura Vicuña

Sports

Scientists and engineers

• Ricardo Baeza Rodríguez – mathematician
• Ricardo Baeza-Yates – computer scientist
• Erik Bongcam-Rudloff – bioinformatician
• Claudio Bunster – physicist
• Marcela Contreras – immunologist
• F. J. Duarte – laser physicist
• Matias Duarte – software inventor
• Julio M. Fernandez – biologist, academic
• Eric Goles – mathematician
• Mario Hamuy – cosmologist and astronomer
• Cesar A. Hidalgo – physicist
• Cecilia Hidalgo Tapia – biochemist
• Adriana Hoffmann – botanist, Environment Minister (2000–2001)
• Paula Jofré – astronomer and astrophysicist
• Humberto Maturana – biologist, co-author of the theory of autopoiesis
• Juan Ignacio Molina – 18th and 19th-century natural scientist
• Hermann Niemeyer – paediatrician and biochemist
• Ernestina Pérez Barahona, physician
• María Teresa Ruiz – astronomer
• Elisa Torres Durney, outstanding quantum student
• Pablo DT Valenzuela – biotechnologist, co-founder of Chiron Corporation and Fundacion Ciencias Para la Vida
• Francisco Varela – biologist, co-author of the theory of autopoiesis

Film and television personalities

Writers

Alberto Blest Gana

Gabriela Mistral

Jorge Salgado-Reyes

• Fernando Alegría – writer
• Isabel Allende – novelist (The House of Spirits)
• Roberto Ampuero – novelist (Cayetano Brulé series)
• Roberto Bolaño^[2] – novelist (The Savage Detectives, 2666)
• Liborio Brieba – writer
• Francisco Coloane – (Tierra del fuego)
• Angel Cruchaga Santa Maria (1893–1964) – writer, won the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1948
• Eugenio Cruz Vargas (1923–2014) – poet and painter, of Basque descent
• Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán – writer of Cautiverio feliz y razón individual de las guerras dilatadas del Reino de Chile in 1673
• Pablo de Rokha – Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1965
• José Donoso^[3] – writer (Coronation, The Obscene Bird of Night)
• Ariel Dorfman – novelist, playwright (Death and the Maiden), academic, essayist, journalist and human rights activist
• Jorge Edwards – 1999 Cervantes Prize winner
• Alberto Fuguet – novelist; short story writer, Mala Onda, Las películas de mi vida; filmmaker, Se Arrienda
• Alberto Blest Gana – novelist (Martín Rivas)
• Olga Grau - philosopher
• Juan Guzman Cruchaga (1895–1979) – poet and diplomat, won the Chilean National Prize for Literature in 1962; of Basque descent
• Óscar Hahn – writer and poet
• Vicente Huidobro – father of the "Creationism" movement in Paris
• Cristián Huneeus – writer
• Enrique Lafourcade – novelist
• Hernán Rivera Letelier – novelist (Santa María de las Flores Negras, La Reina Isabel Cantaba Rancheras), poet, writer of short stories
• Enrique Lihn – poet, playwright, and novelist
• Carmen Marai – novelist El Alba de la Mandrágora (The Dawn of the Mandrake), poet, writer of short stories
• Sergio Missana – novelist
• Gabriela Mistral – winner of the Nobel prize for literature
• Nicolasa Montt – poet
• Tomás Moulian – political scientist and sociologist
• Pablo Neruda^[4] – winner of the Nobel prize for literature
• Raquel Olea – writer, professor
• Nicanor Parra – self-proclaimed "anti-poet"
• Adolfo Quiros – (1853–1910), poet
• Gonzalo Rojas – 2004 Cervantes Prize winner
• Elvira Santa Cruz Ossa – dramatist and novelist
• Luis Sepúlveda – novelist
• Antonio Skármeta – author of Ardiente Paciencia (Burning Patience), which inspired the movie Il Postino (The Postman), about poet Pablo Neruda
• Amelia Solar de Claro – poet, playwright, and essayist
• Mercedes Valdivieso – writer
• Sergio Vodanovic – playwright

Architects

Others

See also

References