The Man

Abstract

If Diego Portales could have been consulted he certainly would have thought 16 June 1793 a rather fine time to be born. It was the colonial period in Chilean history, or at least its final chapter, but of this not even the most extravagantly optimistic dissident dreamers were aware. Diego Portales’ mentality, his personality, as well as his aspirations all contrived to render him singularly well suited to the era of Bourbon reform into which he was born. Had it endured, that era would have provided him one of the most fundamental social needs of his maturity: public order and stability. But the political and economic freedoms that accompanied republicanism also became central to his way of life. This posed a problem that relentlessly taunted him during much of his maturity: how to create a government that could provide public order and stability and yet be republican. To the solving of this he dedicated his last years, and for his efforts was murdered. In retrospect, it was not at all a propitious moment for Diego Portales to be born.