Carmen Vial Dows ( Carmen Vial Freire, formerly Carmen Vial Browne and Carmen Vial de Señoret) (March 28, 1904 – January 1978) was a Chilean diplomat who served as the Ambassador to the Netherlands.

Early life

Carmen Viale Freire was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, Chile on March 28, 1904, into an aristocratic family and was educated by English and French governesses. She was one of eight children born to Donna Carolina Freire Valdés and Don Pedro Daniel del Carmen Vial Carvallo. Her father was a founder of the La Granja, its first mayor, and

deputy Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spai ...

for

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

from 1906 to 1909. Her paternal grandfather was Alejandro Vial Guzmán, the Chilean Minister of Finance from 1856 to 1857 under Manuel Montt. Through her mother, she was a great-granddaughter of

Ramón Freire Ramón Freire Serrano (; November 29, 1787 – December 9, 1851) was a Chilean political figure. He was head of state on several occasions, and enjoyed a numerous following until the War of the Confederation. Ramón Freire was one of the pr ...

, the first

President of Chile The president of Chile ( es, Presidente de Chile), officially known as the President of the Republic of Chile ( es, Presidente de la República de Chile), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is re ...

. Her maternal grandfather was Francisco Freire Caldera, the

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

under José Manuel Balmaceda.

Career

Upon the death of her second husband in 1941, Carmen joined the Chilean Diplomatic Corps and she began serving as Cultural attaché in the

Embassy of Chile, Washington, D.C. The Embassy of Chile in Washington, D.C. is the diplomatic mission of the Republic of Chile to the United States. It is located at 1732 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Embassy Row neighborhood. The embassy has been located ...

before becoming consul in Boston a year and a half later. While in Boston, she studied Economics and International Trade at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. In 1944, she was a Chilean representative to the Bretton Woods Conference in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, the gathering of 730 delegates from all the

Allied nations The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. ...

to regulate the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1947, during the presidency of Gabriel González Videla, she was appointed the Chilean Ambassador to the Netherlands, serving in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

until 1950. She later served in her country's

delegation Delegation is the assignment of authority to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities. It is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person,Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole ...

to the Plenary Session of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Personal life

Carmen was married three times. Her first marriage was to Chilean architect Luis Browne Fernández (1898–1944), best known for designing the Presidential

Palace of Cerro Castillo The Palace of Cerro Castillo (Spanish: ''Palacio de Cerro Castillo'') is the official country retreat and summer residence of the President of Chile. Constructed in 1929 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, it is located in Viña del Mar and is ...

. Before their divorce, they were the parents of: * Luis Fernando Vial Browne (1930–2022), he married Edith Gammack of New York, daughter of Thomas Hubbard Gammack and Mrs.

William Douglas Burden William Douglas Burden (September 24, 1898 – November 14, 1978), was an American naturalist, filmmaker, and author who co-founded Marineland in Florida. Early life Burden was born on September 24, 1898, in Troy, New York, but grew up in Manhat ...

, in 1957. They divorced in 1971 and he married Nathalie Kuhn in 1974. Her second marriage was to Octavio de Señoret, who was a governor and parliamentarian. He was the son of Manuel Señoret Astaburuaga and María Mercedes Silva. In 1939, he was appointed Chilean Ambassador to the United Kingdom and they moved to London where they lived through

and she joined the Red Cross. They remained married until his death in 1941 in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Her third marriage was in 1950 to Stephen Olin Dows, a muralist who had been a fine‐arts consultant in the Roosevelt administration. A son of Alice Olin Dows, her husband owned a large home in

Rhinebeck, New York Rhinebeck is a village (New York), village in the Rhinebeck (town), New York, town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie, New York, Poughkeepsie– ...

known as Glenburn, and they maintained a home in Georgetown,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

After a long illness, Dows died in January 1978 at her family's farm in

Puente Alto Puente, a word meaning ''bridge'' in Spanish language, may refer to: People * Puente (surname) Places *La Puente, California, USA * Puente Alto, city and commune of Chile *Puente de Ixtla, city in Mexico *Puente Genil, village in the Spanish provi ...

, Chile. Olin Dows died in 1981.

References

Bibliography

External links

Queen Juliana receives ambassador of Chile, Ms. Carmen Vial Señoret
at Alamy
Vial de Señoret, Carmen
at Biblioteca Nacional de Chile {{DEFAULTSORT:Dows, Carmen Viale Freire 1904 births 1978 deaths Ambassadors of Chile to the Netherlands Chilean women ambassadors 20th-century Chilean women