Gabriel Salazar Vergara (born 31 January 1936) is a Chilean

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He is known in his country for his study of social history and interpretations of social movements, particularly the recent student protests of 2006 and 2011–12. Salazar was born into a lower class family, he studied history, sociology and philosophy at

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, and for time he was assistant of historian Mario Góngora and classical historian Héctor Herrera Cajas. Salazar used to be a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement until 1973. In that year he was tortured in Villa Grimaldi by the military. Having been released from a military prison camp in 1976 he went into exile in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. There he obtained a scholarship for continued studies in

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

. He obtained a PhD in Economic and Social History from that university in 1984. Next year he returned to Chile. Relatively unknown Salazar's breakthrough came in 1985. His subject of study has included peons,

labourer A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...

s, child huachos and women. Salazar is one of the founders of the historiographic current known as ''Nueva Historia Social''. Salazar considers history as a useful tool for

social action In sociology, social action, also known as Weberian social action, is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or ' agents'). According to Max Weber, "Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes ...

. In interview he has declared himself a "leftist, critical social historian" and rejected the label " Marxist".

Biography

Salazar was born into a lower class religious Catholic family. His family lived in the Santiago shanty-town (población) Manuel Montt. From 1964 to 1968, he worked at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso History Institute alongside Héctor Herrera Cajas. There, he taught the signature theory of history.

Particular views

Salazar describes the 2011-2012 Chilean student conflict as being the continuation of a long strife between popular citizen movements and civic and military dictatorships. In October 2011, Salazar led a campaign aiming to hold a citizen's

plebiscite A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

on the demands behind the 2011-2012 Chilean student protests. Salazar has been critical of various historical figures like

José Miguel Carrera José Miguel Carrera Verdugo (; October 15, 1785 – September 4, 1821) was a Chilean general, formerly Spanish military, member of the prominent Carrera family, and considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Carrera was the most impo ...

and

Diego Portales Diego José Pedro Víctor Portales y Palazuelos (; June 16, 1793 – June 6, 1837) was a Chilean statesman and entrepreneur. As a minister of president José Joaquín Prieto's government, he played a pivotal role in shaping the state and po ...

. In addition Salazar has sparkled controversy by his criticism of contemporary student leader

Camila Vallejo Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling (; born 28 April 1988) is a Chilean communist politician and former student leader who has been serving as Minister General Secretariat of Government since 11 March 2022. Previously, Vallejo served as a ...

Bibliography

*''Labradores, Peones y Proletarios'' (1985) *''Violencia Política Popular en las Grandes Alamedas'' (1990) *''Los Intelectuales, los Pobres y el Poder'' (1995) *''Autonomía, Espacio y Gestión'' (1998) *''Manifiesto de Historiadores'' (compilador) (1999) *''Historia Contemporánea de Chile'' (Junto con Julio Pinto - five volumes) (1999-2002) *''Ferias libres: espacio residual de soberanía popular'' (2002) *''Historia de la acumulación capitalista en Chile'' (2003) *''La Construcción del Estado en Chile (1800–1830)'' (2006) *''Ser niño "huacho" en la historia de Chile'' (2007) *''Mercaderes, empresarios y capitalistas'' (2009) *''Conversaciones con Carlos Altamirano'' (2010) *''En el nombre del poder popular constituyente (Chile siglo XXI)'' (2011) *''La enervante levedad histórica de la clase política civil (Chile, 1900-1973)'' (2015) *''La historia desde abajo y desde adentro'' (2017) *''El ejército de Chile y la soberanía popular'' (2019)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Salazar, Gabriel Chilean historians 20th-century Chilean historians 20th-century Chilean male writers 21st-century Chilean historians 21st-century Chilean male writers Chilean sociologists 1936 births Living people Chilean former marxists Chilean schoolteachers Pontifical Catholic University of Chile faculty University of Chile alumni Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso faculty University of Chile faculty Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile) politicians Chilean exiles People from Santiago Alumni of the University of Hull Social historians