Alfredo Escobar Zamora

Alfredo Escobar Zamora (22 October 1911 – 5 January 1986) was a Chilean miner, trade union leader and communist politician who served as a Deputy of the Republic between 1941 and 1949.

Biography Escobar Zamora was born in Nogales, Chile, on 22 October 1911, the son of Juan de Dios Escobar Aguilar and María Urbana Zamora Zamora.

He completed primary education up to the fifth grade at the public school of La Calera and continued his education independently. He began working as a miner in 1925 at the El Soldado Mine and, from 1929 onward, worked at the El Melón Cement Factory, where he was also employed as a miner in the Calera and Melón mines.

He married Matilde Zamora Cabrera in Quillota, with whom he had four children.

Trade union and political career Escobar Zamora became active in the trade union movement in El Melón in 1936 and was elected director of the Construction Workers’ Union. He served as a member of the Conciliation and Arbitration Board of Quillota and as councillor of the Casa Nacional del Niño in 1941.

He joined the Communist Party, becoming a member of its Political Commission and a leader of the party’s local committee in Nogales. At the municipal level, he served as councillor of the Municipality of Nogales between 1938 and 1941.

He collaborated with Pablo Neruda in assisting the arrival of Spanish refugees aboard the ship Winnipeg.

Escobar Zamora was elected Deputy for the 6th Departmental Group —Valparaíso, Casablanca, Quillota and Limache— for the 1941–1945 term, and was re-elected for the 1945–1949 term. During his parliamentary service, he served on the Standing Committees on Roads and Public Works, Labour and Social Legislation, and Industries.

As a prominent member of the Communist Party, Escobar Zamora was persecuted during the government of Gabriel González Videla following the enactment of the Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy.

Escobar Zamora died in Renca on 5 January 1986.