Carlos Walker Martínez

Carlos Walker Martínez (born in Vallenar on 2 February 1842; died in Santiago, Chile, on 5 October 1905) was a Chilean lawyer, politician and poet.

Biography

In September 1865, he was studying law at the University of Chile, when war with Spain began, and he enlisted in the navy, participating in the engagement of Abtao, 7 February 1866. In the same year he founded the literary magazine La República Literaria, at the head of which he remained while he was in Chile. He was appointed in 1867 secretary of the legation in Bolivia, was graduated in law in 1868, and traveled through Europe and the United States.

On his return to Chile in 1870, Walker Martínez was elected to congress for the department of Vallenar, and became secretary of the chamber of deputies. He was well known as a parliamentary orator. In 1873 he was appointed chargé d'affaires of Chile in Bolivia, and in 1874 he became minister in the same republic. During the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) he was president of the “Sociedad Protectora” (Protective Society) and in 1880-82 he was an editor of the journal El Nuevo Ferrocarril. During the cholera epidemic of 1886-87 he was founder and president of the Red Cross society.

Works Páginas de viaje (Santiago, 1871) Poesías líricas (3 vols., 1872) Romances Americanos (2 vols., 1874) Manuel Rodriguez, a historic drama in verse (1874) El Proscripto (1875) Diego Portales (1877)