Enrique Alcalde Cruchaga

Enrique Alcalde Cruchaga (3 March 1894 – 24 October 1966) was a Chilean lawyer, engineer, farmer and politician.

He served as Deputy for the 2nd Metropolitan District (Talagante) for five consecutive legislative periods between 1933 and 1953.

Biography Alcalde Cruchaga was born in Santiago on 3 March 1894, the son of Enrique Alcalde Pereira and Hortensia Cruchaga Aspillaga. He married Elvira Irarrázaval Errázuriz in 1928.

He studied at the Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones de Santiago and later pursued two professional degrees at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile: Civil Engineering, graduating in 1918, and Law, receiving his degree in 1921 with the thesis “Comentarios al artículo 1179 del Código Civil chileno”. He later completed postgraduate studies in Europe.

Alongside his legal career, he worked as an agricultural producer on several estates, including Huertos de Naltahua, La Capilla and El Olivo in Talagante, and Montelorenzo in San Vicente de Tagua Tagua.

Political career A member of the Conservative Party, he served on the party's Propaganda Center Board.

He was first elected Deputy for the 2nd Metropolitan District (Talagante) for the 1933–1937 term, serving on the Committee on Finance. He was reelected for the periods 1937–1941 (Committee on Agriculture and Colonization), 1941–1945 (Committees on Finance and on Economy and Commerce), and 1945–1949 (Committee on Labor and Social Security).

He represented the Chamber of Deputies at the 1945 San Francisco Conference in the United States.

He won a fifth consecutive term for 1949–1953, serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Beyond Congress, he was a Councillor of the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (CORFO), Vice-President of the Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura (SNA), and representative of the Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (SOFOFA) before the National Council of Communication Routes (1949–1953). He also served as Director of the Polpaico lime and cement industries.