Jorge Montes Moraga

Jorge Antonio Montes Moraga (26 June 1926 – 17 April 2000) was a Chilean teacher, trade unionist, writer and politician, member of the Communist Party of Chile. He served as deputy between 1957 and 1969, and as senator between 1969 and 1973.

Biography He was born in San Carlos on 26 June 1926, the son of Manuel Montes Rojas and Clotilde Moraga Porras. He studied at the Escuela Normal de Chillán, graduating as a teacher in 1947. He began his career as a teacher at School N°33 in Maule in 1948, later moving to the Hogar School N°12 in Talca. That same year he married Josefina Miranda Tejías. Between 1949 and 1957 he taught at the Liceo Politécnico Alcibíades Vicencio in San Bernardo.

In 1948, while communism was still banned, he began his political activity with the Communist Party of Chile, formally joining the Socialist Party of Chile to act as cover. After the repeal of the Ley de Defensa de la Democracia in 1958, he was able to appear publicly as a communist. In 1956 he was relegated to Pisagua for his role as president of the Unión de Profesores of San Bernardo. That same year he was elected councillor of the commune and in 1957 became deputy for Concepción, a seat he held until 1969 through consecutive reelections (1961 and 1965).

In 1961 he joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party and between 1964 and 1965 served as director of the party newspaper El Siglo.

In 1969 he was elected senator for Ñuble, Concepción and Arauco. His mandate was cut short by the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. He was detained in 1974 by the military dictatorship and went into exile in 1977. He lived in the German Democratic Republic and later in the Soviet Union, where he remained until 1988, the year of his return to Chile.

Work as a writer Montes authored at least four books, notably La luz entre las sombras (1980), a testimonial account of his life, persecution, imprisonment and exile. The book was later translated into Russian, with a prologue by Luis Corvalán, and also into Greek. His other works include El tiempo no es redondo (1996), El 73 and Calle angosta.

He was a member of the Colegio de Profesores and the Sociedad de Escritores de Chile. In his later years, although he maintained his communist militancy, he dedicated himself mainly to culture and literature. In 1994 he won one of the top prizes in the national poetry contest Poemas de Amor, organized by La Hoja Verde.

Death Jorge Montes Moraga died in Santiago on 17 April 2000.