Juan Egaña

Juan Egaña Risco (born 31 October 1769 – 20 April 1836) was a Chilean politician and liberal philosopher who wrote the 1823 Constitution of Chile and served as President of the Senate of Chile.

Egaña was born in Lima and studied there, first at the Santo Toribio Seminary College where he received a degree in philosophy and later theology and law. When it was established in 1813, he became a professor.

In 1812 the first Senate of Chile was formed. He was one of the first seven Senators elected in Chile with Pedro de Vivar as President of the Senate. He contributed part of his library to create the first collection.

He was elected as a representative of both Melipilla and Santiago in 1823 and chose to represent Santiago. Braulio Arenas credits the second letter, "El Picapleitos", as being the first Chilean short story.

In 1832 he was part of a board responsible for reviewing plays to determine which were suitable to be shown to the public. The two other board members were Andrés Bello and Agustin Vial Santelices.

Philosophy

Education was extremely important to Egaña. He followed scientific experiments in agriculture, botany, physics, and chemistry. He pursued economic studies. He was deeply religious and often wrote on moral issues. In the Draft Constitution education was of top importance for the government.

He felt that Chile should be open to foreigners who wished to trade. He wanted the country to focus on agriculture and industry and to avoid traveling for trade.

Music also was of importance, though musical lyrics he felt needed to reflect the appropriate values for Chile. He included music in official ceremonies.