Juan Guerra Guerra

Juan Guerra Guerra (15 April 1897 – 23 February 1973) was a Chilean miner, labor leader and communist parliamentarian who served two consecutive terms in the Chamber of Deputies during the Popular Front era.

Biography Guerra Guerra was born in Tierra Amarilla, Chile, on 15 April 1897. He was the son of Elisa Guerra.

From an early age he worked as a miner, laboring in various mining operations in northern Chile, including Viuda de Caldera, Guías de California (Inca de Oro), Manco Verde, Dulcinea, Colorada, Nueva Tocopilla and Plata de la Chilex. In 1917 he worked in Chuquicamata, in the San Rafael, Emilia and Poderosa mines. He later worked as a driver at the María Elena nitrate mine.

He married Berta Herminia Herrera Herrera in Antofagasta on 9 July 1923. The couple had eight children. Later in life he maintained a long-term relationship with María Josefina Amanda Lazo Morán, a primary school teacher, with whom he had two additional children. He later contracted a third marriage with Georgina Plaza Zárate, with whom he had one child.

Guerra Guerra died in Santiago on 23 February 1973.

Political career Guerra Guerra joined the Communist Party in 1923 and quickly became involved in labor organization. He served as secretary and deputy secretary of the Council of the Federation of Workers of Chile in 1926.

He was repeatedly persecuted for his political activity. Following the La Coruña massacre, he was tried by a military court and confined aboard the naval vessel Zenteno in 1925. He was later relegated to Melinka and Castro, and in 1927 was exiled to Más Afuera Island during the government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. He was imprisoned on multiple occasions until 1936.

In the 1937 parliamentary elections, he was elected Deputy for the 2nd Departmental Group —Tocopilla, El Loa, Antofagasta and Taltal— running under the banner of the National Democratic Party, the legal name used by communists that year. He served on the Standing Committees on Government Interior and on Labor and Social Legislation.

He was re-elected in 1941 for the 1941–1945 term, during which he served on the Standing Committees on Finance, Government Interior and Rules of Procedure.