Clotario Blest
| Clotario Blest | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
17 November 1899 Santiago, Chile |
| Died | 31 May 1990 (aged 90) Santiago, Chile |
| Movement |
Partido Popular (1920s) Revolutionary Left Movement (1965–1967) Iglesia Joven (1960s) |
Clotario Leopoldo Blest Riffo (17 November 1899 – 31 May 1990) was a Chilean social activist and labor union leader. Blest was one of the founders of Agrupación Nacional de Empleados Fiscales (ANEF), Central Única de Trabajadores (CUT), Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), and Comité de Defensa de Derechos Humanos y Sindicales (CODEHS).
Clotario Blest was born on 17 November 1899 in Santiago. His father was Ricardo Blest Ugarte, a military. His mother was Leopoldina Riffo Bustos who was a primary school teacher. Clotario had two brothers, Fernando and Leopoldina. The paternal grandfather of Clorario blest was the Irish immigrant William Blest. The writers Guillermo and Alberto Blest Gana were born out of Guillermo Blest's first marrieage. The upper class Blest Gana family did not had major contact with the Blest Ugarte family, and this last family lived in a rather austere manner.
Blest coursed primary school at a public school. Later he joined Seminario Pontificio de Santiago thanks to relatives who ceded to him a scholarship aimed for the main branch of the Blest family. He was interned nine years in the seminary. There he had teachers like José María Caro and Fernando Vives Solar, who influenced his thought. Fernando Vives in particular was a leading advocate of the Catholic social teachings in Chile. After this he graduated from school by doing exams at the University of Chile obtaining his diploma in 1918. Blest then enrolled in the Seminario de Concepción to study theology, where he was supervised by Alfredo Cifuentes Gómez. After two years in Concepción Blest travelled then to the seminary of La Serena to complete his studies but by then he had decided he did not had a religious vocation so he dropped out and returned to Santiago. Later Clotario Blest commented his dropout with the following words: "There must be rebel within me. I do not easily accept orders with which I disagree".
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