Federico Gana

Federico Gana (Santiago, Chile; January 15, 1867 – April 22, 1926) was a Chilean writer and diplomat.

Gana was the older son of Federico Gana Munizaga y Rosario Gana Castro, and first cousin of the descendants of Albero Blest Gana, the preeminent Chilean novelist. He began his secondary education in the Linares lyceum in 1878, where he spent his first year, and completed the remainder at the National Institute. He obtained his law degree in the University of Chile in 1890, but practiced law only for a short period of time.

He lived principally in Santiago and in San Bernardo. In October 1890, his first published work, the short story "¡Pobre vieja!" appeared in the weekly La Actualidad, under the pseudonym Pedro Simple. At the end of that year, Gana was named Second Secretary of the Chilean legation to London, a charge that ended with the fall of the Balmaceda government.

Freed from his diplomatic work, he traveled to France, Belgium, and Holland, where he came into contact with the works of Flaubert, Balzac, and Ivan Turgenev, the lattermost impressing him profoundly. Upon his return to Chile, in 1892, he disseminated the works of the Russian novelist throughout literary circles.

In 1894, Gana published another short story, this time in publication El año Literario, that was initially titled "Por un perro," but later came to be called "Un carácter." In July 1897, La Revista Literaria published the story "Una mañana de invierno, later known as "La Maiga," with which Gana began the current of criollismo rural in the country.

In 1903, he married Blanca Subercaseux del Río, with whom he had six children. The same year he participated, along with his friend Baldomero Lillo, in a literary competition organized by the Catholic Review, submitting the stories "La Señora," “En las montañas," and "La Maiga." He also began contributing to the literary magazine Zig-Zag in 1906, publishing his Manchas de color in 1914.

A great number of his works circulated in a diverse array of newspapers, including La Revista Nueva, Sucesos, Silueta Magazine, El Mercurio, La Nación, Atenea, Las Últimas Noticias.

Following a brief hospitalization in San Vincente's Hospital in Santiago, he died in 1926.

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