Irish Migration Studies in Latin America Irish Immigrants and their Arrival in Chile: The Case of Dr William Blest Maybern By Fabián G. Bustamante Olguín (1) Translated by Edward Walsh Abstract This article includes a first part regarding Irish immigration to Chile during the last century of Spanish colonial rule up to the sporadic arrival of the Irish who left their mark on the newly born Chilean Republic in the nineteenth century. The second part considers the case of Dr William Blest Maybern, founding member and professor at the University of Chile's School of Medicine, who undertook many studies and helped the advancement of science in Chile giving him a notable reputation among his medical peers. flour milling, spinning mills and tanneries. Introduction O’Higgins' desire was to build a modern Irish immigration in Chile did not have the industrial centre and for that reason he sent for numerical significance to compare with other his compatriots (the majority artisans) to waves of migration such as those of the change the allegedly superstitious and pre- Germans in the south, or the Italians and modern mentality of the native inhabitants of British. The Irish arrival in the country was the place with the avowed purpose that the sporadic and happened within a very precise Irish would teach them some trade. To that end context. It was principally the product of he counted on the help of another Irishman, Spanish colonialism, (2) and the expansion of John MacKenna, who would become Governor the informal British Empire in the port city of of Osorno. Valparaíso and in the northern cities, with the By 15 September 1798 the first fifteen Irishmen development and expansion of the nitrate arrived in the city of Osorno. Carpenters: trade. (3) Thomas Robertson, John Knitht [Knight?], Nevertheless it is argued here that the Irish Charles Bider, Robert O’Keepe [O’Keefe?], who arrived in Chile during the nineteenth Charles Beaver; Blacksmiths: John Green, century became a part of the Creole elite, which James Glover, John Titson, John Ornsbi in turn was Anglophile and revered the British [Hornsby?]; Tanners: John Waterson, John Empire. However, it is difficult to state that Web[b?]; Carvers: Daniel Cloghan; Shoe Maker: those Irish people identified with England and Peter Smith; Boys: James Wakeman, John that they were counted as being 'British'. (4) Lervis [Jervis?]. (5) Given their early presence in Chile, the fact that they were generally considered as Irish and not In November 1798 a new group of Irishmen English was due to their Catholic religious arrived. Masons: Thomas Sullivan; Carpenters: affinity with the Spanish and subsequently the Charles Badder; Metal Workers: Richard Mills; Chilean metropolis. Shoemakers: George Johnson; Weavers: William Conoly [Connolly?]; William Waito; Regarding the arrival of Irish immigrants in Tailors: William Nial [Neal?]; Carvers: John Chile, towards the end of the eighteenth Nelegan; Labourers: Henry Graham; century, Ambrose O’Higgins, the Viceroy in Carpenters: Thomas O’Donovan, Abraham Peru, endeavoured to re-found the city of Thorn (Sánchez Aguilera 1948: 102-103). Osorno with Europeans (Irish), Creoles and O’Higgins' good intentions to build an indigenous people so that they would live industrious city failed. Apparently, the work- peacefully and thus drive an economy based on Bustamante Olguín, Fabián G.. ‘Irish Immigrants and their Arrival in Chile’ 177 Vol. 6, n°3 (November 2008) shy habits of the Chileans and the constant The small number of Irish who arrived in Chile drunkenness of some of his compatriots left their influence on republican history by resulted in some of them being returned to their participation in the military campaigns. (7) Lima. This is represented by such names as Ambrose O’Higgins, Governor of Chile and Viceroy of With the end of John MacKenna’s government, Peru; John Garland, a cavalry officer of the O’Higgins' dream also came to an end. The city Order of Santiago; John Clark, an engineer who of Osorno would subsequently fall into a deep worked on the construction of the trans- economic crisis from which it would in due Andean railway; John MacKenna, a soldier in course recover with the arrival of German the service of the Spanish Empire, Governor of immigrants to the zone. Osorno 1897-1899 and subsequently a leader in Thanks to the Chilean historian Guillermo the fight for Independence, as were Charles Bravo Acevedo in his transcription of volume María O’Carrol[l], John O’Brien and Stanislaus 2834, piece 11 of the Fondo de la Real Audiencia Lynch. There are others with Irish ancestry, from the National Archive in Santiago, entitled including Bernard O’Higgins the Liberator of El expediente tomado sobre averiguar los extranjeros Chile; Benjamin Vicuña MacKenna, politician que reciden en el reyno (The Dossier Made when and historian; Germán Riesco and Juan Luis Establishing the Number of Foreigners Living Sanfuentes Andonegui, presidents of Chile in the Kingdom) shows a census taken by the (Griffin 2006); Albert Blest Gana, novelist and Spanish Government in 1808-1809, when five Chilean diplomat and son of the subject of this Irishmen appear as living in the Kingdom of article, the medical doctor William Blest. Chile. Their geographic location was as follows: in Santiago an Irishman named Mark Lozet An Irish Doctor in Chile who came on board the corsair frigate Cornoals William Cunningham Blest was born in Sligo in and was a quarryman or stone mason (Bravo 1800, the son of Albert Blest and Ana Acevedo 1991: 31). William Luns lived in Talca; Maybern. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin he arrived in the frigate Lobera and was a boot from where he graduated with a licence in maker (Bravo Acevedo 1991: 38). Charles medicine. He entered the University of O’Hega[n] lived in Talacahuano. He arrived on Edinburgh, being a pupil of the Academy of the English frigate Ceres and was a carpenter James IV and obtained the degree of Doctor of and navigator by profession (Bravo Acevedo Medicine on 21 March 1821. He went 1991: 40). And lastly in Valdivia resided James immediately to London where he began to Hogan and Peter Smith; the former was practice, and was received as a member of the contracted by the Valdivia Infantry Battalion on College of Surgeons and Apothecaries. 2 March 1807 and the latter arrived on board the whaling frigate Juniper, and was a prisoner in Blest arrived in Chile in 1824, about a year Valparaíso in 1797 from where he was returned before his brothers Andrew and John. Andrew to Lima and then came to Osorno. In Osorno founded the first brewery in Valparaíso and Smith was not given land because he was single, married María de la Concepción Prats Urízar. so he returned to Valdivia, where he was a shoe Blest’s brother John established himself in and boot maker. (6) Valparaíso and practised medicine and would subsequently leave and go to work in the Chilean historian Gabriel Guarda provides Peruvian city of Arequipa where he married other very interesting details for the period María Faustina Zavala. (8) William married (for 1820-1850 in the southern zone of our country, the first time) María de la Luz Gana y López in where seven marriages were registered between Santiago on 21 March 1827. Three of the seven Irishmen and women with southern Creole elite children of that marriage were distinguished background. The Irishmen were Timothy men of letters; the poet Guillermo Blest Gana, Cadagan, James Glover, James Hogan, John Alberto Blest Gana a notable writer and MacKenna, Peter Smith, William Taylor and diplomat and Joaquín Blest Gana, journalist, Charles Emanuel Webar (Guarda 2006: 674). 178 Bustamante Olguín, Fabián G.. ‘Irish Immigrants and their Arrival in Chile’ Irish Migration Studies in Latin America writer, lawyer and historian and who was also a my desires, and that my name be found in its member of the Supreme Court and Ministry of future history (Blest 1946: 3). Justice prosecutor from 1866 to 1870. Blest was Professor of Pathology and Internal Dr William Blest practised medicine with great Clinics until the year 1851 and Dean of the success and in 1826 he was the author of a School of Medicine from 1865 to 1867. report entitled Observaciones sobre el estado de la From then on Dr Blest was an important man medicina en Chile (Observations about the State in Chile, and after naturalisation was elected of Medicine in Chile). Blest judged the sanitary deputy for Rancagua in 1831-1834 but did not conditions of the country and criticised the low intervene much in parliamentary debates. He level of teaching and the low interest in medical was also one of the drivers of Public Welfare science in Chile. The repercussions of Blest’s and for many years was a member of the report were immediate and in 1826 the Central Committee. He put a lot of his creative Government created the Medical Society which work in to fomenting the creation of hospitals, was made up of all the doctors of Santiago with cemeteries, orphanages and other institutes to Blest assuming the presidency. help the destitute. His constant preaching regarding the On a personal level, William Blest suffered importance of medical studies put Blest at the greatly on the death of his wife María de la Luz top of the medical profession when he Gana y López at his home (Alameda de las published his Ensayo sobre las causas más comunes Delicias in front of the Poor Clare nuns' de las enfermedades que padecen en Chile (An Essay convent) in Santiago on 6 March 1851. about the Causes of the Most Common Sickness Suffered in Chile) in 1828, and Dr Blest married for a second time on 15 afterwards for his notable creation of the September 1879 to María del Carmen Ugarte y School of Medicine on 17 April 1833, during Plaza, daughter of Juan de Dios Ugarte y de the government of Don Joaquín Prieto.