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Part of the current collection kept by the only House Museum dedicated to a former president, lets us glimpse the deep transformations the country lived during Eduardo Frei Montalva’s administration (1964 – 1970). One of these objects is the commemorative scissors used to launch El Teniente deposit, kept by the former president in a special display at the library of the first floor, place known as ‘La Moneda Chica’.

Historically, the Nationalization of Chilean Copper –together with the ‘Reforma Agraria’ (Agrarian Reform) and ‘Promoción Popular’ (Social Promotion)- marked a significant change in social and economic terms. The final aim of this measure was to get the government involved in the exploitation and commercialization of this precious mineral from Chile, along with improving the quality of life for country’s miners and their families.

Eduardo Frei Montalva inaugurating Minera Andina

“If agriculture is and is meant to be able to ensure life in peace and independence, mining is and is meant to be the decisive instrument in our battle through world markets; (…) Besides the effort implied when trying to feed ourselves, there is no existent media as dramatic, important and deep to take over our development as mining exportation” stated Eduardo Frei Montalva with conviction from the times of his presidential candidacy (1).

The former president went through the country on many occasions, communicating his government’s plans and observing on site, the profound transformations Chile was experiencing during his mandate. As a result of this vision, some of the established goals in his government regarding to extraction, manufacture, and commercialization of copper were:

• The widest possible participation of Chilean government in the increase of production.
• To ensure the maximum employment for Chileans workers involved in the copper industry, as well as ensuring the conditions of justice, safety and welfare.
• Trade of the precious mineral with all the countries around the globe, without any other limitation than the interest Chile may have.

In order to materialize the aforementioned process during his mandate, the following legislations were enacted: ‘Chileanisation of Copper’ (1966) and ‘Agreed-upon Nationalization’ (1967). This situation triggered a two-phase process that changed the copper industry at a national level, which continues to influence it up to today.

The first stage counted on the creation of Corporación del Cobre (precursor of the current Codelco), institution responsible for supervising the production and international sale, representing Chile in Sociedades Mineras Mixtas (Mixed Mining Join-stock Company). In order to be classified as a mixed join-stock company, the government had to acquire at least a 25% stake.

Commemorative plaque given by Chuquicamata miners

The second stage started to be implemented in 1969, where the Chilean government purchased 51% of the shares in the American company called ‘Anaconda Company’, which covered Chuquicamata, El Salvador, and Potrerillos mines.

When Eduardo Frei Montalva left office, the Chilean government played a decisive role in the direction, commercialization, and refining of Chilean copper. These interventions regarded the technical and commercial conditions of the world market, and also brought about a substantial increase in copper production from 617,000 tones in 1964 to 1,000,000 tones in 1970.

We invite you to get to know part of the gifts given to the former president by mining deposits, connecting us with the deep transformations the country experienced in economical, political, and social terms as the ‘Chilenisation of Copper’.

• Tours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 hrs – 06:00 hrs.
• Address: 683 Hindenburg, Barrio Italia, Providencia
• Phone: (02) 881 86 74
• Email: contacto@casamuseoeduardofrei.cl
• Object of the month: Free entrance
• Access to the House Museum: Adults CLP$ 1,300 | Students, children, and seniors CLP$ 700.

(1) Comando Nacional Candidatura Eduardo Frei Montalva. Chile 1964-1970. Santiago, 1964. p.  26

Old telephone the former President acquired

Among the most unknown aspects about Eduardo Frei Montalva were his peculiar aesthetic curiosity and the time he used to spend decorating his house. Indeed, keeping a cozy atmosphere at the different resting, work, and meeting places was important for him. These details are clearly reflected in the House-Museum’s furniture, private works of art collection, engravings, and decor items.

The desk and library of the house that sheltered Eduardo Frei for over forty years bear witness to the taste for historicist styles, standing out the English George IV Mahogany Canterbury Music Stand, together with the Portuguese Neo-baroque Carved Jacaranda Desk. The latter was acquired –in a poor state– in an antiquary located at San Pablo Street getting to Matucana Street. However, the former president had the vision to restore it and fix it. Currently, it is one of the most admired objects at the House-Museum.

Eduardo Frei Montalva with his family in "La Moneda Chica"

At his Library –meeting point and reception hall for authorities-, which was well-known as the “Moneda Chica” (Small Mint Palace), a Louis Philippe Mahogany Veneered Cabinet Secretaire stands out, where the original old telephone is -object to be especially exhibited for the first time during November-.

However, where do these hobbies and good taste come from? It is said that the former president was a frequent visitor of antiquaries, and it is also said he was advised by Ramón Eyzaguirre, auctioneer of a famous auction house founded in 1890 in Santiago. He also stored objects that could possibly like him.

Furthermore, the travels through Europe, the United States, and different Latin-American countries during his term as a Senator –and during his subsequent presidency- became also an opportunity to acquire different décor objects and heritage items. These items were given by other heads of state and can be observed in the House-Museum together with original engravings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi –famed eighteenth-century Italian engraver-. On the other hand, religious figures from Quito reveal the interest shown by Eduardo Frei Montalva in the different artistic expressions.

Old telephone in the library

Eduardo Frei Montalva House-Museum invites you to experience this “Object of the month” that will give you an insight into the artistic and cultural facet of the former President, which is reflected in the choice of his most private objects.

• Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 hrs. to 18:00 hrs.
• Address: Hindenburg 683 Street, Barrio Italia, Providencia
• Telephone Number:  (02) 881 86 74
• E-mail: contacto@casamuseoeduardofrei.cl
• Object of the month: Free entrance.
• Admission Fee: CLP$1300 general public – CLP$700 students, children and seniors.
• All the House-Museum tours are guided.

Children visiting the exhibition

A giant rocket with original moon rocks is part of one of the exhibitions organized by the National Museum of Natural History together with Eduardo Frei Montalva House Museum, and scheduled for the 2009-2010 period. However, due to the serious structural damage suffered by the museum located in the Parque Quinta Normal (Quinta Normal Park), the exhibition had to be relocated for visitation purposes.

“The National Museum of Natural History takes pride in sharing this exhibition along with the National Aeronautics and Space Museum, considering that this topic, in particular, is related to aerospace technology and the conquest of this new frontier”, the Museum’s Director, Claudio Gómez, affirms.

During this temporary exhibition, visitors will be able to enter a structure simulating a NASA rocket, which emulates a lunar-like experience. The exhibition is rounded out by photographs detailing Man landing on the moon in chronological order, together with videos from the United Sates National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Moon rock fragments

“41 years after the moon landing, Eduardo Frei Montalva House Museum is proud to take part in this exhibition, placing part of its collection at the service of the community. The moon rock fragments, collected in the first trip to the moon, were donated to Chile in 1970, and were preserved attentively and carefully by Frei Montalva during his administration” adds Magdalena Frei, Director of the Eduardo Frei Montalva House Museum.

The Eduardo Frei Montalva House Museum and the National Museum of Natural History are the only two official institutions preserving moon rock fragments in Chile, donated by the United States government in 1970 and 1975, respectively.

The exhibition will be available for visitation, free of charge, from Tuesdays to Sundays, from 10:00 to 17:00. Admission to the Museum will be until 17:00.

Location: Museo Nacional Aeronáutico y del Espacio (National Aeronautics and Space Museum). Av. Pedro Aguirre Cerda Ave. N° 5000, Los Cerrillos.

Phone: (56-02) 435 30 30. Extension: 10 or 18.

Web Sites:  http://www.mnhn.cl,   http://www.casamuseoeduardofrei.cl,   http://www.museoaeronautico.cl/espanol/home

Public staring at the etchings

One hundred years have passed from the day Eduardo Frei Montalva was born. His house, nowadays a museum, continues with the exhibition: “Guayasamín en Chile, 1969”, comprising 12 original etchings presented to the former president during the visit of the Ecuadorian to Chile in 1969. We also invite you to go through the house, which is preserved as it was when the former president Eduardo Frei Montalva lived here.

 “As we approach to the centennial of Eduardo Frei Montalva, we feel proud to continue his legacy through the conservation of his house and the exhibition of etchings by the internationally famous artist Guayasamín”, says Magdalena Frei, Director of the House Museum.

 Didactic educative panels and showcases with works autographed by Guayasamín are also part of the exhibition, showing us how important was art for Frei, impulse which made possible the creation of the National commission of Culture, and the first exhibition of Guayasamín in the National Museum of Fine Arts, called “La Edad de la Ira”, where 150 of his paintings were exhibited. Visitors will also be able to admire the concept of portrait that he had, since he -with his peculiar style- painted several Chilean personalities, such as Frei Montalva, Gabriela Mistral, Hortensia Bussi, Gabriel Valdés and Pablo Neruda, a close friend of the artist.

 “The portraits I paint are never a concession of the person I’m painting. I don’t make that person look pretty. When I do it, I try to show something that is deep inside that person”, said Guayasamín to the media of that time.

O. Guayasamin's drawing (1968)

The 12 etchings, exhibited outside the House Museum, were made in the workshop “Inti Cori” in the city of Quito, in October 1968, and they belong to a limited edition of 300 etchings, all of them numbered and autographed by the Ecuadorian artist. Those who want to go through the house set in the ‘60s, will have the chance to have knowledge about a collection of more than 350 objects, of which the portrait of Eduardo Frei Montalva made by Guayasamín in the Palacio Presidencial de Cerro Castillo (Castillo Hill Presidential Palace) along with a rich collection of Chilean paintings of the XIX century.

 No doubt that it is a good panorama that invites you to embrace history and arts in one place.

Temporary exhibition “Guayasamín en Chile, 1969” has no admission charge.

Museum Guided Tours: General Admission: $1,300 pesos, senior citizens, students and children: $700 pesos.

Location: Hindenburg Street 683, barrio Italia, Providencia.

Open: Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs.

Phone: (02) 8818674

Email: contacto@casamuseoeduardofrei.cl

1945, Cabinet of Juan Antonio Ríos

It was with enthusiasm and passion that on May 13th of 1945, Eduardo Frei Montalva was named minister of Public Works and Communication, in the seventh cabinet of the government of Juan Antonio Ríos, being this his first governmental position. “I enjoyed all the time I spent working in that Ministry, I believe it is a very passionate position, since the Ministry does things. Especially now (…) creating new highways, building breaches, harbors, fostering hydraulic engineering, accomplishing irrigation works; in other words, it is a thrilling experience” said the former president during an interview for the television program “De Profundis”, channel UCV, in 1975.

The official photograph was kept by Eduardo Frei Montalva in his personal library, also commonly known as “The little Presidential Palace” (La Moneda Chica), because of the high number of ministers and public personalities who came here. Nowadays, the picture is part of the collection of the House Museum Eduardo Frei Montalva.

The Newspaper "Nuestro Tiempo"

According to those who shared time with Eduardo Frei Montalva during his ministerial years, he was very dynamic, enthusiast, always wearing a smile on his face, even though he was a very demanding leader with the rest and with himself. He had to learn about technical knowledge, but this was not a problem for someone who enjoyed learning; this led him to a greater future.

The approval for the construction of the Panamerican Highway between Santiago and La Serena, the remodeling of the Barrio Cívico and Av. Bulnes in Santiago, and the study of irrigation works for dry zones in rural areas, were some of the most important things made during the eight months he spent in that ministry.

It was at the beginning of 1946, when Juan Antonio Ríos got seriously ill, so he had to abandon his position as President of the Republic and leave instead, as vice-president, Alfredo Duhalde. Chile was facing a dramatic economic crisis, and the labor movement was living agitated days. There was a national strike, resulting in six killed citizens on the hands of police officers. Because of this, the Falange decided to stop supporting the government, meaning the resignation of Eduardo Frei Montalva on January the 28th of 1946, demonstrating the fidelity to his ideas.

We invite you to remember this new facet of our former president, by visiting and learning about our new object of the month.

Free guided tours will be offered during May, because this is the Month of Museums.

We are waiting for you from Tuesdays to Sundays, from 10pm to 18pm.

 “The regime of the salaried worker and its possible abolition” is the title chosen by Eduardo Frei Montalva for his thesis of Bachelor of Law and Social Policy. After sitting the exam in front of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Frei receives his lawyer diploma on October 27th, 1933. He became the first President of the Republic graduated from the Catholic University of Chile.

The Thesis of Eduardo Frei Montalva

 The topic that he chose for his thesis allowed him to discuss one of the problems that concerned him the most as a catholic young. He had already demonstrated in newspapers’ articles his concern about: the moral decadence as a result of the unequal distribution of social goods, affecting the whole country. “Through the analysis of the salary system, what Frei did, was to understand the inequity of the distribution of goods and services, something that for him was not only the most severe problem of that time, but it was also the key point in the Chilean “social issue” (cuestión social)”, said Cristian Gazmuri in the biography dedicated to the former president, “Eduardo Frei Montalva and his time”.

At the end of his research, Eduardo Frei Montalva concludes that the salary is “an economic error”, something that a better society “should necessarily repair”. Likewise, the mentioned biography also points out that when Eduardo Frei Montalva was in college, he suggested that in order to overcome the social inequity, the society should establish new remunerative models, from an individual salary to a family retribution, or to associations such as production cooperatives, the participation of the workers or the possession of stocks by the laborers.

During his collage years, Eduardo Frei Montalva also developed his facet as a columnist, professor, assistant, Provincial Secretary and President of the National Association of Catholic Students (ANEC). It was through ANEC that he published seven articles in the Magazine of Catholic Students (REC), where his social Christian tendencies started to show. During this month the House Museum will exhibit one of the articles focused on the unequal distribution of wealth and its consequences.

A remembrance of his years in college

In his last year of collage, in 1932, Eduardo Frei started working as a columnist in different newspapers such as the “El Diario Ilustrado” and “Verdad”. That same year, the Supreme Council of the Catholic University of Chile gave him the “Great award of honor” an award given only when there are students who gather all the values and principles of that University. “In this occasion the prize was given to Víctor Delpiano and me in a solemn ceremony. The Principal of the university, the Monsignor Casanueva gave us, as a symbol, a Christ with a metal plate. I still observe it, since it has been in my home since that day on”, said Eduardo Frei Montalva, referring to the Christ which is now on the second floor of the house.

The exhibition will also show a letter written by the Principal of the Catholic University of those years, the Monsignor Carlos Casanueva, along with a picture of Eduardo Frei Montalva with his classmates: Bernardo Leighton, Alejandro Silva Bascuñán, Rafael Agustín Gumucio, Jorge Rogers, Mario Góngora and Radomiro Tomic.

If you want to learn more about this collage facet of our former President Eduardo Frei Montalva, please visit us in this special month.

Museum Guided Tours: General Admission: $1,300 pesos, senior citizens, students and children: $700 pesos.

Open: Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs.

These objects, originally found in the dressing room and in the study on the second floor, are a sign of gratitude from farmers’ organizations for the Land Reform carried out during Eduardo Frei Montalva’s administration (1964-1970), which were preserved with care by him and his family.

The Land Reform Law, published on July 28th, 1967, is historically recognized as one of the greatest milestones in recent Chilean history, where the situation and the dignification of Chilean families, in the rural sections of the country, were improved. To Eduardo Frei Montalva, the rural human and economical wealth had to become the driving force for Chile’s development.

Although it met and still meets with opposition, the Land Reform is remembered by many as one of the landmarks of the Eduardo Frei Montalva’s administration as it tranformed the rural social and economical structure, which was ruled until the middle of the XX century by an unequitable colonial system.

A pair of spurs, typical Chilean.

Under this state of affairs, The Land Reform Act led to a significant turn of events in that it improved the marginal conditions of the Chilean countryside and the low productivity of the land. It sought the incorporation of rural Chileans into the land they farmed and into the decisions over the land production, and their integration into the social, cultural, civic and political life of the country. “ (…) I am able to sign the law, but it is you who will be put to the test. It is you who will build the roads, as you are doing so; it is you who will build the storehouses and sheds, and who will furrow the ground, not me or the ministers. It is you who will carry out the Land Reform”, Eduardo Frei Montalva claimed decisively as he proclaimed the Land Reform Law on July 16th, 1967.

We invite you to appreciate these objects, which give account for a substantial change in the social, political and cultural structure of our country, and also for the gratitude of rural Chileans of that epoch, towards a president who changed the perception of society.

Visitation is from Tuesdays to Sundays, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Hindenburg Street 683, Providencia.

For more information, please contact us at: (02) 881 86 74or email us at: contacto@casamuseoeduardofrei.cl

Official poster Heritage Day

The tour through the two floors of the building, decorated in a ‘60s style, allows visitors to appreciate over 350 original objects, such as: furniture, clothing, the presidential sash, diplomas, books, photographs, and a collection rich in Chilean paintings. The objects give account of a modern style, yet one very austere.

The house was declared national monument in 2005 due to its excellent conservation and for being an important part of the collective memory of an important historical and political period in Chile. Furthermore, it was considered by the Monument Council to be representative of the prototypes of urban residential architecture of the ‘40s.

Heritage Day has been celebrated in Chile since 2000, with the aim of carrying out a festive day, yet one to reflect on values, and the role and meaning of our cultural heritage through the opening of buildings, patrimonial locations, museums, archives and libraries, free of charge.

Other national monuments in Providencia you can also visit are: Cultural Institute of Providencia (Schacht Palace), Jardín Botánico (Botanical Garden) “Mapulemu”, Centro de Educación Ambiental “Bosque de Santiago” (Environmental Education Center “Santiago Forest”), “La Chascona” Museum, and the Chapel of the Hospital Salvador (Salvador Hospital).

Guided tours only. Hindenburg Street 683, Providencia, Santiago. Tel. (02) 881 86 74. Email: contacto@casamuseoeduardofrei.cl

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 18:00 hrs.