Gabriel

Gabriel Salazar Vergara was born on January 31, 1936. He was a prominent figure in Chilean historical research. His country is well-known due to his sociology studies and his interpretations of movements. Particularly, he was prominent during the protests by students of the years 2011-12 and the 2006. Salazar was born into an economically poor family. He studied sociology, philosophy, and history as a student at Universidad de Chile. He was also an assistant for Mario Gongora, a classical historian, and Hector Herrera Cajas, a historian. (1) Salazar was an active member of the Revolutionary Left Movement until 1973. He was tortured by the military in Villa Grimaldi during that year. He was released in the year 1976 from a prison camp for military and was sent to exile in the United Kingdom. There he obtained a scholarship for further studies at University of Hull. In 1984, he earned the honor of a PhD from the university within Economic and Social History. Then he returned to Chile in the year following. His breakthrough was not widely known until in the year 1985. He was a scholar of peons and working class and proletarians. Salazar was one of the first members of Nueva Historia Social, a historiographic movement. Salazar considers history to be the tool for democratic action. Interview with Salazar: Salazar claimed that he is an "leftist and critical socio historian" and rejected the term "Marxist".