The Best in my Field: Arturo Valenzuela ...

Hi Friends!

In this post, I’m going to write about one of the most important Chilean political theorist of the last years: Arturo Valenzuela.

He was born in Concepcion in 1944 and he spent his childhood in his natal city. In 1960 the great Valdivia earthquake destroyed his school, so he moved to the United States for a year as an exchange student to finish school, but he ended up establishing his life there. He earned a B.A. summa cum laude in Political Science and Religion from Drew University and in 1971 he obtained a Doctorate and a Master's degree in Political Science from Columbia University. His studies focused on politics in Latin America.

Valenzuela has been a visiting scholar of different universities in England, United States, Italy and Chile. Currently is the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Also of a fruitful academic life, he has a fruitful political life in USA. In the first Clinton administration was chosen to be Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs in the United States Department of States. In the second Clinton administration he was chosen to be the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House.

I think that Arturo Valenzuela is the best in my field because in his books he explains the Chilean political history of the last 40 years. I read one of his most important works: “Chile and The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes”. In it, Valenzuela explains the causes of the Chilean State breakdown on September, 1973. Also, I think than he is the best in my field because in the United States he remains as an important political actor: On May, 2009 Valenzuela was nominated by President Barack Obama as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. If it’s confirmed his nomination, he would be “The man of Obama in America”.

See you! …