Ana Ugalde Arias

Ana Eugenia Ugalde Arias (Santiago, 25 December 1919 – ibid., 9 August 2005) was a Chilean lawyer and politician, member of the Radical Party of Chile (PR). She served as Deputy of the Republic for the 7th Departmental Grouping of Santiago between 1957 and 1965, during the XLIII and XLIV legislative periods.^[1]

Daughter of the Radical deputy and senator Pedro León Ugalde Naranjo and of Ana Arias Alfaro, she pursued her early studies at the Liceo N.º 1 Javiera Carrera in Santiago. She then studied law at the University of Chile and later at the University of Cuenca (Ecuador), where she obtained her professional degree on 31 July 1948.

She married Óscar Cifuentes Herrera, with whom she had three children: Ana Ercilia, Óscar Maximiliano, and Óscar Marcos Augusto. Ugalde was active in student leadership, serving as President of the Law Students’ Center (1940–1941) and Vice President of the University of Chile Student Federation (FECh) in 1943.^[2]

She began her professional career as a legal officer in the Social Security Service (1939–1944) and later at the Directorate of Social Assistance of the Ministry of the Interior (1945–1947), before devoting herself to private practice. She became national vice president of the Radical Party of Chile in 1956.

Elected deputy in the 1957 Chilean parliamentary election for the 7th Departmental Grouping (Santiago, 1st District), she served on several standing committees, including Public Education, Labor and Social Legislation, Finance, and Constitution, Legislation and Justice. She also sat on Special Investigative Committees, such as those on the Casa de Moneda, Constitutional Accusations, and Housing (1959–1961).

Re-elected in 1961, she co-sponsored numerous social reforms, including Law No. 15,299 (October 1963), amending Article 349 of the Labour Code regarding bakers’ registration cards, and supported the Law on Nursery Schools.

Her political activity also included international participation: she represented Chile at the Pro-Peace Conference in Colombia, and in 1966 she met with Chinese Vice Premier Chen Yi in Beijing. She also made official visits to the United States (as a guest of the State Department in 1959, along with Inés Enríquez Frödden and María Correa Morandé), Cuba, France, and Spain.^[3]

In 1965 she ran as an independent candidate for deputy in Valparaíso and simultaneously for senator in a complementary election, though she was not elected. Later, during the 1970 presidential campaign, she participated as a national leader of the Allendista Women’s Movement.

Ugalde is remembered as one of the first professional women to reach the Chilean Congress and as a representative of the progressive secular feminism of the Radical tradition. In her honor, a street in Chiguayante bears her name.

• De Ramón, Armando. Biografías de chilenos: miembros de los Poderes Ejecutivo, Legislativo y Judicial 1876–1973. Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, 2003.
• Luis Valencia Avaria. Anales de la República: textos constitucionales de Chile y registro de los ciudadanos que han integrado los Poderes Ejecutivo y Legislativo desde 1810. 2ª ed., Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago, 1986.
• Ana Cifuentes Ugalde. Datos biográficos entregados verbalmente por su hija. Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, 2002.