José Avilés Avilés

José Avilés Avilés (26 November 1886 – 11 April 1963) was a Chilean physician-surgeon, public-health official and Radical Party politician who served as Deputy in the National Congress representing the 2nd Departmental Group (Antofagasta, Tocopilla, El Loa and Taltal) from 1947 to 1949.^[1]

Avilés was born in Ovalle on 26 November 1886, the son of Buenaventura Avilés Galleguillos and María Isabel Avilés Rojas.

He studied at the high schools of Ovalle and La Serena, then entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Chile, graduating in 1911 as a physician-surgeon.^[1]

He served as Sanitary Inspector of the Department of La Serena (1918–1924), worked as an intern surgeon at the Hospital San Vicente in Santiago, and practised medicine privately in Ovalle and La Serena.

Avilés was surgeon at the La Serena Hospital (also acting sub-administrator), head of the public disinfection office and sanitary zone, chief medical adviser for the national workers’ insurance fund in Antofagasta, surgeon and later head of the Surgery Service at the Hospital del Salvador in Santiago, director of the Regional Hospital of Antofagasta (from 1939), and physician for the Carabineros in Antofagasta.

In 1944 he attended the Inter-American Congress of Hospital Directors in Lima as a delegate.^[1]

A member of the Radical Party, he was active in the organisation of the party and in establishing the “Casa Radical” in La Serena.

He entered the Chamber of Deputies after a by-election in September 1947, replacing Fernando Cisterna Ortiz, who had accepted a diplomatic post. During his time in parliament, he sat on the Standing Committee on Constitution, Legislation and Justice.^[1]

He died in Santiago on 11 April 1963.

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