Ignacio Zenteno Gana
Ignacio Zenteno Gana (28 July 1829 – 27 February 1878) was a Chilean lawyer, journalist, diplomat and politician who served as Minister of War and Navy under President Federico Errázuriz Zañartu. He was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, intendant of Talca and rector of the Instituto Nacional.
Education
Zenteno was born in Santiago on 28 July 1829, the son of military officer and politician José Ignacio Zenteno and Josefa Gana Collados. His brother Estanislao Zenteno Gana also pursued a political career.
He studied law and qualified as a lawyer on 12 November 1855. The following year he moved to northern Chile to practice his profession, but soon returned and devoted himself primarily to journalism. In 1862, he published a compilation of government decrees under the title Boletín Zenteno.
Zenteno worked for some of Chile's leading newspapers of the period. He wrote for El Mercurio de Valparaíso in 1850 and was an editor of El Ferrocarril in Santiago from 1858 to 1875. He also wrote a biography of his father entitled El General Zenteno.
Political career
Zenteno entered Congress as substitute deputy for Combarbalá for the 1861–1864 legislative term. He took his seat at the opening session in place of the elected deputy Nicolás Albano Vergara and served on the Permanent Commission on Finance and Industry. He was subsequently elected deputy for Valparaíso for the 1864–1867 term.
In 1866, he served as secretary of Chile's extraordinary legation to the American Congress held in Lima, Peru. Three years later, he was appointed head of a section in the Ministry of the Interior.
Zenteno returned to Congress as second substitute deputy for Talca for the 1870–1873 term, taking the oath of office on 30 September 1870. He participated in the Constituent Congress of 1870, which considered reforms to the Constitution of 1833.
He served as intendant of Talca between 1874 and 1875 and was subsequently appointed rector of the Instituto Nacional.
Under President Federico Errázuriz Zañartu, Zenteno became Minister of War and Navy on 14 April 1875. He held the portfolio, with several temporary interruptions, until the end of Errázuriz's presidency on 18 September 1876.
After leaving the cabinet, Zenteno was appointed Chilean minister plenipotentiary to the United States. He died while serving in Washington, D.C., on 27 February 1878.