Jorge Félix Arrate Mac-Niven (born May 1, 1941) is a Chilean lawyer,[1] economist, academic, writer and politician. He served as minister under President Patricio Aylwin and President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. He is currently a presidential candidate, representing the Communist Party of Chile and other left wing and progressive parties, for the 2009 presidential election.
Arrate is the son of Juan Gabriel Arrate Ducoing and Aileen Mac-Niven Seymour, he spent the first years of his life in the Santiago suburb of Plaza Brasil where his parents' relatives resided for many years. He spent the rest of his childhood and youth in Viña del Mar and then in Puente Alto. He completed his primary education in the Saint Paul and Mackay Colleges of Viña del Mar[2] and his secondary schooling at the National Institute in the capital.[3]
Arrate entered the University of Chile in 1958 to study economics and graduated in 1964. The following year he begins postgraduate study in Economic Development in the School of Latin American Economic Studies for Graduates of the University of Chile. In 1967 he earned a scholarship to continue his studies in economics at Harvard University, here he earned a Master of Arts in Economics and a Ph.D. candidature.[4] He returns to Chile and begins to complete his doctorate at the Institute of Economics of the University of Chile but never completed his thesis.
From 1967 to 1969 Arrate studied in the U.S. and from 1973 to 1987 he lived in exile in Rome, East Berlin and Rotterdam.[5] Whilst in exile he was the secretary of the Committee of Chilean Exiles.[6]
Arrate is married to the renowned Chilean writer Diamela Eltit, who endorsed his 2009 presidential campaign.[7]
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