Chilean dawn

La Aurora de Chile was the first newspaper published in Chile. Published between February 13, 1812 and April 1, 1813, more It later became El Monitor Araucano. Thursday. For the most part, it dealt with issues of politics and political philosophy.

Background

Print used to publish Aurora de Chile.

Until the time of its publication, the only printed newspapers came from Buenos Aires, Lima and Spain and arrived in Santiago de Chile with much delay.

Both the political philosophy of the Enlightenment and the political documents and pamphlets of the American (1765-1783) and French (1789-1799) revolutions had been translated into Spanish and had become known in Chile. However, while there may have been a Jesuit-operated printing press for the printing of religious material in the decades before 1810, there was no printing press in Chile to reprint and make known ideas and philosophy arriving from abroad, or to print Chilean revolutionary material.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, after the successful rise to power of the First National Government Junta on September 18, 1810, the government «[...] instinctively felt the need, if we could say so, for a contact close with public opinion, which did not have to express it any of those organs that are familiar today, which are the vital food of the multitudes". Some Chileans had tried to acquire a printing press from the Spanish government and later, during the government of the Junta, an attempt was made to acquire a printing press from the Buenos Aires Junta, but these attempts were unsuccessful.

Finally, on November 24, 1811, Mateo Arnaldo Höevel, an idealistic supporter of the independent government, docked in the port of Valparaíso the American frigate Galloway that brought a printing press, to the American printers Samuel Burr Johnston, Guillermo H. Burbidge and Simón Garrison, as well as arms and ammunition to supply the troops of the independence movement. The typographers soon went to work publishing the Aurora de Chile, the first Chilean newspaper.

The Aurora of Chile in circulation

Prospect of the Aurora de Chile (1812).

Fray Camilo Henríquez, director of the Aurora de Chile.

The first issue of the newspaper was published on Thursday, February 13, 1812 under the direction of Fray Camilo Henríquez González, who became the first editor of the first Chilean newspaper. Henríquez used the publication as a means to, at the same time, advocate revolutionary values, being the first to seriously expose the idea of Chilean independence, and defend the new spirit of education and reason that, he believed, came with the Chilean Aurora:

It is already in our power, the great, the prescious instrument of universal illustration, the Printing [...] The voice of reason, and of truth will be heard among us after the sad, and insufferable silence of three centuries [...] Centuries of infamy, and of crying!

Prospect (1812), Aurora de Chile (Original spelling).

The people ran through the streets with the copies of the first number [...] and stopping when they found, they read and reread their content, giving themselves the goods of so much happiness, and promising that by this means they would destroy the ignorance and blindness in which they had lived until then.

Fraile M. Martínez, chronicler of the Oldland, in reference to the first edition of the Aurora de Chile in 1812.

The newspaper was the first mass publication to introduce Chilean readers to the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment, from authors such as Rousseau, Voltaire and others, echoed in Henríquez's writings. In writings signed by Manuel de Salas, Juan Egaña, Manuel José Gandarillas and the Guatemalan Antonio José de Irisarri, the Aurora de Chile embodied in its pages the principles of popular sovereignty, the power of peoples to govern themselves and to elect its authorities, the separation of powers and, at the same time, it was a vehicle for Camilo Henríquez's comments about the events of the "King of Chile" and the vicissitudes of the monarchy.

The influence of US independentistas was also an important factor for Chile's liberal revolutionary intelligentsia as the newspaper republished speeches by Jefferson, Madison, Washington and others who became heroes for the emerging Chilean press.

During its existence, the Aurora de Chile published a brochure —although there are divergences regarding the printing date—, fifty-eight issues —forty-six during 1812 and twelve during 1813—, two extraordinary copies and two half-sheet supplements, and it was censored twice.

The last issue circulated on Thursday, April 1, 1813, and five days later the first issue of El Monitor Araucano was published.