Gabriel Salazar, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Gabriel Salazar

Chilean historian

Date of Birth: 31-Jan-1936

Place of Birth: Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile

Profession: writer, historian

Nationality: Chile

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Gabriel Salazar Vergara, (Santiago 31 January 1936) is a Chilean historian.
He is known in Chile for his study of social history and interpretations of social movements, particularly the recent student protests of 2006 and 2011–12. Salazar was born into a lower class religious Catholic family.
His family lived in the Santiago shanty-town (población) Manuel Montt.
He studied history, sociology and philosophy at Universidad de Chile, and for time he was assistant of historian Mario Góngora.
Salazar used to be a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement until 1973.
In that year he was tortured in Villa Grimaldi by the military.
Having been released from a military prison camp in 1976 he went into exile in the United Kingdom.
There he obtained a scholarship for continued studies in University of Hull.
He obtained a Ph.D.
in Economic and Social History from that university in 1984.
Next year he returned to Chile.
Relatively unknown Salazar's breakthrough came in 1985.
His subject of study has included peons, labourers, proletarians, child huachos and women.
Salazar is one of the founders of the historiographic current known as Nueva Historia Social.
Salazar considers history as a useful tool for social action.
In interview he has declared himself a "leftist, critical social historian" and rejected the label "Marxist".