José Santos Salas

File:Jose Santos Salas Morales 1925.png

José Santos Salas Morales (8 July 1888 – 16 October 1955) was a Chilean physician and politician. He was a candidate for the presidential election of 1925, where he was defeated by Emiliano Figueroa.

Santos Salas was one of the leaders of the Social-Republican Union of the Wage Earners of Chile (USRACh), a party that brought together workers and their unions during the 1920s. The leftist movement emerged in parallel to the Communist Party.

He was appointed by the Government Junta of 1925 as Minister of Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare. He was Minister of Justice and Hygiene during the administration of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo in 1927. Salas was also Minister of Health of Gabriel González Videla in 1947.

Gonzalez Videla appointed him as mayor of Santiago in 1946, in a position he held until 1950.[http://www.bienesnacionales.cl/?p=13225 Pérgola de las Flores San Francisco obtiene permiso de ocupación por parte de Bienes Nacionales] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206062137/http://www.bienesnacionales.cl/?p=13225 |date=2015-02-06 }} Ministry of National Property of Chile (in Spanish)

Personal life

During his life, numerous rumors circulated that Salas was homosexual due to his effeminate nature, however he did not confirm or deny this in public. Carmen Lazo points out that during a visit to his house, located at Pedro de Valdivia Avenue, Salas confessed that he was asexual since his parents were expecting a daughter and therefore raised him as a female person, and that he had no interest in neither men nor women.{{cite book |author=Lazo, Carmen |title=La negra Lazo |url=https://obtienearchivo.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=documentos/10221.1/14533/1/La_negra_Lazo.pdf |pages=40–43 |accessdate=27 September 2022 |publisher=Editorial Planeta |date=September 2005 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726122008/https://obtienearchivo.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=documentos/10221.1/14533/1/La_negra_Lazo.pdf |archivedate=26 July 2022 |language=es-CL }}