Eduardo Frei Montalva (1911-1982) was president of Chile and one of the most widely known and respected spokesmen for democratic reform in Latin America.

Eduardo Frei was born into a middle-class family in Santiago on January 16, 1911. His father was a Swiss immigrant, his mother, Chilean. Growing up, he was educated in Catholic elementary and secondary schools. In 1928 he entered Santiago's Catholic University to study law, graduating near the top of his class in 1933. Frei was a Chilean delegate in 1934 to the Congress of University Youth, a Catholic conference in Rome, a pivotal moment in Frei's life, for during this gathering he met Pope Pius XI; Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who was later to become Pope Pius XII; and French social philosopher Jacques Maritain. These three men had a profound impact on the young Frei's political philosophy.

Deeply religious and increasingly drawn to politics, Frei became disenchanted with the orientation...