Héctor Vargas Carreño, ingeniero agrónomo y entomólogo: Un ‘maestro’ al servicio de la agricultura del norte de Chile

The article gives an account of part of the life history and the vision of the world of Héctor Elías Vargas Carreño (Christmas, O’Higgins Region, September 26, 1941, 11 children), agronomist from the Catholic University of Valparaíso, master’s degree in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Chile, “Honorary Member” of the Chilean Society of Entomology and former academic of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences (FADECIA) of the University of Tarapacá (UTA). On Friday, November 24, 2017, in commemoration of the 54th anniversary of the creation of FADECIA, Vargas Carreño offered the talk “Past, present and future of regional agriculture”. Before fifty students and ex-colleges, he reflected on the agriculture of pre-Hispanic times; irrigation, domestication of plants and native agriculture; the problem of soil salinity; and, as a good teacher, motivated future agronomists to take care of agroecosystems and to investigate local plant genetic resources. Hector Vargas Carreño’s sayings tell of a professional who, in finding meaning to his existence, was an agronomist from his particular way of conceiving his worlds. And, best of all, he put himself at the service of the community of Arica, who recognized him as one of their own “by his merits” in a public ceremony.