Fernando Santiván

Later, he attended the prestigious "Instituto Nacional" and the School of Arts & Crafts, from which he was expelled for his Tolstoyan anarchist activities.

For a short time, he entered the Pedagogic Institute of the Universidad de Chile, studying maths and Castilian Spanish.

[1] After abandoning university studies, he founded a "Tolstoyan Colony" with writer Augusto d'Halmar and painter Julio Ortiz de Zárate on land gifted from the poet Manuel Magallanes Moure.

The colony was founded to practice the ideals of a simple and well-lived life, but was hampered by every-day logistical problems of living in community.

Santivan wanted to work to have his own independence, which led him to take jobs unusual for a future writer; shoemaker, tailor, coal seller, boxer, propagandist, etc.