Francisco Bilbao Barquín (Spanish pronunciation: [fɾanˈsisko βilˈβao]; 19 January 1823 – 9 February 1865) was a Chilean writer, philosopher and liberal politician.

In 1851 he led an unsuccessful insurrection against the government of Manuel Montt, after which he again had to move to Peru.

He was one of the first to advocate for the concept of Latin America, referring to South America, formulating the concept "as a direct echo of French anti-Pan-Slavism," in wake of the U.S.-Mexican War (1846–48), in which Mexico lost much of its northern territory to the U.S. and U.S. intervention in Nicaragua.

"[5] For Bilbao, "Latin America" was not a geographical concept, since he excluded Brazil, then a monarchy with a black slave economy, and also Paraguay.

He also excluded Mexico from his conception, since it had an entangled relationship with the United States, and in his view seemed united only in its opposition to the U.S.[6] Bilbao's thinking on democracy rejected delegated representation (such as a congress or parliament), and "thus advocated a sort of direct and constant self-representation in a Catholic community.