He was born in Nancagua, a village in the department of San Fernando, Colchagua, Chile, in late 1856.
He made his first studies of humanities at the Liceo de San Fernando and ended at the Instituto Nacional and the University of Chile.
He studied medical sciences and surgery at the former School of Medicine.
Established in Quillota in 1880, he worked as a doctor of vaccines there, and in 1885 was elected alderman (regidor) of the Municipality.
At the end of the War of the Pacific, in 1881, he gave free care to wounded soldiers returning from the battles of Chorrillos and Miraflores.