Esteban Romero Sandoval

Esteban Romero Sandoval (1906 – 1983) was a Chilean accountant, Mapuche political leader and member of the Chamber of Deputies.

He is widely recognized as one of the historic leaders of the Corporación Araucana, a central institution of 20th-century Mapuche political organization.

Romero Sandoval was born in 1906 in the Truf-Truf sector of what is now the commune of Padre Las Casas. He was the son of José María Romero, a Mapuche cacique who played a major role during the Mapuche uprising of 1881.^[1]

As a young man he joined the Sociedad Caupolicán Defensora de la Araucanía, serving as its president from 1928 to 1931.^[2] In late 1931, the presidency passed to Venancio Coñuepán Huenchual, and Romero became secretary. Together with Coñuepán and José Cayupi, he formed the nucleus of the so-called “Juventud Araucana”, the group that came to dominate the Society.^[3]

This leadership circle —later known as the “Grupo Central”— played a central role in the founding (1938) and further consolidation of the Corporación Araucana, where Romero remained influential for decades.^[4]

In the 1953 Chilean parliamentary election, Romero was elected deputy representing the Christian National Party for the Departamental Circumscription of Temuco, Imperial, Pitrufquén and Villarrica. He failed to secure re-election in 1957.

He ran again in the 1961 election as a candidate of the National Democratic Party, but was not elected.

In 1963 the National Congress granted him a special lifetime pension of 200 escudos through Law No. 15.129, a benefit also extended to José Cayupi.^[5]

Romero died in Santiago in 1983.^[6]

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