Liborio Enrique Brieba Pacheco

Printed in early 2011 by I Love Chile, by Ben Angel:

The Ascensor Concepcion, a funicular operating between Valparaiso’s Puerto district and Paseo Gervasoni on Cerro Concepcion, opened with great fanfare on 1 December 1883. It was perhaps the sixth such steam-driven funicular in the world, one other having opened earlier in New York, and four others in Europe (two in Lyon, one in Scarborough in northern Yorkshire, and one in Budapest), and provided public transportation to the 4,971 members of the German community atop the hill as well as the English community further up on Cerro Alegre.

So why did the funicular’s neighbors initially react to its construction with fear? It could have had something to do with the pen-name of the person who designed and built it, a writer and civil/mechanical engineer and educator whose real name was Liborio Enrique Brieba Pacheco.

Don Liborio Brieba was born in 1841, the son of Don Mariano Brieba (possibly a Spanish immigrant) and Mercedes Pacheco. He grew up in the San Isidro district of Santiago, and by age 30, had published his first great historical fiction novel “Los Talaveras,” which he serialized in the Santiago literary magazine “La Estrella de Chile”. Four years later, he produced the 1200-page novel “El capitan San Bruno”, which together with his earlier work was given the title of “Episidios Nacionales” or “The National Vignettes,” set in 1814-1817 during the Reconquista period of Chilean history.

But Don Liborio was also very good at writing occult novels – perhaps too good. His three works written under the pen-name of “Mefistófeles”, entitled “Las camisas de Lucifer” (“Lucifer’s Shirt”), “Los anteojos de Santanas” (“Satan’s Eyeglasses”) and “El professor de crimenes” (“The Professor of Crimes”), inspired a rumor that the funicular he later built in 1883 was in fact cursed. The red sparks at night and smoke in the day produced by the boilers during construction and testing of the device did little to dispel that myth.

It took a major public relations campaign to convince the people living nearby that the funicular was perfectly safe and under the influence of nothing more diabolical than pressurized steam and clever hydraulics. In its first two days of operation, 1,800 people overcame their apprehensions and rode it up and down the hill. Indeed, more riders might have ridden during the second day of operation if the boilers hadn’t run out of coal.

The completion of Ascensor Concepcion provided further high-profile commissions for Don Liborio. He helped design for property owner Don Buenaventura Joglar Amandi the suburban community of Viña Miraflores, later renamed for its early German inhabitants as Villa Alemana, located off the new train line to Santiago. Before this, Don Liborio, as a teacher, captured the attention of Chilean President Jose Manuel Balmaceda (1885-1891), who appointed him as Superintendent of Primary Education. This would be the summit of his education career, which ended abruptly after President Balmaceda committed suicide while being deposed during a civil war during the sixth year of his regime.

Liborio Brieba died in 1897, six years after leaving public office. When he died, back in Valparaiso both Ascensor Cordillera and Ascensor Artilleria had joined his original funicular in serving other hills above the Puerto district. In the decade that followed his death, Valparaiso would explode with over a dozen new tramways as new homes were built higher in the hills. The last, Ascensor Polanca (an actual elevator, or “ascensor” in Spanish, placed inside an orange tower rather than a funicular built on a hillside), began operating in 1915, less than a decade after the opening of the Panama Canal closed the golden age for Valparaiso.

(Actually, the last ascensor opened was Ascensor Van Buren, which operated between the hospital of that name off Avenida Colon, and the hills behind the hospital. That was built in 1929. I believe that Van Buren is not among the ascensors that have been scheduled by the Municipality to be refurbished and reopenned, at least at present. -Ben M. Angel)

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Chile Baptisms, 1585-1932 for Carmela Natalia Brieba

https://www.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http://pilot....

name: Carmela Natalia Brieba

• gender: Female
• baptism/christening date: 30 Oct 1870
• baptism/christening place: Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
• birthplace: Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
• father's name: Liborio Enrique Brieba
• mother's name: Carmen Martinez
• indexing project (batch) number: C01317-6
• system origin: Chile-EASy
• source film number: 761884
• reference number: p214

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Chile Baptisms, 1585-1932 for Sara Ynees De Maria Brieba

https://www.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http://pilot....

name: Sara Ynees De Maria Brieba

• gender: Female
• baptism/christening date: 30 Oct 1870
• baptism/christening place: Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
• birthplace: Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
• father's name: Livorio Enrigue Brieba
• mother's name: Carmen Martinez
• indexing project (batch) number: C01317-6
• system origin: Chile-EASy
• source film number: 761884
• reference number: p214

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Ascensor Concepción: Pertenece a la Compañía de Ascensores Mecánicos de Valparaíso y fue inaugurado el 1 de diciembre de 1883, siendo el primero en instalarse en la ciudad. Su construcción y financiamiento estuvo a cargo de la Compañía de Ascensores Mecánicos, fundada en 1882, por don Liberio E. Brieba Pacheco.

Liborio E. Brieba Pacheco (1841; † Valparaíso, 1897), escritor, pedagogo, periodista e ingeniero chileno, conocido sobre todo como autor de dos novelas históricas, que alcanzaron amplia popularidad al publicarse por entregas en la prensa, específicamene en la revista literaria La Estrella de Chile de Santiago: Los talaveras (1871) y El capitán San Bruno (1875). Estas extensas obras, la segunda completaba 1.200 páginas, se ambientan entre los años 1814 a 1817, en el período conocido como Reconquista. Ambas fueron reunidas después bajo el título de Episodios Nacionales. Otras novelas históricas suyas, que también abordan la Independencia de Chile, fueron: Las prisiones de Juan Fernández, Manuel Rodríguez, Los favoritos de Marcó del Pont, Los guerrilleros insurgentes, Chacabuco y la libertad de Chile y Entre las nieves. Incursionó en otros géneros con Las camisas de Lucifer, Los anteojos de Santanás y El profesor de crímenes. Todas estas novelas fueron editadas originalmente como folletines. Como periodista colaboró en diversos periódicos, como El Heraldo y Las Novedades. En ocasiones firmaba con el pseudónimo Mefistófeles. Ingeniero y pedagogo[editar · editar código]

Como ingeniero fue el creador del primer ascensor de Valparaíso, el Ascensor Concepción, en 1883, por lo que se le considera el inventor local de estos funiculares. El público, sabiendo que Brieba había incursionado literariamente en temáticas luciferinas, consideró que estos ascensores eran de naturaleza diabólica, por lo que demoraron en subirse en ellos. El propio Brieba debió predicar con el ejemplo y realizar el primer viaje en compañía del alcalde de la ciudad. También, en su calidad de ingeniero, fue el encargado de proyectar el trazado urbano de Villa Alemana y de la población El Paraíso de Valparaíso. Como pedagogo, además de ser maestro y visitador de escuelas, fue designado Inspector de Instrucción Primaria, por el presidente José Manuel Balmaceda. Fue despojado del cargo tras la caída de dicho mandatario.