José Victorino Lastarria (1811–1888), an intellectual, writer, and statesman was born in the Basque region of Spain. He moved to Chile to study at the Liceo de Chile and later attended the Instituto Nacional. Lastarria was involved in the foundation of the Universidad de Chile, where he taught and became dean of philosophy. Lastarria also wrote the novel Don Guillermo in 1860. In addition to his scholarly pursuits, Lastarria served as the Chilean minister of the interior during the government of Aníbal Pinto (1876–81), and participated in the negotiation of the division of Patagonia between Chile and Argentina. Lastarria was a principal force in the formation of the Sociedad Literaria, a group of forty-one political, social, and literary figures dedicated to the advancement of Chilean literature. The Sociedad Literaria sought to develop a national literature that eschewed the imitation of foreign literary models. Prominent members [of this group] included: Juan and Carlos Bello, Aníbal Pinto, Francisco Bilbao, Álvaro Covarrubias, Juan N. Espejo, Andrés and Jacinto Chacón, José M. Torres, Salvador Sanfuentes, Hermógenes Irisarri, Santiago Lindsay, Manuel Antonio Matta, Anacleto Montt, Cristóbal Valdés, Pedro Palazuelos, Jovino Novoa, Alejandro Reyes, and Wenceslao Vial Guzmán; and Lastarria was selected to become its director. On May 3, 1842, he gave his inaugural address, which is included among the foundational expressions of the Generación de 1842, a group of significant scholars associated with the early construction of Chilean national and intellectual identity.