Juan Pablo Camacho

Juan Pablo Camacho Martino (born 21 November 1984) is the first Chilean born in the Antarctic Region and the ninth person born south of the 60 parallel. He was born in Villa Las Estrellas at the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva Base in King George Island. He was the first person conceived on the continent.

His parents were sent there to conceive and give birth to a child in order to strengthen Chile's claim on Antarctica.

Biography

Juan Pablo Camacho is the third son of Germán Camacho and Ana María Martíno, both Chilean citizens, his father was a surgeon and officer in the Chilean Air Force and his mother also worked at the Antarctic base. He was born at 6:30 a.m. on November 21, 1984 in Villa Las Estrellas, a village located on President Eduardo Frei Montalva Base, King George Island. A medical team brought from Continental Chile was in charge of the intervention that produced the child, who weighed 3 kilos 700 grams and measured 50 centimeters, in a normal delivery. In case of an emergency, a Hercules plane was available. Juan Pablo was the first person to be conceived on the continent, unlike Argentinean citizen Emilio Marcos Palma, who was the first person to be born in Antarctica, but his mother arrived pregnant from South America.

On January 23, 1986, he and his family were transferred to Santiago, Chile. He won the President of the Republic scholarship and studied medicine, a profession he practices today. His friends and colleagues nicknamed him "El Pingüino" (The Penguin).

Other Antarctic Chileans

Gisella Cortés Rojas (December 2, 1984) and Ignacio Miranda Lagunas (January 23, 1985) were born on the same expedition. They do not know each other and have not returned to the white continent, Ignacio is the last person so far to be born in Antarctica.