Ms Zlatar Montan, an archaeologist with roots on the island of Brač, passed away in her 89th year, on the 2nd of December, in Antofagasta where she will be buried. She worked as a researcher at the Archaeological Institute in Antofagasta (1974 to 1985). She was the author of significant books on the immigration of Croatians to the north of Chile.
Vjera Zlatar Montan was born in Antofagasta on the 7th of April 1926. Her parents were Petar Zlatar and Franica Montan Štambuk Šilve. Her father Petar Zlatar Jugović Antonac, a merchant, was born in 1893 in Povlja on the island of Brač, and moved to Antofagasta in 1916. Vjera, having been born to a family of Croatian emigrants, studied at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (1963 to 1969), where she graduated archaeology and earned her master’s degree in prehistoric archaeology (1979 to 1981). She worked as a researcher at the Archaeological Institute in Antofagasta (1974 to 1985). She conducted research in both Chile and Croatia. In Chile her research took her to the Pacific Ocean coast and the mouth of the River Loe, and in Croatia to Vučedol, Knin, Šibenik and other sites.
Ms Zlatar Montan was the author of significant books on the immigration of Croatians to the north of Chile, including Los Croatas, el salitre y Tarapacá (The Croats, Saltpetre and Tarapacá, 2001), Raíces croatas en la región de Antofagasta (Croatian Roots in Antofagasta, 1994) and Imigración Croata en Antofagasta (Croatian Immigration to Antofagasta, 2002). Another of her fascinating titles was De la bura a la camanchaca (From the Bura to the Camanchaca), published in Iquique in 2002 and reprinted in 2006. She co-authored the work with Hrvoje Ostojić Perić, the president of the Croatian Civic Centre in Iquique. A Croatian translation of the book has also been published.
Ms Zlatar Montan passed away in her 89th year, on the 2nd of December, in Antofagasta where she will be buried. She will be missed by her family, the Croatian community in Chile and the many admirers of her fruitful work as a researcher and patriot.
(dšš)