Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga was born in January 1901, the first son of well-to-do parents.  Within five years his father was dead and his widowed mother had fallen on hard times, moving up from the coast to Santiago.

The lives of those who struggle for social justice are rarely without their measure of pain; the early experience of poverty and the example of a generous mother gave Alberto an enduring distaste for the comfortable life.

The boy was sent to St Ignatius College, one of Chile's most enduring Jesuit institutions, and when his mother's financial insecurity forced the Society to refuse him immediate admission to the novitiate, he embarked on law studies at the Catholic University.

Already a young man who stood out for the brilliance of his intellect, the zeal of his work with the poor and his capacity for friendship with young and old alike, his eventual departure to enter the Jesuits was marked by a special Mass celebrated by the Rector.  Recognition of his singular magnetism accompanied him at every stage of his career.