Infancy and youth Patricio Manns was born in the rural town of Nacimiento, in the south of Chile on 3 August 1937. He is the son of a primary school teacher and an agricultural engineer of German descent. Both of his parents were also involved in music: his father was a jazz aficionado and his mother studied classical piano.[1] His mother was also central in cultivating his interest in literature. In his youth he took up a broad range of occupations: from coal miner in Lota to reporter for the daily newspaper La patria in Concepción.