Santiago Aránguiz Sánchez was born in Santiago, Chile in 1941 and educated there and at the School of Applied Arts at the University of Chile. He later received a scholarship to study in Mexico. He received the Chilean Antarctic Institute Medal for services to the territory. He has been honoured by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, receiving their Award in 1988 for his work at the World Fair in Seville in 1988.
 
He has been recognised for his work in protecting the cultural history and heritage of his country, and for his pioneering educational endeavours in this field. This is evidenced in the museums which he has created throughout Chile’s linear landscape, from the arid deserts of the north to the edge of Antartica in the south. These museums have been the classrooms, conference halls and repositories for the study of the man-made objects originating from the different ethnic groups who have occupied his country for millennia.
 
He has been responsible for the creation of archives and libraries which record the cultural history and discoveries that make up these collections. He has educated generations of museum curators and designers in the conservation and display of, what can collectively be called, the national visual archive. He created the first Department of Museographic Design in Chile in order to remodel and transform the dissemination of information and the organisation of cultural property in museums.
 
In 2003 he was appointed the first Dean of the School of Design at the Universidad del Pacifico. There he has been responsible for creating the first design faculty in Chile. This Faculty now has links with schools of design in North and South America and  in Europe. His students see him as warm and caring academic who has not only  guided them in their studies, which will enable them to serve a future and  forward looking Chile, but to do so on the basis of deep appreciation of and  pride in their rich heritage.