Tepano accompanied the last Rapa Nui King Simeon Riro Kāinga to Valparaíso in late 1898 or early 1899 to air his grievances against the Enrique Merlet company which owned much of the land with the Chilean government who had annexed Easter Island.
American anthropologist Grant McCall cast doubt on his military service, noting: "There is a nonsense story that he served in the Maipo regiment of the Chilean army in the War of the Pacific." .