Simón Bolívar

[Racoon]

Simón Bolívar was a very important man that gets overlooked in school.

He liberated practically half of South America.

 

I never heard of him until I stayed in Venezuela, where there is a Simón Bolívar statue in every city and pueblo.

 

What do you know about this remarkable man?

 

I did a little more google search because I have forgotten quite a bit that learned because very seldom do I hear him mentioned. :lol:

 

(born July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela; died December 17, 1830, in Santa Marta, Colombia) was a leader of several independence movements throughout South America, collectively known as Bolívar's War.

 

Credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia, he is revered as a hero in these countries and throughout much of the rest of Hispanic America.

 

In 1802, he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa, and when she died of yellow fever less than a year later, he never remarried.

 

Simón BolÃ*var - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

Political legacy

 

On his deathbed, Bolívar asked his aide-de-camp, General Daniel Florencio O'Leary to burn the extensive archive of his writings, letters, and speeches. O'Leary disobeyed the order and his writings survived, providing historians with a vast wealth of information about Bolívar's liberal philosophy and thought.

 

A great admirer of the American Revolution (and a great critic of the French Revolution), Bolívar described himself in his many letters as a "liberal" and defender of the free market economic system. Among the books he traveled with when he wrote the Bolivian Constitution were Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations

[Chacmool]

Very interesting - thanks Racoon!

 

I worked at the Venezuelan embassy here in South Africa for a while, so I know a bit about how high the South American people's regard is for Bolívar. In fact, the official name of Venezuala is 'the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

 

Add to that the full title of my former boss - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary - and you can clearly see how complicated this sometimes made the official correspondence! :eek2:

[Buffy]

...Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary - and you can clearly see how complicated this sometimes made the official correspondence! :eek2:

...and try saying that in Spanish! :shrug:

 

De nada,

Buffy

[Freddy]

Let us not forget Jose de San Martin, the liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru.

[alexander]

and Fidel Castro :)

[Qfwfq]

How about Bolivia?

 

:beer: