Simon Bolivar

Origins and family

Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas on July 24th of 1783, descendant of a family of Basque origin established in Venezuela since the end of the XVI century and which occupied a distinguished social and economic position in the province.

His parents were Colonel Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte, and Concepción Palacios Blanco. He had two older sisters and a brother: María Antonia, Juana and Juan Vicente. There was another girl, María del Carmen, who died at birth. Before he was three years old, Simón lost his father, who passed away in January of 1786.

The children’s education was supervised by his mother, a woman possessing a fine sensibility, but also capable of administering the family’s numerous properties. Aside from his paternal heritage, Simón was the owner of a rich “mayorazgo”, or inheritance, which was given to him in 1784 by his cousin Juan Felix Jerez y Ariteguieta, a priest.

A restless adolescent

The early years of Simón Bolívar life were spent with occasional trips to the family estates located in the Aragua Valley. In 1792 Doña Concepción passed away. María Antonia and Juana were married quickly, and the two sons, Juan Vicente and Simón continued to live with their family and maternal grandfather who was their tutor.

On the death of his grandfather, Simón Bolívar’s upbringing was left to the care of his uncle, Carlos Palacios. In July of 1795, when he became 12 years old, he suffered a crisis quite common to adolescense. He fled from his uncle seeking refuge in the home of María Antonia and her husband, for whom he felt greater affection.

Studies in Caracas

As a consequence of these events, which came to a happy conclusion, Simón Bolívar spent a few months as a guest of Don Simón Rodríguez (1771-1854) also born in Caracas, who was the headmaster at an elementary school in the city. A relationship of mutual comprehension and sympathy sprung up between the genial pedagogue and social reformer, and the young Simón Bolívar. This relationship lasted for a lifetime. Before and after having been Rodríguez’s pupil, Bolívar studied under other teachers in Caracas, and was instructed in writing and arithmetic, history, religion and Latin. He also received classes in History and Literature with Don Andrés Bello (1781-1865) who cultivated his blossoming wealth of knowledge, which in later years was to make him America’s greatest humanist.

At 14, Bolívar entered the Battalion in the White Militia in the Aragua Valley, which had been headed by his father, a Colonel years before. Within a year he was promoted to Second Lieutenant. Bolívar combined the practical training in military duties with theoretical education on subjects considered at that time to be the basis for a proper formation: mathematics, topographic design, physics, etc., which he learned at the Academy established in Bolívar’s own home by the learned Capuchin Monk Francisco de Andujar.

Travel and marriage

In early 1799, he traveled to Spain. In Madrid, he devoted himself passionately to his studies. He received the education accorded to a gentleman who was destined to a vital role in worldly and military affairs; he widened his knowledge of history, classical and modern literature, and mathematics, initiating studies in French; he also learned the arts of fencing and dance, making rapid progress in all these activities. His frequenting of parties and dances polished his spirit, enriched his language, and gave him social poise. In Madrid became acquainted with María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alayza, with whom he fell passionately in love. At the end of 1800, his thoughts turned to setting up a family life, and return to Venezuela, particularly to attend to his properties.

In May 26 of 1802, he married María Teresa. The young newlyweds traveled to Venezuela, but their bliss was short lived, for she passed away in January of 1803. The widowed youth returned to Europe at the end of the same year, passing through Cadiz and Madrid, and established residence in Paris in the spring of 1804.

Pledge in Rome

In the capital of the rising French Empire, the pleasures offered by a vigorous social life and the mundane pastimes of an intellectual nature occupied Bolívar’s time in no less a measure that the fascinating spectacle of a Europe caught up in the throes of an ebullient political transformation.

Frequenting theaters, balls, and parties, where he was introduced to the beautiful women who graced Parisian society, he divided his time between useless coquetry and meetings with scholars such as Alejandro Humboldt and Bonpland, and attended conferences and courses where the most recent theories were made known. During this stage in his life, he devoted himself with passionate abandon to his studies, concentrating his time on literary pursuits. He ran across Simón Rodríguez once again, whose wisdom and experience made of him an extraordinary conversationalist and an admirable companion during lectures and travels.

Both of them journeyed to Italy and crossed the Savoy range on foot. While in Rome, on an August day in 1805, in Monte Sacro, Bolívar took an oath in the presence of his teacher that he would not allow his arm to rest nor his soul to die until he had realized his dream of liberating the South American world from Spanish dominion.

At the end of 1806, cognizant of the efforts undertaken by Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela, Bolívar comes to a decision that the time has come for him to return to his country. He boards a neutral ship which made a stopover in Charleston, in January of 1807; he travels throughout the United States and returns to Venezuela at the middle of the year. He now lives in the style of an aristocratic youth, supervising the management of his properties and meets regularly with his brother and a group of close acquaintances to discuss not only literary subjects, but the most important topic: to determine the course of events which would, in future years, give Venezuela its independence.

Revolutionary and diplomat

April 19th of 1810 marks the date of the Declaration of Independence. The “Junta” formed on that day appoints Bolívar, in the company of Luis López Méndez and Andrés Bello, as representative to the British Government.

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