I took a trip to La Quinta de Bolívar, the summer home and garden of Colombia's version of George Washington, Simón Bolívar. Here is an extremely brief history of the man. He was born in Venezuela during Spanish colonial rule and was educated in Spain, where he married his wife, who immediately died of yellow fever.
When Napoleon put his brother on the Spanish throne, Bolívar joined the resistance juntas, was dubbed El Libertador, and penned the catchily named Decreto de Guerra a Muerte (Decree of War to the Death). However the Spanish monarchy reclaimed the throne and reconquered their territories.
Bolívar fled to the Caribbean to recoup but returned with a veangence supplemented by British troops and liberated basically the entire northwest of the continent in a fiery blaze of awesomely glorious victory. He then became president of his newly formed Gran Colombia (Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela) which summarily collapsed. He declared himself dictator but after three uprisings and an assassination attempt he was exiled to die poor and alone. Oh, and at some point he founded Bolivia.
Fin.
3 comments:
i don't get the george washington parallel
national hero, face on the money, military leader who defeated the colonial power, founding father of a confederation of states . . . colombians think of bolivar the way americans think of washington
El proyecto de la Gran Colombia es lo que quiere hacer el actual presidente de venezuela Hugo Chavez. Él quiere hacer realidad el sueño de Bolivar y es ver a los 5 países juntos con el nombre de la Gran Colombia, pero eso no es posible por diferencias políticas.
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