Fun Facts Friday: Andrés Bello

Andrés Bello (29 November, 1781 – 15 October, 1865) was a Venezuelan poet, diplomat, educator, and philosopher. He was one of the most important figures in Latin America and is considered the intellectual father of South America.

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Fun Facts about Andrés Bello:

1. Andrés Bello was born in Caracas to Bartolomé Bello and Ana Antonia López who encouraged his love of reading and learning.
2. Coming from a well-off family, he was able to study law and medicine at the university. Mr. Bello was an excellent student and started to give private lessons to help finance his studies. Among his students was the future liberator of South America, Simón Bolívar.
3. He started writing poems while still a university student, as well as translating texts from Latin and French.
4. By 1806 the first printer press had come to Venezuela, and when it began publishing the Gaceta de Caracas, Mr. Bello became its first publisher.
5. Andrés Bello got his first public post in 1807, as the second officer of the secretariat of Captaincy of General Venezuela. He was promoted quickly and by 1810 was the first officer of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations.
6. He joined Simón Bolívar and Luis López Méndez on the first diplomatic mission to London in 1801. Their important task was to obtain support for the independence of Venezuela. This was a pivotal moment in the life of Andrés Bello.
7. The poet called London home for the next 19 years, and he will never see Caracas again. After the Spanish reconquered the capital, Mr. Bello would have been tried for treason if he had returned.
8. He scrapped a living in London by doing small jobs, but it was also a formative intellectual period for him. He studied, learned, wrote many works, some of which have become classics.
9. He arrived in Santiago, Chile’s capital in 1829. The city was to become his home until his death. In Santiago, he rose quickly as a public official, legislator, writer, and intellectual. He worked for 20 years on the 1852 Civil Code of Chile, it was passed in 1855 and was adopted by Colombia and Ecuador.
10. Mr. Bello’s picture graced the old 2,000 Venezuelan bolívar and the 20,000 Chilean peso notes.

Books by, or about, Andrés Bello*

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*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books

Sources:

Andrés Bello | Wikipedia

Andrés Bello | Biografías y Vidas

Andrés Bello: Venezuelan-born Chilean poet and scholar | Britannica

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