Simón Bolívar and Adoption

Biography

1783-1830

Military and Political Leader

Bolívar's parents were forced to place Simón Bolívar to the care of Doña Ines Manceba de Miyares and the family's slave, Hipolita. A couple of years later Bolívar returned to the care of his parents. His father, Juan Vicente, died in his sleep before he was three. His mother, Maria Concepción de Palacios y Blanco, died when he was approaching nine. After his mother's death he was placed in the custody of an instructor, Miguel José Sanz, but this relationship did not work out and he was sent back to his home where he was cared for by his family nurse and received private lessons from renowned professors. His nurse, Hipólita, was a black slave woman he later called, "the only mother I have ever known."

Bolívar was very important to Latin America's struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire. He led Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire. Admirers claim that he helped lay the foundations for democracy in much of Latin America.

He is regarded as "The Liberator" for Hispanic-America.

References

wikipedia.org Arismendi Posada 1983, p. 9-10.