WHO AM I?

My name is Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar, but I’m better known as  Simón Bolívar.  Nowadays people usually call me “The Liberator”.  

My father’s name is don Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte and my mother’s is doña Concepción Palacios.  They are “Criollos”, which means that they are Spaniards but born in the colonies.  My relatives have lived in Venezuela since the 16^th Century.   

I was born in this house in Caracas on July 24 , 1783.   

Everything was different at the time I was born.   

At that time, territories conquered by the Spaniards were divided into two viceroyalties:  

1.The Viceroyalty of New Spain: governed from Mexico City 

2. The Viceroyalty of Perú: governed from Lima  

Since the territories were so vast for the Viceroyalty of Perú, they decided to subdivide it into smaller administrative units.  

1. The Viceroyalty of New Granada,  

2. The Viceroyalty of Perú,  

3. The Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata  and

  4. The Captaincy General of Venezuela, of which Caracas was the capital.